Senior Advisor, Productivity and Economic Growth Permanent, 39 hours per week Salary range: £40,000 - £60,000 per annum, plus benefits Based in Westminster, London

The Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) is looking for somebody exceptional to join us in a leadership role with our Productivity and Economic Growth Team. The policy portfolio will include a range of exciting areas such as looking at how to create better markets, enhance corporate governance, improve understanding of business confidence, develop ways to generate internal productivity gains and promote sustainable growth. Tackling challenges in these areas, some of the highest priorities in government, would offer the successful candidate the opportunity to apply their knowledge of behavioural insights to some of the UK’s most pressing problems.

The Behavioural Insights Team

The Prime Minister created BIT in 2010 to apply behavioural science to public policy in the UK. In February 2014 we became a social purpose company, owned by the Cabinet Office, Nesta (an innovation charity) and our employees.

The Behavioural Insights Team works with governments around the world in almost every area of Government policy. Whilst the subject and output of our projects varies considerably, there are common threads: we try to understand the contexts in which their people make decisions; we notice small details; we find out what has and hasn’t worked before; and we measure everything we do as robustly as we can.

The company today spans four continents but has the same relaxed and non-hierarchical office culture as it did when it was a team of just eight employees. Though our origins are from within the UK government, staff at BIT today come from countries across the world. We regularly eat lunch together; play sport; and socialise outside of work time.

As well as displaying professional excellence, BIT selects staff according to our company values. All our staff believe passionately in always prioritising social impact; empiricism and humility; fresh thinking, collaboration; and public service.

Roles and Responsibilities

The successful candidate will take a leadership role in a small team to deliver high-quality policy advice and implement experiments in the real world. These will cover a range of topics that relate to productivity and economic growth, for example investigating models of executive remuneration and how to increase the number of firms exporting.

You will be involved in the management and development of your team. You will provide quality assurance of the team’s work to ensure it meets BIT’s standards. You will identify gaps in capability and support development among your colleagues, making sure their projects suit their strengths and needs. You will also be responsible for finding new projects for your team to work on and serve as a role model to junior staff across the organisation in upholding the organisation’s values.

To be the successful candidate you will need to be confident in your ability to use your knowledge of productivity, economic growth and behavioural science to come up with interesting and practical ideas for how policy can be improved. You will need to think on your feet in meetings with senior government officials and suggest practical solutions.

Essential criteria

• Experience of working in the areas of Productivity and Economic Growth;
• Substantial experience developing or delivering policy in government, academia, or for a consulting firm;
• Excellent project management skills, including an eye for detail and commitment to quality in all aspects of a project;
• A deep understanding of the behavioural science literature and how it can be applied to help solve complex policy problems;
• Strong leadership and teamwork skills, including supporting team members to develop their own skills and expertise;
• Excellent client and stakeholder relationship management;
• Ability to support the design and implementation of rigorous evaluations, including but not limited to randomised controlled trials;
• Excellent written and verbal communication (for example ability to write short, to-the-point policy papers for Government Ministers or senior officials);
• High level strategic thinking, challenging existing assumptions and creative problem solving; and Experience in responding to competitive tenders and preparing bids.

Desirable criteria

• A Masters or PhD in a relevant subject area (including, but not limited to: behavioural economics, psychology, design thinking, evaluation methods