Senior Research Analyst - Employment

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RAND is a not-for-profit research institute with over 30 years of experience in conducting policy research for governments, international organisations, research councils, charitable foundations, and other organisations. We believe that good research helps shape sound answers to pressing societal challenges, ultimately making communities safer and more secure, healthier and more prosperous in the future. RAND Europe has approximately 180 staff across offices in Cambridge, Brussels, and the Netherlands.

The Employment, Education and Skills research group undertakes research across several public policy areas for a diverse client base in the UK, Europe and beyond.

Our work covers a broad range of public policy issues across:

• Employment (including skills, employability, labour migration, child and family policy);
• Education (including early childhood education and care, special educational needs, alternative provision, and edtech);
• Workplace Wellbeing (including productivity, culture, and occupational health and safety).

The Employment, Education, and Workplace Wellbeing workstreams address critical cross-cutting themes, with equality, diversity, and inclusion embedded as fundamental principles in all areas of our research.

We are now, as part of our ambitions growth plans for 2032 looking to recruit a Senior Research Analyst to join the team and focus on quantitative aspects of our work. We are looking for an experienced researcher with methodological expertise in randomised controlled trials (RCTs), quasi-experimental design (QED), and survey analysis. Ability to work in R or Stata is essential.

The successful applicant will have a research background in employment and a knowledge of key research funders in these fields (such as the Department for Work and Pensions, Youth Futures Foundation, or Youth Endowment Fund).

You will thrive on teamwork and collaboration with colleagues and research funders, play a key role in setting out statistical analysis methods used across evaluations to understand the impact and effectiveness of interventions and policies, and take an active role in project management.

The role is ideally suited to an individual who is committed to applying quantitative methods and approaches to drive impact in policy and decision-making. Demonstrable experience of working on multiple projects in parallel and communicating with decision-makers in government, industry, academia, and wider policy communities is highly desirable.

The role is based in our Cambridge office and requires office attendance 2-3 times a week. However, we work flexibly as an organisation. Travel to some meetings in Cambridge and some out-of-office client meetings is also required.
Key Responsibilities

• Responsible for the design and analysis of impact evaluations, including regressions, multi-level models, difference-in-differences, with minimal supervision.
• Leads quantitative elements of studies including research design, selection of appropriate analytical approaches, writing statistical analysis plans, reviewing data collection approaches and analysis and reporting findings.
• Provides methodological and statistical support to junior researchers in the team.
• Manages projects with minimal supervision to deliver high quality work within available time and resources.
• Supports strategic corporate initiatives.
• Ad hoc duties as required.

Requirements

Quantitative research - essential

• Ability to use statistical software packages (Stata, R) to analyse data as part of impact evaluations.
• Comfortable working with large datasets, including data cleaning, data manipulation, linking multiple datasets and other activities to prepare data for analysis.
• Knowledge of the principles underpinning modelling and econometric techniques, including regression and matching.
• Experience in the design and execution of quantitative research, from the proposal stage through to execution and write-up.

Reporting quantitative analysis and findings - essential

• Demonstrable ability to report quantitative methods for a range of audiences, including policymakers.

Management - essential

• Experience managing research projects in professional services or public sector domains.
• Track record of undertaking research for policy and/or practitioner audiences.

Commercial awareness - essential

• Experience proposing robust methodological approaches that secure research funding in competitive environments.
• Experience of effectively managing small to medium-sized project budgets.

Personal skills and experience - essential

• Excellent problem-solving skills.
• Ability to multi-task and prioritise work.
• Ability to work flexibly and to deadlines.
• Ability to effectively process large amounts of information, translate and presenting complex research findings to policy, practice and lay audiences.

Fluency in English - essential

IT skills - essential

• Expert use of STATA and/or R.
• Intermediate Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

Desirable Skills

• Familiarity and experience of working with ONS data including LFS and/or LEO
• Accredited Researcher Status

Qualifications

• PhD in a relevant field (e.g., economics, social policy, sociology) is highly desirable. Candidates without a PhD should bring equivalent experience in terms of applied research and/or public policy consultancy.
• Professional experience - essential.

Benefits

• Pension - 8% Employer contribution;
• 33 days holiday allowance, including the Bank Holidays;
• Annual salary review;
• BUPA medical insurance;
• Generous company sick pay;
• Enhanced family friendly policies;
• Group income protection scheme;
• Group life assurance;
• Compassionate leave;
• Flexible working arrangements;
• Learning and development opportunities;
• Employee wellbeing training and support;
• Fresh fruit every day;
• Free on-site parking;
• Cycle to work scheme;
• Access to company bikes;
• Service awards.

Salary

Starting from £40,000 per annum
How to Apply

If you believe you are suited to the above role, please submit an application comprising of a CV and covering letter. The closing date for applications is 5th January 2025.

If you have not been contacted within 30 days of application deadline, please assume your application has not been successful.