Head of Evaluation

The Youth Endowment Fund  

Head of Evaluation 

Reports to: Assistant Director of Evaluation 

Salary: £64,500 

Contract: 2 years Fixed term  

Location: Central London, Hybrid*  

Closing date: 9:00am Wednesday 20th March 2024.

Interviews: Week of the 2nd April 2024.

About the Youth Endowment Fund  

We’re here to prevent children and young people becoming involved in violence. We do this by finding out what works and building a movement to put this knowledge into practice.  

In recent years violent crime has risen significantly. Homicides, assaults, robberies and offences involving weapons have all seen sustained growth. We have also seen large increases in violent crime involving children and young people. This is a tragedy. Every child captured in these numbers is an important member of our community and society has a duty to protect them.  

The Youth Endowment Fund (YEF) is a charity with a £200m endowment and a mission that matters. We exist to prevent children becoming involved in violence. We do this by funding great initiatives, leading cutting-edge research and working for change - scaling up and spreading the practices that make a difference. 

Central to this is designing, commissioning and managing complex and rigorous impact evaluations with experts in the field. As our work and reputation grows, we’re increasingly being presented with opportunities to work on new projects. This is where your role comes in. We’re looking for a new senior staff member to oversee much of this work.  

About the role 

Your core job is to work with colleagues in the evaluation team to oversee much of the designing, commissioning and managing of complex and rigorous impact evaluations. ​

You’ll help the Assistant Director of Evaluation to oversee and quality assure many of the impact evaluations that we’ve funded through our thematic grant rounds. These evaluations are mainly randomised control trials and quasi-experimental designs. Each thematic funding round is led by a Senior Evaluation Manager and  our excellent team of Evaluation Managers project manage the individual evaluations. You will be on hand to provide them with advice, support and guidance when commissioning and designing new evaluations, working with evaluators, and when they have complex technical queries or challenges arising in their work.  In this work, you will report to the Assistant Director of Evaluation who will be your line manager.​

In delivering these two tasks you’ll:

• Provide support and counsel to our team of Senior Evaluation Managers and Evaluation Managers. Between them, this team closely manages over 20 pilot studies and over 15 efficacy trials with an annual budget exceeding £2.5m. This role will support our managers to deliver many of these evaluations to the highest possible standard.
• ​Serve as a senior member of the evaluation team. The YEF is buzzing with activity and to prevent any bottlenecks, we need to expand our senior capacity. This role will involve line managing staff, making technical and budgeting decisions, developing and refining processes, attending leadership meetings and contributing to strategic thinking and planning.
• ​Represent YEF at governance meetings and other external engagements. We’re passionate about our mission, proud of the work we’re doing to get there and keen to share this with stakeholders. This role will involve talking in detail about our work with lots of different audiences – from gaining approval for funding from our Grants and Evaluation Committee to sharing both technical and non-technical summaries of our evaluations with civil servants, charity leaders and staff, academics and practitioners.
• ​Oversee the running and management of complex evaluations commissioned through our Themed Grant Rounds - for each of the programmes we work with, we find and appoint independent evaluators. This role will oversee our Senior Evaluation Managers and Evaluation Managers leading on that process, as they write invitations to tender and assess proposals to ensure we find the best team for each job.​
• Oversee the management and quality assurance of Evaluations through our Themed Grant Rounds acting as a source of expertise for the rest of the team. YEF has set processes to maintain high standards and rigour. This role will ensure all evaluations adhere to these. The role will provide technical expertise and insights, alongside the Assistant Director of Evaluation to ensure that the evaluation team are empowered to ensure evaluators deliver against their proposals and do so to time and budget. ​
• Expertly manage relationships with YEF stakeholders. You will be a key point of liaison with our panel of independent evaluators. You will also be involved in cultivating relationships with other partners including individuals, organisations and departments that want to protect young people as much as we do, and that have both the will and the means to do so.​

​

About you

You’re this sort of person…

• You want to be part of making a difference. You’re passionate about the impact of prevention and early intervention. You don't want your days to pass without making a difference.
• You’re experienced in evaluation and research. You have at least 5 years’ experience working in a senior research and evidence role and strong knowledge of and technical expertise in evaluation methodologies. This includes the ability to critically appraise the design of more than one area of Evaluation (e.g. randomised control trials, quasi experimental designs, evaluations of public health approaches, evaluations of complex multi-component evaluations, etc). You have significant experience of carrying out or commissioning large-scale research and evaluation and have experience carrying out applied research methods, including both quantitative and qualitative approaches.
• You have a post-graduate (Masters or PhD) qualification or equivalent experience. This is in a relevant field such as social science, social policy, social statistics, public health, health services, psychology or another field with a significant quantitative component, or relevant experience equivalent to a Masters qualification.
• You bring the best out of your colleagues. You have experience in leading teams and managing others to achieve amazing results. You can both take and give direction. You’re collaborative and a team player and are able to build strong relationships across the whole organisation. You’re happy to help out when and where it’s needed.
• You really know what makes great research and quality evidence. You can design and draft high-quality research proposals including the sample, measurement and analysis. You’re confident in assessing the quality of evidence that underpins interventions and can guide decisions on grant applications.
• You’re an excellent communicator. You can produce technical documents that accurately report methodological and statistical information. You combine this with experience of communicating complex evidence and analysis in a simple and accessible format to non-experts. You feel confident having complex and challenging conversations with partners from government and large, influential organisations. You can handle these conversations well, you can communicate YEF’s position clearly – particularly on technical matters, you can see our work and our relationships within the wider policy context, and you’re good at balancing competing priorities in a way that achieves the best outcome.​
• You’re responsible, motivated and thrive in a fast-paced environment.You take personal responsibility for critical decisions and have experience working in a fast-paced and rapidly evolving environment. You’re extremely motivated and have a track record delivering highly technical research and evidence work on time, on budget and to a high quality.
• You win people over. People tend to warm to you and respect you. You have built good relationships with very senior people and with very junior people. You’re comfortable talking to a senior official, a youth worker, a company CEO, a teacher and a 15-year-old student. Listening to people from all backgrounds matters to you.
• You’re committed to equality, diversity and inclusion. You believe and act in a way that celebrates and encourages a range of experiences, views and values.

You may also have (but none of these should stop you applying):

• Great quantitative analysis skills.
• Knowledge and experience of evidence synthesis.
• Good knowledge and understanding of crime, serious violence or other relevant areas.
• An understanding of the public policy and delivery context of youth crime and early intervention.

While it’s not a criterion, we’re especially interested to hear from applicants who have lived experience of youth violence.

It’s also important to us that the people we hire do not discriminate. We believe in being inclusive and giving everyone an equal chance to succeed. Applications are welcome from all regardless of age, sex, gender identity, disability, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, religion or belief, race, sexual orientation, transgender status or social economic background.  

Additional benefits include   

£1,000 professional development budget annually, 28 days plus Bank Holidays, four half days for volunteering activities.   

Hybrid working details   

The office is based in Central London. Those living in and around London are expected to be in the office a minimum of 2 days per week. If you live outside of London and work remotely, you’ll be expected to work from the London office 2 days per month.    

To apply  

To apply, please send a CV and cover letter, and complete the monitoring form click on "Apply for this" button by 9:00am Wednesday 20th March 2024.  

When applying for this role, please ensure that your cover letter can answer, within a maximum of 1000 words, the following questions:​ 

1. Please share why YEF’s mission is motivating you to apply for this role.​ 
2. Give clear examples where your experience directly relates to the “About You” section in the JD. 

You should also include the contact details of two referees, one of whom must be your current or most recent employer. Referees will only be approached with your express permission.  

You will also be required to provide proof of your eligibility to work in the UK. As part of our commitment to flexible working, we will consider a range of options for the successful applicant. All options can be discussed at interview stage.    

Interview process  

Interviews will take place in the week commencing the 2nd of April 2024.  

There will be a task to prepare for in advance.  

Personal data  

Your personal data will be shared for the purposes of the recruitment exercise. This includes our HR team, interviewers (who may include other partners in the project and independent advisors), relevant team managers and our IT service provider if access to the data is necessary for performance of their roles. We do not share your data with other third parties, unless your application for employment is successful and we make you an offer of employment. We will then share your data with former employers to obtain references for you. We do not transfer your data outside the European Economic Area.