Quantitative Analyst

We are recruiting for a Quantitative Analyst - A Fairer Start Mission

About Nesta

We are Nesta, the UK’s innovation agency for social good. We design, test and scale solutions to society’s biggest problems. Our three missions are to give every child a fair start, help people live healthy lives, and create a sustainable future where the economy works for both people and the planet.

For over 20 years, we have worked to support, encourage and inspire innovation. We work in three roles: as an innovation partner working with frontline organisations to design and test new solutions, as a venture builder supporting new and early stage businesses, and as a system shaper creating the conditions for innovation.

Harnessing the rigour of science and the creativity of design, we work relentlessly to change millions of lives for the better. Find out more at nesta.org.uk.

The role

Nesta is looking to appoint a Quantitative Analyst into our A Fairer Start mission. In this role, we have a particular need for candidates who have a strong understanding of economics.

The work of the post holder could include working across many stages of the work of our teams, from shaping ongoing strategy developments, to scoping, designing, implementing and evaluating projects that contribute to our impactful portfolios of work.

About this mission: A Fairer Start

We want every child to have the fairest possible start in life, so they can thrive and realise their potential. Nesta’s Fairer Start Mission is on a 10-year endeavour to close the gap in school readiness between those growing up in poverty and their peers across the UK.

To achieve this, we focus our work on strengthening the support that disadvantaged families receive to improve the home learning environment, cope with financial pressures and/or access high-quality formal childcare. Leveraging Nesta’s multiple capabilities, we use a multi-pronged approach to maximise the chances that change happens. For example, we work with families and frontline partners to design and deliver interventions to support the home learning environment, and evaluate their effectiveness at scale; we study the impacts of existing policies to make policy recommendations; we invest in ventures to create social impact through business; we build coalitions and campaigns to shift attitudes and norms. Whatever the approach we take, we strive to be evidence-led and impact-focused, and to measure the impact of our activities on our mission goal.

As a Quantitative Analyst, you will:

• Deliver projects, including helping to set up and track project plans, carrying out day-to-day work on a variety of projects and updating team members on progress;
• Conduct quantitative analysis as part of project teams. Your tasks may range from cleaning and preparing data for analysis, carrying statistical analysis, discussing and interpreting findings and preparing outputs.
• Provide an economics perspective on a variety of projects in your mission or policy area, and carry out in-depth economic analysis, including economic policy modelling
• Advise on projects with quantitative research aspects. For example, provide sound quantitative research advice at project initiation and help to troubleshoot complex methodological problems (e.g. involving small sample sizes or imperfect compliance to an intervention), including by drawing on the expertise of other senior staff as needed;
• Develop and suggest practical policy solutions or intervention ideas to address social issues, informed by economics;
• Communicate your findings internally and externally through written reports, presentations and blog posts;
• Collaborate with senior researchers to up-skill researchers and non-researchers across the organisation;
• Support development of new work, including scoping, research and writing pitches bids and proposals;
• Play a key role in partner engagement and project management, including helping establish and sustain partner relationships (e.g. preparing agendas, minuting meetings and coordinating project updates); and
• Prepare project deliverables (e.g., theories of change, interview guides, logic models, evidence summaries, final reports) with a clear understanding of the overall project objectives.

Candidate criteria

Essential

We are looking for people who understand what we do, share our values and are keen to learn and develop their expertise. We are looking for candidates with the skills listed below. We expect to provide training and development support in some of the areas.

• An understanding of economics. You can understand the economics of social issues of relevance to the Fairer Start Mission. A relevant degree is highly desirable.
• A technical understanding of quantitative research methods and their applications in real-world settings. A confident solid understanding of ‘causality’ and statistical reasoning. You have a good understanding of methods, such as RCTs, Difference-in-differences, regression discontinuities and matching. You can interpret research findings of others, understand common statistics (such as standard deviation, confidence intervals, p values, and correlation coefficients), and assess the strength of evidence for something ,
• Practical experience implementing quantitative research methods and an ability to code in either R or Python (this will be tested). You understand good practice for key research activities (e.g. setting a sampling frame, cleaning data, generating power calculations, running regressions and undertaking quasi-experimental evaluation) and analyse data sets to pull out key summary statistics and trends into graphs and trends.
• An ability to communicate complex concepts in accessible ways to a range of audiences, whether it is about economics or quantitative research methods.
• Ability to manage workloads from multiple projects simultaneously.
• You can manage a workload of several projects and deliver to a high standard on a tight deadline.
• You can work across different project teams and are aware of the importance of, and apply, regular, clear and concise communication with your team members.
• You can plan work and execute against a project plan; identify and act on risks and issues; ensure that key stakeholders are engaged throughout;
• Managing and developing yourself at work.
• You demonstrate high self-awareness and regularly self-reflect.
• You are aware of the impact that your actions and words have on those around you.
• You are resilient and accept responsibility for decisions whether they achieve the desired outcome or not.

Desirable:

• Familiarity with the academic literature on child development and the economics of skill formation;
• Experience of conducting impact evaluations - RCTs and quasi-experimental designs; and
• Experience of coming up with, developing and executing policy-relevant research ideas, and linking these together strategically.
• Experience designing and delivering a programme of work with partners and/or clients that have generated social impact.

What we offer

Salary: From £35,000 plus array of benefits, including private medical insurance, dental insurance, the ability to buy and sell annual leave, eyecare vouchers and more

Location: This role is based in Blackfriars, Central London, hybrid working arrangement with a minimum of two days in the office

Term: Permanent

Hours: This is a full-time role but we offer a range of flexible working arrangements and encourage our people to take advantage of them. Many do.

Start date: As early as possible

Making an application

To apply for this role, please submit your application before 8:00am on 11th March 2024. Please submit a CV and answer the questions on Applied.

Successful candidates will be invited to a first round interview. If successful, candidates may be invited to a second round interview.

Interviews will take place w/c 18th March 2024.

At Nesta, we believe that a diverse workforce leads to an organisation that is more innovative, more creative and gets better results.

We want our workforce to represent the diversity of the people and communities we serve. We also want our workplace to be one where different experiences, expertise and perspectives are valued, and where everyone is encouraged to grow and develop.

This means that when we are recruiting, we actively seek to reach a diverse pool of candidates. It also means that we are happy to consider any reasonable adjustments that potential employees may need to in order to be successful.

We recognise the importance of a good balance between work and home life, so we do everything we can to accommodate flexible working, including working from home, compressed or part-time hours, job shares and other arrangements.

Please just let us know in your application or at any stage throughout the process (and beyond) if these are options you’d like to explore.