Research and Development Officer

Organisation Sport and Recreation Alliance

At the SRA, we strongly believe in the transformational power of sport and recreation to positively shape lives and help drive societal and economic growth. We recognise the untapped potential of our sector and actively advocate on its behalf to help foster a happier, healthier and more prosperous nation where more people from all backgrounds can participate and be active.

As one of the main and longest standing bodies in the Sport and Physical Activity sector, our role is to protect and promote the interest of our members who range from traditional governing bodies of sport (including the FA, the RFU, the ECB, England Netball), to outdoor and water pursuits (including Paddle UK and the RYA), to movement and dance organisations (including the British Dance Council and the Royal Academy of Dance).

This a busy role and represents a good chance to learn and make your mark. The environment is very positive and fun as you would expect in a sporting organisation, but we work hard. As a member of our team, you'll be doing everything you can to deliver our new strategy. And we'll be doing everything we can to support you every step of the way.

For the team employed at the Alliance, it is more than just a job - as a team and organisation, we want to make a difference. The Alliance may be small, but the work and the impact is far-reaching. Whilst we are focused on meeting targets and delivering outcomes, we know that it is important that people maintain a healthy life-work balance and feel they are looked after. We actively encourage learning and development and have introduced a coaching approach to performance reviews and have implemented a new recognition and reward framework.

We're committed to helping all of our team develop their skills and reach their full potential. From face-to face training to networking and volunteering - you'll have all the opportunities you need to make the right moves for you. We know the postholder may not start with expertise in all areas described in the job description, but we still actively encourage you apply as this can be developed in post.

Below is a list of the range of benefits we offer our employees.

• 25 days paid holiday, increasing to 27 days after 3 years and 30 days after 5 years. Paid bank holidays. You also have the option to buy an additional 5 days leave per year.
• In addition, we offer 3.5 privilege days which is taken between Christmas and New Year.
• 2 moments that matter days to be taken each year which can be used for whatever is important to you - from celebrating a birthday to a movie day.
• 4 volunteering days per year.
• No long-hours culture. Our team work hard but we strongly discourage late working. We like our team to be able to enjoy their personal life as well as their time at work.
• Centrally located attractive office in Holborn which includes collaboration spaces and is close to shops, cafes, bars, gyms and sport clubs.
• Hybrid working from day 1 - all the team do a mixture of working at home and office working.
• Focus on learning and development. The team are encouraged to discuss their career paths with their line managers as our new approach to performance appraisals. We also tap into the expertise within the sector for employees to shadow with possible mentoring opportunities and a focus on learning from each other including our Board members.
• Enhanced sick leave, maternity, paternity and adoption leave.
• Special leave ranging from dependents and carers leave, household emergency, moving house through to bereavement leave for family members and pets.
• Private healthcare with Vitality which includes a range of reward partners.
• £250 annually towards gym, sports club or sports equipment purchases.
• Choice of 2 pension providers.
• Access to an employee assistance programme through Health Assured should you need additional financial or emotion support. We annually train members of our team to become Mental Health First Aiders.

About The Role

As part of the Research & Development team within the Alliance, the Research and Development Officer is responsible to the Head of Research and Development and will hold the following core responsibilities:

Support in driving the delivery of projects: you will work with the team and its members to deliver projects that will contribute to the achievement of operational objectives. Specifically, this will focus on projects aimed at driving our policy and advocacy work, attaining income and/or enhancing the ability of the Alliance/ our members to achieve respective goals. Demonstrating an ability to successfully deliver high quality outputs whilst managing competing priorities and deadlines across workstreams and clients. Knowledge of project management principles and good practice is an advantage.

Research and Insight expertise: An ability to demonstrate a knowledge and application of both primary and secondary research skills is key. The ability to evidence expertise across either/both quantitative and qualitative methodologies is an advantage.

Solution design and research ideation: You will play a role in developing ideas and solutions to meet the needs of our members. This includes but is not limited to developing creative approaches to strategic challenges across our membership and the wider sport and recreation landscape. An understanding of artificial intelligence tools and technologies to open up new approaches to tackling challenges is an advantage.

Deliver written and presentation outputs for projects: You will be expected to contribute significantly to the delivery of high quality project outputs. This will include written reports and proposals, primary data analysis and visualisation, and the presentation of findings to both internal and external audiences.

Data analysis and visualisation: You will be comfortable handling raw data to produce insight. You will also be able to visualise these insights and present findings in a clear and engaging way. Expertise with Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint and Power BI, Tableau or similar software packages will be an advantage.

This is a role which will demand a flexible approach, the capacity to recognise and proactively address organisational and member needs and the ability to support the development of projects and programmes with realistic budgets and schedules. It will also involve engagement with members, partners and internal teams to identify opportunities.

Take a look at the full list of tasks and responsibilities, as well as what skills and experience we're looking for by looking at the full job description .

Further Information

To apply, please send a CV with a covering letter outlining why you want the role and how you meet the role specification. Your covering letter should be 2 sides of A4 maximum. Please send your CV and covering letter to

If you would like an informal chat about the role, please contact the recruitment inbox and we will ask the recruiting manager to make contact to discuss.

The closing date for applications is 11.59pm on Sunday 31 st August 2024. Interview date to be confirmed. Please note that we may close the application window prior to the closing date should we receive a large number of applications.

Prior to completing and submitting an application, please refer to our privacy notices on our website.

Equality and Diversity Monitoring

It would really help us if you were able to complete our equality and diversity monitoring survey found here . This is anonymous and does not form part of the recruitment process.

Recruitment Agencies - Please note we are only looking at direct sourcing for this role and if this were to change, we will contact our preferred agencies directly.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

Diversity is valued within our team. More than just encouraging your application, we're committed to conscious inclusion that (we hope) cultivates an ethos of belonging, connection and shared purpose. It's this philosophy that drove us to shape our values and behaviours and we open our doors to those who share those values.

Every role in the Alliance team is open to applications from all sections of society. We believe in the potential of everyone; regardless of race, religion or belief, ethnic origin, different physical ability, family structure, socioeconomics, age, nationality, marital, domestic or civil partnership status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other difference that makes you, well, you.

Our recruitment process anonymises your application at shortlisting stage. If you are invited to interview and you have a physical or mental medical condition which could impact on your ability to participate in the Alliance's recruitment process, please let us know before your interview by emailing the recruiting manager who is recruiting for this position or HR.