DEPUTY DIRECTOR, POLICY AND RESEARCH -BETTER WORK AND PROGRESSION

Longer working lives and ongoing economic transitions are reshaping careers: how we start them, and how we move through them. But too many people remain paid in low-paid, low-quality work with damaging consequences for them personally, and our economy as a whole. We re seeking a senior, policy-oriented research leader to help us and our partners generate insights that enable more people to move into and progress through better work.

You ll have a proven track record in scoping and securing funding for research and influencing activity, with significant autonomy to lead your own programme at L&W. You ll be supported by committed researchers and managers whom you will coach, lead, and develop alongside a peer group of Deputy Directors working across other key pillars. We welcome quantitative expertise, but most important are the skills to design and deliver high-quality, impactful research programmes.

You ll join an organisation with a national reputation for driving policy change and a friendly, highly capable, delivery-focused team.

Location: London or Leicester. Hybrid working: 40-60% in an L&W office, with the option of working the remainder at home.

Team:Research and Development

Salary:£64,450 -£77,880 per annum (pro rata), dependent on experience and location

Duration:Permanent

Working hours:0.8 to 1 FTE, with flexible working supported (e.g. condensed hours, flexible start and finish times)

Main Purpose

The Deputy Director, Policy and Research (Better Work and Progression) will have overall ownership of the Better Work pillar of our strategic plan at L&W: overseeing all projects and activity in this area and generating new work (including developing project ideas and securing funding).

While there is significant scope to shape the ongoing programme of research and impact work, we anticipate that key areas of focus in this area going forward will be: understanding & better supporting career change; understanding and improving policy to increase employer investment in skills; high quality and fair access apprenticeships and technical education; understanding how to better support progression from low pay.

They will be a senior leader for the organization helping to continuously shape our strategy and the plans we are implementing to deliver it.

Duties and Responsibilities

Leadership and management

• Intellectual leadership of the Better Work pillar: developing and owning policy positions, messages, theory of change and research priorities, and supporting the wider team to feed into and understand them
• Line management of senior and mid-level staff
• Act as a senior leader at L&W including taking on specific organization-level responsibilities where appropriate

Income

• Write and/or co-ordinate responses to reactive research and evaluation tenders in the areas of employment, better work and progression
• Develop pro-active proposals that will drive change in your area, and respond to the interests of funders and partners
• Build relationships with current and potential funders and research partners

Impact

• Act as an external expert on the issues of better work and progression: writing press quotes, articles and blogs;speaking on platforms
• Building relationships with practitioners, policymakers and partners to improve our insights, and get our recommendations implemented
• Develop appropriate means of tracking impact towards our better work goals, and monitor against them.

Delivery

• Deputy Director/Project Director-level oversight of projects being delivered in your and related areas: supporting project team to shape research plans, deliver sharp insights and manage funder relationships
• Quality Assurance of research proposals and outputs
• Use your research skills and experience to support the wider development of the Learning and Work team

Person Specification

Experience

Experience of developing, overseeing and delivering programmes of policy-relevant research at a high level - Essential

Experience of business development in a policy/research context: developing ideas, writing bids and building relationships with funders- Essential

Experience of building senior-level relationships with external stakeholders for impact and influence -Essential

Track record of delivering national and/or local policy change - Essential

Experience of senior organisational leadership as part of a team - Desirable

Experience of responding to tenders- Desirable

Skills

Advanced research skills (qualitative of quantitative) - Essential

Quantitative skills: experience of using key national research and administrative data sets to generate insights into the labour market -Desirable

Clear and direct written communication style - Essential

Knowledge

Knowledge of, and commitment to, L&W s charitable aims and purpose.- Essential

Demonstrable knowledge of employment and/or skills policy in the UK - Essential

Demonstrable knowledge in the specific areas of Better Work and/or progression -Desirable

Learning and Work Institute works across the UK. Our work in Wales is led by a Cardiff based team, but all staff are required to follow the guidance set out in our Welsh language scheme when working in Wales.