Job description

As an essential member of the Policy Institute, the Research Assistant will support the Evidence Development and Incubation Team (EDIT) in the scoping, delivery and research coordination of ongoing and new projects.

We have a lot of exciting projects at the moment which you will have the opportunity to get involved in. Current projects include evaluations of: financial education initiatives in primary schools; interventions aimed at reducing homelessness; programmes that support young people into work; and interventions to reduce youth violence.

Our ideal candidate will have formal training in econometrics or quantitative data analysis in R, and experience or an interest in researching effective practices in a range of areas, including but not limited to education, youth work, youth violence reduction, homelessness, violence against women, social justice, and inclusion.

About the team

EDIT works with organisations, including governments, charities and others to understand the impacts of their activities. This includes:

• Developing and refining interventions
• Developing logic models and theories of change
• Designing and implementing process evaluations to understand how interventions work in practice and how they are experienced by participants
• Designing and implementing impact evaluations to assess, experimentally or quasi-experimentally, the impact of an intervention on key outcomes
• Working with organisations to develop their internal evaluation strategies and the capacities and processes that facilitate embedded evaluation

We also advocate for evidence-based interventions, and work closely with members of the What Works Network to develop the evaluation ecosystem.

See more at: kcl.ac.uk/policy-institute/research-analysis/edit 

Key responsibilities

• Contribute to the smooth and successful running of a small, high-performing team conducting a range of complex evaluation projects.
• Manage a demanding workload, with tasks across multiple projects with competing deadlines.
• Coordinate and administer evaluation projects, including: maintaining project tracking documents; scheduling meetings, focus groups and interviews; developing recruitment and procedure materials; and preparing ethical clearance documentation.
• Undertake bespoke pieces of quantitative research, data transformation manipulation and analysis to support the team’s work.
• Engage with clients and attend client meetings in order to scope, plan and progress our programmes of work.
• Review and synthesise literature to develop literature reviews and briefings, and contribute to the production of engaging reports.
• Identify relevant opportunities and contribute to new business development.

Skills, knowledge, and experience

Essential criteria

1. Training in generating robust evaluation and research outputs, with experience in quasi-experimental or experimental research designs
2. Training in R statistical software, or in a similar programme (e.g. STATA)
3. Experience working independently on a research project
4. Excellent organisational skills
5. Exceptional written and oral communication skills
6. High level of accuracy and attention to detail
7. A Masters Level qualification or at least 12 months experience working in a relevant field (such as social research, policy or frontline practice).

Desirable criteria

1. Experience working with vulnerable groups (e.g., children and young people, people experiencing or at risk of homelessness)
2. Experience with survey design and analysis
3. Training or experience in causal design methodologies

Further Information

This post will be offered on a 12 month fixed term contract - the contract will run from your official start date.

This is a full-time post (35 hours per week)

There are number of areas where we are underrepresented at King's. We particularly encourage applications from those who are BAME and/or LGBTQ+ and/or have a disability.

King's is an inclusive and welcoming university. We embrace diversity and want everyone to be able to bring their whole selves to work and succeed. We promote flexible working as a key enabler of inclusion.

Benefits

King's College London offers a wide range of staff benefits. For the full comprehensive list of staff benefits please refer to our website:  kcl.ac.uk/hr/staffbenefits