King's College London

THIS VACANCY IS OPEN TO INTERNAL APPLICANTS ONLY

About us:

As part of the university’s commitment to widening participation, King’s College London has an Access and Participation Plan (APP), approved by the Office for Students (OfS), which sets out key priorities for improving access, success and progression for underrepresented students. This role will support the delivery of the APP, in particular project managing a structured publication schedule that the What Works team has committed to.

About the role:

The What Works Evidence & Impact manager will work to position King’s College London as a sector leader when it comes to our Widening Participation research and evaluation activities being publicly accessible. The candidate will also ensure that any published output is consistent with our team’s commitment to generating causal evidence through Randomised Controlled Trials or Quasi-experimental designs.

This is an exciting opportunity for candidates looking to work in research and evaluation within an applied context. We are looking for candidates who wish to utilise their skills and expertise to make sure that our work contributes to the broader conversation about accessing higher education, as well as driving meaningful change for students from disadvantaged and underrepresented backgrounds. A key part of this will involve the candidate ensuring that our work is quality assured and accessible to audiences that are internal and external to King’s.

The impact aspect of this role will ensure that the insights and recommendations from our research are put into action. This means translating evidence into practical steps that lead to measurable improvements in access and student success.

Ultimately, this role is about maximising the value of our work in equal access and participation – ensuring it reaches the right audiences, informs meaningful discussions and drives real-world improvements.

​We encourage applications from candidates who have experience from both within and outside of the Higher Education sector where they can demonstrate the skills needed to succeed in this role as well as candidates from non-traditional backgrounds.

This is a full-time post (35 hours per week) and you will be offered an indefinite contract.

About you:

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:

Essential criteria

1. Professionally qualified/relevant degree, plus extensive experience in Research and Evaluation OR Proven track record of relevant extensive and substantial work experience, demonstrating an authoritative understanding of the role
2. Experience establishing causal inference in research when evaluating projects or interventions with experimental methods (e.g. quasi-experimental methods, randomised controlled trials)
3. Ability to quality assure research and evaluation projects according to quantitative standards of best practice
4. Confident and clear written and verbal communication towards lay audiences, including report-writing and presentations
5. Track record of successful publication either in renowned academic journals or other sources
6. Confident conducting and reviewing data analysis and statistical tests with relevant software (such as Power BI, R, Stata or SPSS)
7. Experience working with academics to develop and prepare impact case studies that demonstrate research impact
8. Ability to manage multiple projects and deliver work to established deadlines

Desirable criteria

1. Postgraduate degree or qualification in research methods, statistics, analytics or a related field and/or relevant experience.
2. Interest in using behavioural insights in a research or policy context to positively influence behaviour
3. Interest in higher education and social mobility (including the widening participation agenda).
4. Experience planning & operationalising delivery for the publication of research.

Downloading a copy of our Job Description

Full details of the role and the skills, knowledge and experience required can be found in the Job Description document, provided at the bottom of the page. This document will provide information of what criteria will be assessed at each stage of the recruitment process.

Further information:

We ask all candidates to submit a copy of their CV, and a supporting statement, detailing how they meet the essential criteria listed in the advert. If we receive a strong field of candidates, we may use the desirable criteria to choose our final shortlist, so please include your evidence against these where possible.

To find out how our managers will review your application, please take a look at our ‘How we Recruit’ pages.

Interviews are provisionally due to be held on the 8-9th October.