Quantitative Research Manager

The postholder will support the team in the design and delivery of research using quantitative methods, ensuring high quality and impact of work undertaken in this area. They will also support the team in using quantitative research to inform strategy and planning, and in high impact narratives for external stakeholders.

As with other members of the team, the postholder will have an understanding of research management processes and methodologies and will give advice and guidance across the British Council, contributing to building a culture of valuing research and policy insight.

They will also offer support, as required, to the development and delivery of the global programmes contributing to the British Council’s impact areas. They will also undertake projects and assignments on behalf of the R&I management team, and support the contracting and commissioning of new research and the establishment of partnerships as required.

The postholder will work closely with the team’s sector research leads in Arts, Education, and English as well as the team’s Soft Power Insight function to establish good practice in quantitative research methods across commissioned research, and to ensure data from research and evidence projects is of high quality and is used to maximum effect. This will include providing analysis of a range of large and small data sets which the British Council holds and give clear guidance on their validity and reliability

The postholder will work closely with the Evidence, Evaluation and Learning (EEL) team and the wider Data, Evidence and Performance team on joint projects, in particular to enhance our capacity to evaluate programmes through high-quality monitoring data and operational research that explores critical performance questions, enhancing our understanding and ability respond positively to performance challenges. 

The postholder will be expected to develop areas of specialist expertise over time as part of their professional development. They will also support the efforts of the Head of Research Excellence, particularly in promoting building capacity in using quantitative research methods and data management.

Main Accountabilities:

Leadership & Management

• Plans and prioritises own activities to ensure effective delivery of responsibilities and deliverables
• Shares ideas with senior managers to identify new ways in which they could positively impact upon the British Council

Functional expertise

• Manages existing R&I data sets; identifies and curates other relevant data.
• Completes an annual L&D cycle to maintain and deepen their professional expertise
• Undertakes sound statistical analysis, utilising British Council data sets, in support of Research and Insight team priorities and projects.
• Provides proactive professional advice, support and challenge to colleagues
• Maintains an understanding of the British Council’s wider suite of programmes to identify and communicate how and where research can contribute
• Actively works with sector and regional teams to support commissioning of projects, advising on design and inception, and quality review
• Builds the profile of the British Council’s thought leadership in key areas, by contributing to external events and publications
• Contributes to the development and delivery of training and guidance of other colleagues in the network.
• Support as required the preparation of papers and management information for senior management meetings.

Internal customer focus

• Proactively seeks stakeholder feedback
• Builds an in-depth understanding of the particular operational context, opportunities and challenges facing colleagues in the use of the large amounts of quant data generated by British Council research, to ensure the development of new policies and practices is based on informed insight and joined-up thinking.
• Work with colleagues to raise the profile, quality and coherence of research, evidence and insight across the British Council.

Service improvement

• Makes technical/professional recommendations to resolve issues and offers ideas which contribute to the development of wider solutions to broader challenges and problems.
• Communicating findings to colleagues who are not technical experts
• May participate as part of a team to support implementation of corporate or regional change projects
• Identifies and makes recommendations to more senior managers for improvements to ways of working that enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of R&I.

Commercial and financial management

• Using agreed corporate systems and processes, supports senior colleagues to plan and manage the budget for their area of activity
• Shows an understanding of value for money/cost effectiveness

Consultancy, analysis & problem-solving

• Clean, edit, code and prepare data for analysis and reports.
• Analyse qualitative and/or quantitative data and information.
• Prepare routine reports, abstracts, presentations, brochures, project summary sheets, newsletters
• Presents complex information clearly, tailoring the presentation of findings to meet the differing needs of both technical and non-technical audiences appropriately, as required.

ABOUT YOU

In addition to the below essential requirements the ideal individual will have a good understanding or interest of the work that the British Council does and a general interest/passion for Quantitative Research.  The ideal individual will be someone who can communicate ideas, research and recommendations to non-specialist audiences and has worked with a range of stakeholders, ideally within a global role (but not necessarily essential).

Role specific knowledge and experience

Essential

• Qualified to degree level, or equivalent by relevant experience, in Statistics, Maths, Econometrics or other relevant subject
• Experience of manging large-scale data sets using MS Excel, SPSS/STATA/SAS, R and/or other data management platforms.
• Proven track record of undertaking rigorous and in-depth statistical analysis
• Good MS Office skills
• Experience of creating content through the written word,data dashboards, infographics that support access to and understanding of data and results.
• An understanding of one or more of the key sectors with which British Council engages, and/or of international relations and soft power
• Competency in use of statistical analysis software in common use (SPSS, STATA, SAS, R)
• Mid level competency in quantitative analytical techniques such as descriptives, cross-tabulations, tests of statistical significance, logistic and linear regression modelling.
• Ability to influence colleagues and peers using research, insight, data and evidence, particularly colleagues who are not technical experts nor experienced in quant data

Desirable

• Qualified to postgraduate degree level or equivalent by relevant research experience
• Experience of creating data products in PowerBI
• Experience of application of data reduction techniques such as factor analysis and principal components analysis.
• Experience of audience/population segmentation techniques with quantitative data, such as hierarchical clustering and k-means clustering.
• Procurement of research and/or consultancy services

Job contact :

• Name : Amy Hamilton
• Email : amy.hamilton1@britishcouncil.org

Recruitment team

• Email : amy.hamilton1@britishcouncil.org