Research & Evaluation Lead

We recognise the challenges that people with protected characteristics may experience on the job market and in their career progression. We are fully committed to being an inclusive employer and ensuring equal opportunities. We are keen to make our workforce as diverse as possible, and we hope to attract applications from underrepresented groups, including ethnic minorities, people with a disability, and people with gender diverse identities.

Are you excited about applying your analytical skills to make decisions that will change the way individuals move around England into greener, more sustainable modes, improving health and well-being? 

Can you build effective, collaborative relationships with a wide range of stakeholders?

Do you have experience of designing and delivering evaluation projects and programmes?

If so, then we would love for you to apply!

Active Travel England (ATE) is the government’s new executive agency responsible for making walking, wheeling and cycling the preferred choice for everyone to get around. We are supporting Local Authorities to raise the standards of walking and cycling infrastructure, delivering the government’s ambitious vision for half of all trips in England’s towns and cities to be walked, wheeled or cycled by 2030.

Robust data and analysis are at the heart of our decision-making. Our multi-disciplinary analytical team is responsible for providing the evidence base and articulating how investment in active travel infrastructure and behavioural change programmes help tackle some of the most challenging issues we face as a society – improving health and wellbeing, addressing climate change, tackling inequality and improving local air quality.

We are looking for an experienced social researcher with strong evaluation and programme management skills to lead our research and evaluation. You will scope and lead delivery of a major programme of social research, monitoring and evaluation that will inform investment decisions and operational activities in ATE.

This is an exciting opportunity to establish and shape the social research and evaluation function in a new organisation. ATE’s research and evaluation lead will be responsible for building and maintaining the evidence base on what works and ensuring that the user perspective is central to decision-making. This is a broad and varied role that will involve design and delivery of a large, complex research and evaluation programme that will provide timely, actionable insights based on robust, high-quality evidence. The postholder will need to build effective, collaborative relationships with a wide range of stakeholders working in active travel and related fields.

The analysis that you will provide is critical to ensuring that ATE understands what initiatives to invest in and where to focus investment to meet its strategic objectives and improves value for money from our investments in communities. Your work programme will be pivotal in making the case for future investment in active travel and demonstrating the contribution it makes to the economy, society, and the environment. It will have a prominent role in advice to Ministers and in negotiations with His Majesty’s Treasury and No.10.

Responsibilities

Include, but not limited to:

Key accountabilities of the role include:

• Lead the development of ATE’s first research and evaluation strategy, drawing on our existing programme of monitoring and evaluation to expand the evidence on the social, health, environmental and economic impacts of investing in active travel infrastructure and behaviour change schemes
• Develop and maintain the evidence base on active travel, drawing on existing UK and international evidence about attitudes and behaviour towards active travel including the barriers and enablers to travelling by active modes, and the impact and effectiveness of different types of active travel interventions.
• Partner with leading academics, delivery partners and consultants to deliver monitoring and evaluation projects on behalf of ATE and ensure timely delivery of high-quality evidence.
• Develop proportionate and robust guidance for Local Transport Authorities (LTAs) and ATE’s delivery partners that set clear expectations for monitoring and evaluating active travel interventions funded by ATE, drawing on existing standards, processes and tools and identifying opportunities to enhance these and the information needs to be provided to ATE.
• Regularly engage with researchers and subject-matter experts working on active travel or relevant fields (e.g. health, accessibility, decarbonisation), including academics, private and third sector organisations, and colleagues in other government departments and their agencies (e.g. HM Treasury, Department for Health and Social Care, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero).
• Establish Active Travel England as the known national centre of excellence for social research and evaluation in active travel

For an in-depth insight into the role please refer to the Role Profile.

You are an experienced social researcher with expertise in scoping, designing and delivering medium-large scale monitoring and evaluating projects and programmes. You will have good knowledge and understanding of a range of quantitative and qualitative methods, and confidence and expertise in working with both. You will have knowledge of a wide range of evaluation methods including experimental, quasi-experimental and theory-based approaches, and demonstratable experience of designing and delivering evaluation projects using these methods. You will have excellent written and verbal communication skills, be effective at delivering complex analytical projects and programmes, and demonstrable experience of ensuring that research has impact and influence. You will have the ability to build effective working relationships with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders. 

Additional Information

 A minimum of 40% of your working time should be spent at your principal workplace, although requirements to attend other locations for official business, or carry out detached duty in another DfT workplace, will also count towards this level of attendance.

This post is open to individuals who meet the entry criteria to the Government Social Research (GSR) profession and can demonstrate capability at Principal Research Officer (Grade 7) level as set out in the GSR Technical Framework.

Entry requirements:

There are two routes of entry into the GSR: 

1. Relevant Qualification route:
   • Hold an undergraduate degree at a minimum of 2:1, or 2:2 with a postgraduate degree. The degree must contain substantial social research methods training (comprising at least one third of modules taken on the course) including quantitative research methods and at least three of the following: systematic/literature reviews; qualitative methods; interpretation of data and presentation of results; study design, hypothesis testing and application of ethics to research
2. Professional Experience route:

• • Hold an undergraduate degree at a minimum of 2:1, or 2:2 with a postgraduate degree, in any subject, or a degree equivalent (e.g. an advanced Certificate or Diploma from MRS)
  • Plusat least 4 years’ social research practice experience. This consists of experience working in a research agency, market research agency or specialist research team. To enter the GSR through this route you must make explicit the breadth and depth of your research experience and skills, which must include quantitative research methods and three of the following: systematic/literature reviews; qualitative methods; interpretation of data and presentation of results; study design, hypothesis testing and application of ethics to research.

See the GSR Membership and Eligibility Guidance for more details, including details of methods members are expected to have experience in (specified in Table 1 of the guidance).

We’ll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Working Together
• Managing a Quality Service
• Seeing the Big Picture

We’ll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Using and Promoting Social Research – Principal Research Officer
• Technical Skills – Principal Research Officer

Being part of our brilliant Civil Service means you will have access to a wide range of fantastic benefits. We offer generous annual leave, attractive pension options, flexible working, inclusive working environments and much more to support a healthy work/life balance. 

Find out more about what it’s like working at the Department for Transport

Job contact :

• Name : Adrian Fletcher
• Email : Adrian.Fletcher@activetravelengland.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : DFTrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk