Salary circa £36k pa + excellent benefits
One-year, fixed-term contract (with potential to become permanent)
Based in Buckingham Palace Road, Central London
Are you a collaborative, analytical and target-driven individual with a proven record of leading the development of products? Are you passionate about improving outcomes for children and young people, and their families? Then join Nesta as our Products and Services Manager working in the research team in our What Works Centre – an exciting ‘social start-up’ created to foster evidence-informed practice in the children’s social care sector.
About Nesta and the What Works Centre
Nesta is a global innovation foundation. We back new ideas to tackle the big challenges of our time. Our mission is to spark and shape new ideas that improve how the world works for everyone. We use our knowledge, networks, funding and skills – working in partnership with others, including governments, businesses and charities. We are a UK charity but work all over the world, supported by a financial endowment.
The What Works Centre is a fantastic opportunity to make a difference to the lives of children and their families in England. Every year, more than 700,000 children and young people, and their families, have contact with the children’s social care sector and changes in how the sector supports them can have significant long-term effects. To combat this, our new centre will sponsor new practice-focused research and investigate and address the barriers that prevent practice leaders and practitioners from using insights from evidence to inform decisions.
About this key role
As Products and Services Manager, you will provide effective management to the team leading the centre’s programme of work developing products and services aimed at improving how local authorities and trusts use evidence to improve their work with children and families.
As the centre’s research efforts yield successful interventions, you will work with development teams and researchers to drive our strategy for dissemination and uptake, especially when this requires the creation of additional products. You will also be expected to:
- Work with a wide range of stakeholders, including local government, the third sector and Whitehall departments, on the development of our portfolio of products, as well as overseeing their implementation
- Lead projects to pilot and then roll out products to local governments and elsewhere
- Lead the development of services aimed at improving the use of evidence in social work practice
- Coordinate our happier, healthier professionals programme.
What we are looking for
In addition to your strong experience of leading the development of products, you will also have a background of managing a portfolio of clients and potential leads. You will also have sound knowledge of project management methodology and a familiarity with research methods, particularly with randomised controlled trials.
Analytical, collaborative and politically astute, you will also be an outstanding communicator, both verbal and written, with excellent interpersonal, prioritisation and time management capabilities.
Closing date: 3rd March 2019 at 12pm.
First interviews will be held on 7th March 2019.