Evaluation Officer

Job summary

Evaluation Officer

Salary: £37,614 – £ 38,577 plus generous Civil Service defined benefit pension

Fixedterm: 12 months

Location: Bristol

We are looking for an Evaluation Officer to join our Evaluation Team at the OfS.

In this role, you will be at the forefront of shaping the future of higher education, using evidence to influence policy-makers and senior leaders. You will be supporting evaluation activity with opportunities to lead and take on more responsibility as you progress. You will help drive evaluative thinking across the organisation, to support the OfS to learn and improve the way we regulate.

We are looking to recruit someone with relevant social research or evaluation skills and experience, who is passionate about and committed to developing and using evaluation evidence.

About us

The Office for Students (OfS) exists to ensure that English higher education offers the best experience and the best value - for students, for taxpayers, for the economy and for the public good. It is the independent regulator of higher education in England – we regulate higher education on behalf of all students.

Our vision is that every student, whatever their background, has a fulfilling experience of higher education that enriches their lives and careers.

The evaluation team is small and friendly, with big ambitions and diverse expertise. We work across the OfS to ensure that the work of the OfS is supported by robust evidence.

Job description

About the role

The Evaluation Officer will help the OfS work more effectively, by supporting impactful evaluation activity and evaluative thinking across the organisation. In this role you will work with an Evaluation Manager to:

• Scope, design, run, and commission evaluations of OfS activity.
• Manage commissioned suppliers to conduct evaluations.
• Provide expert support, advice and quality assurance to evaluations led by other teams.
• ·Support teams and senior decision-makers across the OfS to learn from and improve their regulatory interventions through their evaluations, and through facilitating learning / reflection exercises.
• Engage stakeholders and ensure evaluation findings are translated into actions.
• Take notes in formal meetings (steering groups, workshops, etc.).
• Conduct data collection and qualitative analysis.
• Drive organisational culture change to celebrate evaluation and embed a learning mindset (for example, delivering internal training sessions and presentations, writing blogs, building evaluation into organisational processes).
• Develop your own knowledge of relevant research and evaluation and share this to build the knowledge of the team and wider colleagues.

As you develop in the role, there may be opportunities for you to take a leading role on smaller areas of activity.

We typically conduct impact and/or process evaluations with a strong focus on theories of change, utilising theory-based approaches and use mixed-methods designs.

This is an exciting time to join the team as we evaluate several of the OfS’s core approaches to regulating higher education. You are likely to work on one to two of these projects, which may include evaluations of how we regulate Access and Participation Plans, quality, free speech, financial sustainability, and consumer protection.

The team also continuously looks for ways to further build evaluation culture and capability in the organisation. Sitting within the Strategy, Delivery and Communications Directorate, the work of the Evaluation Team is a priority for the OfS to make sure our regulatory model is underpinned by rigorous evaluation and a commitment to learning, improvement, and ultimately impact.

The role reports to one of two Evaluation Managers, and works closely with the whole evaluation team (one other Evaluation Officer, the two Evaluation Managers, and the Head of Evaluation). The role also involves collaborating with colleagues across the organisation. The Evaluation Team works in a hybrid way, coming together regularly in person in the office as a team.

Person specification

About you

We are looking for someone who:

• Is pursuing a career in evaluation or social research.
• We anticipate that you might come from a social sciences, economics, public policy, psychology, or applied research background, but our main criterion is that you have experience with – and can apply – relevant social research and evaluation methods.
• Is organised and proactive.
• Is enthusiastic about using evidence to improve practices and further impact.
• Is collegial and values working collaboratively.
• Places high importance on learning, development, and sharing knowledge and expertise.

We are looking for someone with the following knowledge, skills and experience:

Essential

• Holds an undergraduate degree in a subject with a relevant research component or has equivalent experience.
• Good knowledge of qualitative and/or quantitative research methods, and familiarity with evaluation concepts and methods.
• Demonstrable ability to apply critical and analytical thinking to assess research methods and findings.
• Skilled in taking initiative, following instruction, and recognising when a problem should be referred to others.
• Working accurately with attention to detail, producing high-quality outputs under pressure and in the face of competing demands.
• Clear and positive written and verbal communication.
• Ability to communicate technical concepts to non-technical audiences to achieve impact.
• Ability to collaborate, build and manage effective relationships, and support others.
• A passion for evaluation, evidence, and learning.

Desirable

• Holds a postgraduate level qualification in a relevant discipline or has equivalent experience.
• Ability to develop theory of change models for social policy activities.
• Experience of analysing qualitative and quantitative data using appropriate specialist software (e.g. R, SPSS, NVivo, MaxQDA)
• Experience in managing external contracts, to achieve high quality outputs.
• Expertise with facilitating discussions with people from a range of backgrounds, including delivering training and/or presentations.
• Experience of policy and/or research work relating to regulation, higher education, or within the public sector.
• Understanding of quasi-experimental and theory-based approaches to evaluation, and their limitations and strengths.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £37,614, Office for Students contributes £10,896 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civ