Associate Director, Research and Innovation - (12Month FTC) Role Overview Our Associate Directors of Research andInnovation are the senior project leaders who drive delivery of thefunded projects that make up our overall programme. The rolerequires a mix of research and innovation leadership, excellentcommunications and networking skills, and the ability to driveprojects to deliver policy and market change to make a positivedifference to people’s financial security and financial wellbeing.You will work across some or all of the following areas: FinancialResilience: Our work in this area focuses on identifying solutionsand interventions to help people to manage financial shocks orvolatility without recourse to damaging solutions such as high-costcredit. Savings: Millions of people in the UK lack cash savings,which enable them to self-ensure against shocks and buildfoundations for longer-term saving and asset-building. Our work inthis area identifies, tests and promotes adoption of solutions thatsupport people to build cash savings. Assets, wealth and pensions:Auto enrolment has brought millions of people into buildinginvested wealth for the first time. But in most cases, this remainsthe only wealth they have. Our work in this area addressesapproaches to building out asset-ownership including housing andnon-pension investments. It also seeks to address those groups,such as the self-employed, where pension saving lags behind thoseincluded in auto enrolment, as well as on how to optimise thedesign of AE in future to balance adequacy and financial resiliencetrade-offs. Foundational and cross-cutting research: These areadditional projects and programmes that we undertake to increaseoverall understanding of the challenges facing low- moderate- andvolatile-income households and the ways different parts ofhousehold money-management interact. This includes innovativeapproaches like our ongoing programme of work to connect public andprivate survey and administrative data sets, targeted in-depthqualitative research and household-level transaction tracking toenable holistic research of household financial behaviours and howhousehold balance sheets react to policy change. You will workclosely with the other Associate Directors and the Director ofResearch and Innovation to ensure not only that individual projectsdeliver maximum impact and exceed funder expectations, but that theoverall programme of work adds up to more than the sum of itsparts, positioning Nest Insight to have influence on behalf of low-and moderate income households right across the financial securityagenda. Key responsibilities of the role will include: - With theDirector of Research and Innovation; scoping and overseeingdelivery of a high-profile research and innovation programmesupporting financial security for low- and moderate incomehouseholds in the UK. - Contributing to the overall aims andstrategy of Nest Insight and to its reputation for researchexcellence, real-world solution development and high-qualitythought leadership and debate. - Directing specific high-profile,high-impact research and innovation projects, workingcollaboratively with project partners, ensuring they aresuccessfully delivered on time and on budget with funders andstakeholders engaged throughout. - Line and/or matrix-managingsmall project teams, supporting their personal and professionaldevelopment and directing their work to a high standard. -Designing robust and creative mixed-method research approachesincluding qualitative and quantitative research, behaviouraltrials, pilots, desk research expert interviews, secondary dataanalysis and data science projects working with our specialistResearch Leads drawing on their expertise and advice. - Buildingour network, establishing and developing strong relationships witha wide range of funders, collaborators, delivery partners andacademic research partners and building trusted relationshipsacross policy and industry stakeholder groups. - Working withDevelopment and Fundraising colleagues to build strongrelationships with our funders and to support with pipelinedevelopment and funding proposals. - Working with communicationscolleagues both embedded in projects and in the central comms teamto shape and deliver communications and engagement strategies forthe insights that emerge from our projects. Deliveringhigh-quality, influential communications and engagement outputs fora variety of audiences, focused specifically on our key audiencesof senior political and industry decision-makers - includingpublished reports, blog posts, summary papers, infographics, films,events, external speaker opportunities etc. - Acting as an engagingand credible spokesperson for the work of Nest Insight including atconferences, events and round tables, in advisory and steeringgroups and with the media. Leading debate and consensus building inkey areas of our work. - Ensuring high ethical, data protection andinformation security standards across the programme. - DevelopingNest Insight’s research and innovation capability, approaches andresources. Supporting team members to develop. Sourcing, appointingand managing partners and suppliers in line with managing publicmoney and other relevant requirements. - Identifying new areas ofwork and developing new research and innovation questions andproposals. - Deputising for the Director of Research and Innovationwhen required. - Bringing deeper expertise in one or more of ourresearch and/or innovation methods or in key data sources, andacting as an internal consultant across all projects on the use andapplication of those methods and sources. The Candidate Pack isattached with more detailed information on the role and the team.We are open to discussing working patterns. We welcome all internalapplicants to apply for our roles, regardless of your currentworking pattern or hours. We will aim to accommodate your requestand match your current working arrangements. Don't worry if youthink you don't have all the key skills, it might be worth takingthe few minutes to apply as we're good at spotting potential andoffer a generous training budget. Reward and recognition - Adiscretionary bonus scheme - Reward and recognition scheme -Enhanced auto enrolled pension – your contributions start at thedefault 5% while ours are higher at 8%. If you up yourcontributions to 6% we raise ours to 9%. If you contribute 7% ormore we’ll contribute 10%. - Income protection scheme – is aninsurance benefit that provides you with income if you cannot workdue to illness or incapacity. Everyone's personal situation isdifferent. To make the most out of hybrid working, we've introduceddifferent ways of working, which include (subject to rolerequirements): - hybrid of office (Canary Wharf, London) and homeworking (there will be an expectation to attend the office, once -twice a week, or more, as required) - reduce or vary working hours- reduce or vary the days worked - work compressed hours - jobshare Directorate/Department Overview Nest Insight is a publicbenefit research and innovation centre within Nest Corporation, theorganisation responsible for running the Nest pension scheme. NestInsight is legally part of Nest, but on a day-to-day basis operateswith considerable autonomy and with a clear public-benefit remit.It is funded through a mix of direct financial and indirect ‘inkind’ support from Nest and a number of external funders supportingindividual projects and programmes; sets its own work programme;and operates under a separate sub-brand with a separatecommunications presence across traditional and social media. Inrecent years, Nest Insight has grown considerably: in terms of thesize of the team; and both the scale and subject-matter breadth ofthe work programme. At the same time we’ve been on a journey from amore fundamental research outlook to one more focused on impact,while retaining a commitment to high-quality, independentcollaborative research. The impact we have – especially withpolicy-makers and business leaders – is already considerable. Butwe believe that with the quality of our work and the strength ofthe stakeholder networks we’ve built, that impact could besignificantly greater with a more strategic approach tocommunications and brand-building. That in turn should expand therange of potential funders interested in supporting our work,giving us further room for growth and, in turn, further increasingimpact. Organisational Overview Nest is an award-winning workplacepension scheme, the largest in the country. Set up by thegovernment to give every worker in the UK somewhere to save, ourfirst-class responsible investment practice and governance are thebackbone of what we do, supported by all the functions you’d expectto find in a thriving business. We’re committed to creating aworkplace where you can be your authentic self and offer aninclusive and flexible working environment. Diversity, Equity andInclusion Everyone is welcome to apply for our roles, and we aredetermined to ensure that no applicant or employee receives lessfavourable treatment because of their age, disability, genderidentity, marital status, national origin, pregnancy or caringresponsibilities, race, religion/belief, sex, sexual orientation orsocio economic background. We also recognise the importance ofdiversity of thought and other forms of neurocognitive variation.Nest is a Disability Confident Leader, which is the highest levelof the Disability Confident Scheme. If you have a disability,declare that you’re applying through the scheme and meet theminimum criteria for this role, we aim to invite you to aninterview. However, there may be a few exceptions where we are notable to take all eligible candidates to the next stage due to thevolume of applications. Please note that this advert may closeearly if we receive a sufficient number of satisfactoryapplications. If you have any difficulty in sending yourapplication or need the application pack in an alternative format,or you require any reasonable adjustments please contact:. #J-18808-Ljbffr
