Evidence & Evaluation Manager (12-month FTC)

Youth Futures Foundation

Youth Futures Foundation

Youth Futures Foundation is the national What Works Centre for youth employment, with a specific focus on marginalised young people.

Role:

Being a manager within the Evidence and Evaluation team is an opportunity to be at the cutting-edge of evidence generation in youth employment. Your work will support more marginalised young people to stay in education, employment and training and find good work. You will work with leading experts in impact evaluation to deliver complex, but innovative evaluations that produce the highest quality findings. You will work within a supportive and intellectually curious team and will have time to develop core methodological interests, attend conferences and engage with the evaluation and youth employment sector.

You will be motivated and proactive: self-reliant but know when to reach out for support and to ask questions. You will be interested in high quality methods and be willing to learn and develop your understanding of impact evaluations. You will be an excellent relationship manager. You will be able to appraise complex evidence and guide experts to produce their highest quality work.

Key responsibilities:

Evaluation

• Critically review evaluation proposals to ensure designs are high quality and cost effective and that the most suitable evaluators are commissioned
• Manage individual evaluations from design to commissioning to dissemination, including:
  • designing the call for proposals (e.g., deciding evaluation aims, objectives, and key research questions) in collaboration with relevant stakeholders
  • assessing the quality of submitted evaluation proposals
  • liaising with evaluators and grantees to develop effective research and evaluation tools, from evaluation mobilisation to final reporting
  • review feasibility studies for further evaluations and funding continuation, developing written reports for the Youth Futures Grants & Evaluation Committee when necessary
  • support grantees in the first year set up/ development phases to understand their theory of change, programme fidelity and data requirements
• Manage evaluation contracts and budgets
• Monitor delivery or evaluation plans and provide support as required
• Support on ad hoc projects that facilitate the development of our evaluation team s objectives and functioning
• Manage the development, design and implementation of impact evaluations progressing from initial pilot and development phases
• Training and supporting colleagues in evaluation and research methods.

Candidate:

Knowledge, experience and abilities (essential)

• Experience of and strong interest in high quality evaluation methodologies including impact evaluations (e.g., randomised controlled trial or quasi-experimental design, programme theory and implementation and process evaluations) gained within a commissioning or research setting
• Strong experience of critically appraising data, evidence and research literature
• An excellent track record in project-managing successful research and evaluation projects
• Experience in effectively communicating research and evaluation findings (both written and orally) to different audiences
• Proven ability to foster and sustain positive, collaborative relationships both internally and externally
• A track record of strategic planning for, as well as management and delivery of, complex projects to achieve change
• Able to establish priorities and manage a complex workload to meet tight deadlines
• Sound experience and understanding of MS Office 365 and other IT applications, Teams and SharePoint and ability to use online/remote working tools
• Strong analytical and problem solving ability, including identifying root causes and developing sustainable solutions.
• Ability to make timely, well reasoned decisions using evidence, risk assessment, and stakeholder input.
• Experience delivering work to agreed timelines and standards, managing competing demands, and maintaining attention to detail.
• Experience working collaboratively across teams, building networks, and contributing to shared organisational goals.
• Ability to lead, guide, or coordinate the work of others, providing direction and maintaining accountability.

Skills & competencies (essential)

• Strong communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to build effective relationships and influence stakeholders, articulating complex concepts clearly and concisely
• Skilled in planning, prioritising, and managing projects or tasks to deliver high quality outcomes
• Analytical and methodical
• An excellent manager of evaluation projects (ideally within the commissioned research and evaluation field)
• Excellent qualitative and quantitative research skills
• A trouble-shooter, who can anticipate, identify project issues, and engage different internal and/or external people to productively resolve these
• A collaborative team member but also a person who understands when to take the initiative, be proactive and work independently
• Relevant qualification in a social science or related discipline, ideally with strong quantitative and qualitative elements
• Having a clear passion to improve employment outcomes for marginalised young people.

Apply:

Please click Redirect to recruiter where you will be able to view the full Job Pack, including how to apply. If you have any questions about the role, please contact Tim at Whiton Maynard.

The formal application will include responses to screening questions within the BeApplied applicant platform.

Please ensure that you have the right to work in the UK.

As specialist recruiters we are committed to building inclusive and diverse organisations, and welcome applications from all sections of the community.