Head of Evaluation

3 weeks ago

Bristol, United Kingdom Office for Students Full time

Head of Evaluation - Fixed Term (Maternity Cover)

Bristol or London

Salary £60,801-£66,612

Plus generous civil service pension scheme

About the role

We are looking for an experienced evaluation specialist to lead our team of five at the OfS. You will oversee and lead the team to deliver its objectives, which include
- implementing a number of evaluations of our regulatory activity to secure learning and improve our outcomes,
- building and delivering our evaluation strategy,
- and working to develop a strong culture of evaluative thinking across the organisation.

We want evaluation and learning to drive our work at the OfS, improving our effectiveness, challenging our thinking and informing our strategy. The purpose of the evaluation team is to help the OfS work more effectively through leading evaluation activity and evaluative thinking across the organisation. You will individually have the opportunity to design, run and commission evaluations, taking a technical implementation role as well as leading the rest of the team.

We are looking to recruit someone with substantial evaluation experience who is committed to evaluation in the pursuit of impact. This is an exciting time as the recently launched team embarks on a new programme of work evaluating core areas of OfS activity, alongside a programme of organisational culture change championing evaluation. Sitting in the Directorate for Strategy, Delivery and Communications, the evaluation team is a priority for the organisation’s leadership to help the OfS understand what does and doesn’t work, and why.

The maternity cover is a fixed term contract, expected to last from August 2023 to November 2024. Secondments from other organisations are encouraged.

Responsibilities in the role will include:

- Leading our evaluation strategy, in collaboration with the Head of Strategy and Evaluation
- Designing evaluations to meet stakeholder requirements
- Leading evaluations conducted internally
- Commissioning external evaluation and managing contractors effectively
- Engaging stakeholders and ensuring evaluation findings are translated into impact
- Directly line managing two evaluation managers, task managing more junior evaluation colleagues, and maintaining a culture of high performance and enthusiasm for learning within the team
- Driving organisational culture change to celebrate evaluation and embed a learning mindset
- Supporting teams across the OfS to learn from and improve their regulatory interventions through their evaluations.

About you

We are looking for someone with:

- experience of leading evaluation activity, preferably in regulation, higher education or a similar context;
- advanced knowledge of research design approaches and the use of data in evaluating regulation or a similar context. In particular, knowledge of qualitative and quantitative research methods, (quasi) experimental and theory-based approaches to evaluation, knowledge of their limitations and strengths;
- ability to demonstrate leadership and champion evaluation to maintain momentum and impact;
- ability to collaborate, manage relationships and support others;
- ability to proactively communicate findings and influence (specialist and non-specialist) audiences to utilise evidence appropriately and effectively;
- awareness of, and adaptability to changing circumstances, feeding this into evaluation delivery;
- excellent project and time management skills, ability to work independently often with competing pressures of challenging stakeholders, and the ability to deliver high quality work including through managing teams;
- integrity, resilience, empathy and ability to maintain standards when challenged;
- a passion for evaluation and results-focused thinking.
- experience commissioning and managing evaluation and social research contracts is desirable.

About the OfS

The Office for Students is here to make sure every student, no matter what background they’re from, gets the opportunities in higher education they need and deserve.

We are responsible for ensuring universities and colleges in England are doing all they can to support learners from all backgrounds, especially the most disadvantaged, to access and succeed in higher education, and for making sure that the academic experience of students improves their knowledge and skills, allowing graduates to succeed in their chosen careers.

Salary and benefits

This role is at OfS Band 10, which starts at £60,801 (plus London weighting allowance), and generally new starters’ salary is set at this. OfS staff join a Civil Service pension scheme.

Working for us

The OfS regulates the higher education sector on behalf of all students. We value diversity and the wealth of perspectives, experience and ideas that it brings to our work, and we strive to embed equality of opportunity in everything we do.

Working arrangements

Location

This role can be based in Bristol or London. Our main office is in Bristol, with a

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