Principal Research Officer

**Details**:
**Reference number**:

- 402143

**Salary**:

- £54,857
- National - £54,857 London - £59,686
- A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

GBP

**Job grade**:

- Grade 7

**Contract type**:

- Permanent

**Business area**:

- DFT - Decarbonisation, Technology & Strategy Group (DTS) - Analysis

**Type of role**:

- Analytical
Economist
Operational Research
Social Research
Statistics

**Working pattern**:

- Flexible working, Full-time, Job share, Part-time

**Number of jobs available**:

- 1

**Contents**:

- Location
- About the job
- Benefits
- Things you need to know

**Location**:

- Birmingham, Leeds, London

**About the job**:
**Job summary**:
Would you like to lead evaluation that improves how transport infrastructure and policies are delivered for people?

Do you enjoy using technical evaluation skills to deliver impactful analysis?

Do you enjoy working collaboratively with other analysts, policy teams and stakeholders to ensure that policies are informed by the best available evidence?

If so, then we would love for you to apply

**Job description**:
DfT has a well-developed portfolio of evaluation projects. Its Evaluation Programme was established in 2013, and the latest version of our Evaluation Strategy and Programme was published in June 2022.

We are looking for an exceptional evaluation analyst to play a leading role in delivering DfT’s Evaluation Programme and supporting our growing network of evaluation specialists. The role is located in our Evaluation Centre of Excellence, and entails working collaboratively with policy teams and analysts in a wide range of policy areas, from high-speed rail to cycling and walking, to develop and support effective evaluation research.

The post holder will identify, scope and design evaluation projects to address DfT’s evidence priorities, including both embedding evaluation in the delivery of new interventions and designing retrospective evaluations of past interventions. There may also be opportunities for the post holder to undertake in-house data analysis to support evaluation.

Other key priorities which the post holder will contribute towards include enhancing DfT’s evaluation guidance, exploring innovative methods and data sources (e.g. mobile network data), developing our approach to value-for-money evaluation and strengthening the use of evaluation evidence in policy development.

The role is located in DfT’s Evaluation Centre of Excellence, in our Analysis Directorate, and reports to the Head of Evaluation Programme. The team also includes one other Grade 7 evaluation specialist and two Senior Research Officers.

You will also play a leading role in a multi-disciplinary ‘evaluation network’ of 25 analysts across DfT and maintain close links with a range of other specialists including social researchers in the wider Social and Behavioural Research division, economists engaged with appraisal and modelling, data scientists and science and engineering professionals.

**Responsibilities**

Key accountabilities of the role include:

- Draw on a strong understanding of evaluation approaches and methods to make the case for, scope and develop cross-cutting evaluation solutions to ensure DfT learns about the effectiveness of its principal policies and projects;
- Gain and deploy a thorough understanding of the evidence base from transport evaluations to ensure this informs evaluation planning, appraisal and policy development;
- Provide technical leadership to advise policy teams and analysts on specific evaluation projects, influencing their specification, commissioning and delivery to maximise the robustness of the research and the value of the resulting evidence, focusing on areas where evaluation can have the most impact;
- Provide analytical scrutiny and challenge for evaluation outputs to ensure findings are robust, defensible and policy-relevant;
- Build trusted relationships and communicate effectively with wider stakeholders for transport evaluation evidence, including DfT evaluation leads, transport appraisal specialists and policy colleagues, as well as stakeholders in other government departments, delivery bodies, local authorities or academia;
- Champion the role of evaluation in the delivery of DfT’s programmes and help build capability by supporting dissemination and promoting best practice, including through delivery of training to other analysts.

For an in-depth insight into the role please refer to the Role Profile.

**Person specification**:
**_ This role is suitable for an experienced analyst who is keen to use and develop their technical evaluation skills. You will need to be confident in your understanding of a range of evaluation methods, and be good at developing new evaluation solutions to meet evidence needs._**

You will have extensive experience of working as a professional social researcher, statistician, economist or other analyst. This will include experience of scoping, design, conduct