Rocket Science is a specialist research and consultancy organisation working at the intersections between poverty and welfare, health and social care, and employability and skills. We are recruiting for a NEW role to join our growing organisation as Research Manager (Senior Consultant). You can find out more about what we do here Home - Rocket Science (rocketsciencelab.co.uk) watch our animation.

Our Senior Consultants play a significant role in helping to manage projects and people and ensuring we deliver our projects on time and to budget. Whether you are currently in a consultancy role and looking for a move, or equally in a service delivery or research related role and looking for the next step up this could be the job for you.

Rocket Science celebrated its 21-year anniversary this year. We are committed to tacking inequalities and focused on making Rocket Science an inclusive and diverse workplace.

Our values provide the foundation for our work

• Focusing on people’s lives – We work to improve the systems and support that affect people’s lives and ensure their lived experience informs change.
• Working with you – We work collaboratively with our clients, to tailor the support they need and bring our expertise, insights and networks so they can grow and achieve their vision.
• Developing realistic solutions – We bring practicality to our work, which is evidence-led, looks at the bigger picture, and provides relevant solutions that put policy into practice.
• Working at the intersections – We work at the intersections of issues and needs to remove boundaries and siloes to address systemic inequalities.
• Looking to the future – We always look ahead to identify emerging needs, anticipating future trends and support our clients and colleagues to be trailblazers.
• Being inclusive and empowering – We foster an inclusive working environment that empowers and inspires our colleagues, clients and partners.

We were one of the first companies to sign up to the Scottish Business Pledge and we are an accredited Living Wage employer and accredited with Investors in People Gold and Investors in Young People Gold. For more detail visit our website at rocketsciencelab.co.uk

About you

We are looking for people with between three to five years-experience in one or more of our areas of interest. Rocket Scientists are curious, can-do people with both an eye on detail and on the future. As Research Manager (Senior Consultant) you will be managing a range of projects often responsible to a Project Director – including the meeting of milestones, distributing work across company staff as needed and maintaining close working relationships with clients.

You will:

• Lead or contribute to a range of consultancy projects and tasks, including evidence reviews, evaluations, needs assessments, surveys/consultations, face-to-face interviewing, focus group facilitation and analysis.
• For our social statistics role you will help drive this area of work across the organisation and provide leadership on statistical analysis, quality and data visualisation.
• Produce proposals, reports and papers in appealing and appropriate forms which may include briefings, newsletters, articles, and blogs.
• Maintain an awareness of policy issues in the UK (and where appropriate internationally) and keep up to date with policy and legislative changes which will influence Rocket Science’s areas of interest.
• Contribute to the development of ideas, products and services on behalf of Rocket Science and/or its clients.
• Supervise, manage, lead and develop others to make effective contributions to our organisation

Skills and Experience

We are looking for a good communicator with:

• Experience of managing complex projects within timescales and on budget.
• Ability to develop close and trusted working relationships with a wide range of current and potential clients.
• Ability to develop and sell ideas and solutions which respond to recognised client needs and produce and present winning proposals.
• Experience in one or more of the private, public and/or voluntary/community sectors.
• Ability to work independently and initiate, plan and prioritise complex workloads and meet individual deadlines.
• Ability in analysing, interpreting and responding to government policy.
• Ability to research, track, analyse and present information in ways that are appropriate to the task.
• Relevant work experience and/or degree in one of our areas of work ideally employability, skills, housing or criminal justice and an understanding of the Scottish policy and delivery context.

The details:

We work around 37.5 hours week with some flexibility, offer a generous pension scheme and a range of other benefits and are currently working a hybrid model between the office and home. We are currently working 50% in the office, with base for this role in Edinburgh.

Rocket Science is a specialist research and consultancy organisation focusing on employability, education and skills, poverty and welfare, and health and social care. We work across the UK from our three offices in Edinburgh, Newcastle and London. We work closely with our clients including central and local government, charities and community organisations to review and evaluate services, conduct social research including understanding needs, exploring lived experience, setting strategies and governance structures and conducting quantitative impact analysis such as cost benefit analysis and SROI.

We are looking for a Principal Consultant to join our growing team to support and help drive our employability and skills research across Scotland as well as provide support for projects across the UK. We are looking for an enthusiastic and experienced team member who is interested in progressing into senior management of the company in the medium term. Direct experience in employability and skills delivery or research would be preferrable but indirect experience is relevant as well. Scotland-specific experience is not a requirement.

Job Purpose

Support and drive our employability and skills work across Scotland and the UK.

Key areas of responsibility

We are looking for an individual to:

• Support and drive the building of our employability and skills projects including business development in Scotland and across the UK
• Lead teams carrying out research and consultancy projects across our specialisms, delivering high quality, influential work including desk based analysis, field work, written and oral presentation of findings, and facilitation
• Actively explore and understand emerging and cutting-edge evidence on what works across a wide range of our specialist areas and issues, particularly in employability and skills
• Support and develop more junior staff. This may include being a supervisor for one or more staff members
• Contribute to and lead the development and presentation of proposals and tender submissions
• Develop strong working relationships with current and potential clients that leads to winning new work.