3 Application support analyst jobs in Cardiff, Wales

At The National Lottery Community Fund we are committed to making a bigger difference. Our 2030 strategy ‘It starts with community’ puts impact at the heart of what we do. Our Evidence and Impact Strategy explains how we will do this by transforming how evidence is used across the organisation; helping us better understand community needs, make better funding decisions, and demonstrate the difference National Lottery funding makes across the UK.

We are recruiting an Evidence Engagement Manager to join our Evidence Services: England and UK Portfolios Team. This is an important role in delivering our Evidence and Impact ambitions. You will act as the link between funding portfolios and the wider Evidence and Impact team, improving how evidence is used across the funding cycle and helping colleagues make confident, evidence-based decisions.

Working closely with portfolio teams to understand their priorities, challenges and decision-making needs, you will identify where evidence can add value. This could include evidence to understand community needs and support assessment of applications, to shaping major funding programmes, supporting monitoring and evaluation practices and supporting decisions at leadership and committee level.

You will translate user needs into clear evidence requirements, commissioning or coordinating the development of products within Evidence Services, across the Evidence and Impact team or externally. Products can include:

• Data analysis and insight reporting
• Interactive dashboards
• Literature reviews and evidence syntheses
• Theories of Change
• Systems mapping

You will help build evidence capability across the Fund, helping colleagues access and use evidence more independently through self-service tools, guidance, support and development. You will lead roll out of products, ensuring they meet user needs, are adopted effectively and continue to improve through feedback and review.

This role requires a strong understanding of how evidence can be applied in real-world decision making, alongside excellent stakeholder engagement and project management skills, supported by a breadth of evidence and analysis knowledge.

This role includes line management of an Evidence Engagement officer, as well as matrix and task management of other staff from across Evidence and Impact.

We're looking for someone passionate about the pragmatic use of evidence to improve decisions and maximise impact. Above all, you'll be motivated by helping The National Lottery Community Fund make the greatest possible difference to communities across the UK.

Interview details:

• Date: Week Commencing 12th October 2026
• Format: Online
• Location: UK Wide

We have a hybrid approach to working. Work pattern and location will be agreed with the successful candidate. The role can be based at any of our UK offices: Belfast, Birmingham, Cardiff, Exeter, Glasgow, Leeds, London, Manchester, Newcastle, and Newtown. There will be some travel required within the UK.

We will be hosting a briefing session on: Tuesday 8th September 2026 at 11:00 am. To register or ask any questions please email us.

How to apply:

Upload your CV in word format and write a supporting statement (1000 words) with the following criteria, we will use this to score your application.

Essential criteria

• A professional qualification, bachelor's degree or equivalent level of experience in a relevant discipline such as social research, public policy or economics
• Experience of applying evidence into decision making across a strategy, policy or funding life cycle, working with non-analysts.
•  Knowledge of a breadth of evidence and analysis approaches, including collection and use of quantitative and qualitative data, evidence review and synthesis across sources, Theory of Change, monitoring and evaluation.
•  Experience of working with multiple stakeholders often with competing priorities and across different disciplines and professional roles, to gain agreement.
• Experience of project management and delivery across the evidence product lifecycle from understanding user needs and specifying products, through managing development and delivery against requirements to rollout, feedback and review.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, ability to effectively communicate with different audiences, including compelling communication of insight, sharing complex information in an engaging way.

Desirable criteria

• Knowledge of the voluntary and community sector and the funding landscape, and a passion for working in this area.
• Strong facilitation skills and the ability to drive user engagement in use of evidence and development of evidence products.

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion 

Communities in the UK come in all shapes and sizes. National Lottery funding is for everyone – therefore, we are committed to equity, diversity and inclusion and we work hard to ensure our funding reaches where it is needed.  

We also believe our people should represent the communities, organisations and individuals we work with. That’s why The National Lottery Community Fund is committed to being an inclusive employer and a great place to work. We recognise and celebrate the fact that our people come from diverse backgrounds. We positively welcome applications from people from ethnic minority backgrounds, people with disabilities or longstanding health conditions, people who are LGBTQ+, and people from different socio-economic and educational backgrounds, as well as people of all ages. 

As a Disability Confident Employer, we take a proactive approach in making reasonable adjustments, if needed, throughout the recruitment process and during employment. (This can be related to a physical and mental health condition.) 

Every grant you win becomes someone's first conversation in English, their first step into a job interview, their first time speaking up at a housing tribunal.

English for Action (EFA) is looking for a Partnerships Manager to grow the funding that powers our free, participatory ESOL classes for around 400 migrants across London. Our classes don't just teach English, they build the confidence and collective power people need to organise around housing and employment rights.

About the role

Working closely with our Fundraising Lead, you'll take real ownership of relationships with trusts, foundations and corporate funders, while helping shape how we diversify our income going forward. This is a role with genuine scope to bring your own ideas and see them through, not just execute someone else's plan.

You will:
- Write compelling grant applications, funding proposals and reports that win and retain funding
- Research and build a realistic pipeline of trusts, liveries and corporate foundations
- Develop and maintain strong relationships with existing donors and prospects
- Contribute to EFA's fundraising strategy, including newer income streams such as statutory, corporate, individual giving, membership and events
- Liaise with our Executive Team, Hub Leads and Project Managers so funding proposals stay grounded in what's actually happening in our classrooms and communities
- Maintain accurate donor and grant records on Donorfy, and support monitoring and evaluation of project outcomes

About you

You don't need a degree, and you're not expected to tick every box, nobody does. We're looking for someone with a track record of successful grant writing, strong research and relationship-building skills, and the organisation to manage multiple funding deadlines at once. Knowledge of the UK charity sector and UK trusts and foundations is essential; experience with public sector or EU education funding is a bonus.

If you have lived experience of migration and/or learning English as an additional language, we'd love to hear from you and how you'd like to draw on it in this role.

About EFA

English for Action provides free, participatory, empowering ESOL classes for migrants in London, spaces where students build community and organise collectively around issues like employment and housing rights. We're a national centre of good practice for a radical, participatory approach to ESOL, and we share this approach through training, research and partnerships. We're a team of 11 staff, a wider team of volunteers, and 7 trustees, run through shared leadership rather than a CEO, decisions are made collaboratively, and we aim for our structure to reflect that.

What we offer

- 22.5 hours (3 days) a week, mostly remote, with just monthly in-person meetings in London
- 28 days' annual leave (pro rata) after probation, plus bank holidays, plus a full week's paid closure over Christmas
- 6% matched pension contribution
- Enhanced sick pay, and enhanced maternity/paternity/adoption/shared parental leave
- Wellbeing allowance and full entitlement to leave for sickness, including mental ill-health
- A genuinely flat, non-hierarchical culture with collaborative decision-making on strategy and practice
- Tech and cycle scheme, and actively encouraged continuous personal development

Equal opportunities

EFA particularly encourages applications from people of colour, who are currently underrepresented at EFA and across the charity sector, and from people who have experienced moving to the UK or have English as an additional language. Where two or more candidates are of equal merit, priority may be given to a candidate from a less well-represented group. Please let us know about any access or other requirements we can accommodate.

Closing date: 11.59pm, Wednesday 30th September 2026
Skills test: w/c 5th October 2026 (writing and budgeting)
Interviews: Friday 9th / 16th October 2026

Questions before applying? Email Gina Rodriguez (HR Lead)