Research and Evaluation Manager

About us

The King’s community is united by a commitment to serve society through academic excellence. King’s Strategy 2030 sets out our bold vision for the future, building on our strengths while responding to a rapidly changing world. The strategy focuses on delivering student success in and beyond the University; investing in research and education excellence that addresses global, national and local priorities; fostering innovation and entrepreneurship; and securing sustainable finances for a secure future. Through these priorities, and supported by a culture that values our people, services, campuses, partnerships and alumni, we will strengthen our impact and enable every student and member of our community to contribute meaningfully to society.

Within the Social Mobility & Widening Participation Department we believe all young people should be able to have high expectations for their future. This means equal access to education and career opportunities. We run programmes that aim to empower young people from under-represented backgrounds to access and succeed at university.

 We are part of the Students & Education Directorate, a collection of wide-ranging professional services in place to support King’s students and their education. As a directorate we manage the student lifecycle from application to graduation and beyond, to ensure a coherent and seamless student experience and effective administrative processes, working closely with King’s faculties to do so.

About the role

The Research and Evaluation Manager will work to position King’s College London as a sector leader on conducting institutional evaluation and research to understand how we can support students from underrepresented groups to access university and succeed at university. Our team aims to generate causal evidence, either through Randomised Controlled Trials or Quasi-experimental designs.

This is an exciting opportunity for candidates looking to work in research and evaluation in an applied context, and who wish to utilise their skills and expertise in quantitative and qualitative methods. This is an opportunity to grow your skills in generating and applying evidence to practice.

We encourage applications from candidates who have experience from both within and outside of the Higher Education sector where they can demonstrate the skills needed to succeed in this role as well as candidates from non-traditional backgrounds.

Key responsibilities

·         Supervise and lead on a range of research & evaluation activities, including synthesis of secondary research; conducting qualitative, quantitative and/or survey designs; developing and delivering randomised controlled trials (and other experimental trials as appropriate), 

·         Convey research findings, including complex quantitative information, in a clear and actionable way 

·         Develop and maintain expertise in behavioural research and evaluation methodologies

·         Work with academics and practitioners to test and trial new approaches to widening participation and student success 

·         Line manage the Senior Research and Evaluation Adviser or Senior Data Officer

The above list of responsibilities may not be exhaustive, and the post holder will be required to undertake such tasks and responsibilities as may reasonably be expected within the scope and grading of the post.

This post will be offered on a fixed term basis.

This is a full-time post, but we welcome applications from candidates seeking a flexible work pattern within our necessary service operating hours of 10am-4pm.

Working Pattern

·         This is a full-time (35 hours per week) post, and you will be offered an indefinite contract. The role works with a hybrid working pattern. While some on-site presence will be required for team collaboration, events, and programme activities, there is potential for a substantial proportion of working hours to be undertaken remotely.

About you

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience

Essential criteria

·         Relevant work experience and/or education: We think a wide range of different work and educational experiences could support you to be successful in this role. Relevant work experience might include work in any research or evaluation job.  Relevant educational experiences might include higher education in a related discipline, professional qualifications or other training 

·         Ability to consider and select appropriate research designs and methodologies, using qualitative and quantitative methods including surveying, interviewing and running focus groups.  

·         Experience establishing causal inference in research when evaluating projects or interventions with experimental methods (e.g. quasi-experimental methods, randomised controlled trials). 

·         Experience in designing and running multiple social research and evaluation projects, managing competing demands and timescales and delivering to milestones. 

·         Confident in conducting data analysis including handling large data sets and statistical testing using relevant software (such as Power BI, R, Stata, or SPSS) and presenting findings in various formats. 

·         Confident and clear written and verbal communication, including report-writing, data visualisation and presentation skills. 

·         Ability to give a team clear direction and guide it to the successful completion of a task. 

·         Ability to identify and manage the objectives, performance, and development needs of others. 

Desirable criteria

·         Postgraduate degree or qualification in research methods, statistics, analytics or a related field and/or relevant experience. 

·         Experience using behavioural insights in a research or policy context to positively influence behaviour 

·         Understanding of the widening participation agenda and/or the role of higher education in social mobility 

We pride ourselves on being inclusive and welcoming. We embrace diversity and want everyone to feel that they belong and are connected to others in our community.

We are committed to working with our staff and unions on these and other issues, to continue to support our people and to develop a diverse and inclusive culture at King's.

As part of this commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion and through this appointment process, it is our aim to develop candidate pools that include applicants from all backgrounds and communities.

We ask all candidates to submit a copy of their CV, and a supporting statement, detailing how they meet the essential criteria listed in the advert. If we receive a strong field of candidates, we may use the desirable criteria to choose our final shortlist, so please include your evidence against these where possible.

To find out how our managers will review your application, please take a look at our ‘How we Recruit’ pages.

Closing date: 1 April 2026.

Interviews are due to be held on 9 - 10 April 2026.