7 Junior researcher jobs in Birmingham

Please note - this role is homebased in Scotland, with some travel througout Scotland and to London required.

Independent Age is the national charity working towards ending financial hardship in later life.  

Our Helpline and expert advisers offer free information and advice to older people without enough money to live on, while our external training equips professionals with the information they need to support older people on low incomes. Through our grants programme, we fund and support hundreds of local charities working with older people across the UK.  We use the knowledge and insight gained from our support services and partnerships to highlight the issues experienced by older people in poverty and campaign for change.  

We believe no one should face financial hardship in later life. We would love to find individuals from all walks of life and diverse backgrounds to join us on this journey.

Responsibilities and Person Specification:

This new role is an integral part of the day-to-day delivery of our Advice and Support Service. The service is targeted at older people in or facing financial hardship, and provides information, advice and follow up support relating to a range of issues, including Welfare Benefits, Social Care and Housing. 

As an Adviser (Scotland) you will be responsible for providing specialist support to older people, their families and carers through our advice service with their enquiries relating to housing and welfare benefits in Scotland as well as providing generalist level support on a range of issues through our duty service.

You should have in depth, specialist level knowledge of Housing or Welfare Benefits in Scotland as they relate to older people. Experience of working within a high-volume advice setting and advice supervision framework such as the AQS framework.

We plan to further develop our advice offer in Scotland to cover advice around charging for Social Care, so whilst not essential, knowledge of this area, or a desire to develop will be beneficial.

For full details on the role and requirements, please review the job description and person specification.  If your experience doesn’t align perfectly with all the criteria in the person specification but you do meet most of them and are excited about the role, we encourage you to apply anyway. 

This is a full-time role, 35 hours per week, which you can choose to work over five days or a 9-day fortnight. We also are open to this role being worked on a part-time basis on a minimum of 21 hours per week.

What it’s like to work at Independent Age:

We celebrate diversity at Independent Age and champion the differences that make each of us unique. We actively support and encourage people from a variety of backgrounds, experiences and skill sets to join us and help shape what we do. We aim to attract and retain a wide range of talent and create an environment where everyone can feel safe, protected, welcome and included.

We offer great benefits including 28 days annual leave plus public holidays, a generous pension scheme with life assurance, and fantastic learning and development opportunities. We also offer a number of enhanced leave provisions and benefits.

We know that a good work life balance helps us perform at our best and supports wellbeing. Flexible working hours and hybrid working is standard for all. But if you need a different form of flexibility, we are always happy to talk flexible working. 

With an employee engagement score of 98%, colleagues say Independent Age is a great place to work. You can find out more about what it’s like to work at Independent Age by visiting the Careers page on our website.

Application Process:

To apply, please visit our website to submit a CV and a Supporting Statement, detailing how your skills and experience meet the criteria within the Job Description and Person Specification. 

We are committed to ensuring our recruitment process is inclusive and accessible to all. If you require any specific arrangements or adjustments to enable you to fully participate in the recruitment process, such as having the job description in a larger text format or to apply in an alternative format, please get in touch with us via the email address on the ‘Contact Us’ page on our jobs site. 

To support our commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion our hiring managers use anonymous shortlisting. Please don’t include your name, photo, or any information that could indicate your gender or age in your CV and supporting statement, and don’t include your name in the title of any documents that you upload. However, please do include all dates of employment.  

Independent Age is committed to safeguarding and follows Safer Recruitment practices to ensure we are safeguarding those we work with. We therefore ask that you supply your full work history with explanations for any gaps in the application documents you submit and, if offered the post, we will require a minimum of two employment references including your current or most recent employer. A Level 1 (Basic) Disclosure check will be carried out for the successful candidate.

Closing Date: Sunday 4th October 2026 11:59pm

Interview Dates: 

First round of interviews will take place online on Tuesday 13th & Wednesday 14th October

Second round of interviews will be held in person, in Glasgow, on Wednesday 21st October

As an Officer in ImpactEd Evaluation you will project manage evaluation partnerships with schools, trusts and education organisations, from Theory of Change and evaluation design through data collection and analysis to reporting, with the support of a project sponsor. You will work directly with partners, keep projects on track and in scope, and help partners understand and act on what their data is telling them.

We are open to a range of experience and backgrounds. Prior experience in any of consultancy and partnership management, data analysis and report writing, research and evaluation, or the UK education system is likely to be particularly useful. What matters most is a curiosity about what works for young people and the discipline to get things done well.

Officers lead the delivery of specific projects and engagements with support, contribute to revenue generation and service delivery, and mentor junior colleagues.

Partnerships and delivery Project manage evaluation partnerships, coordinating delivery and often leading much of it, with support from a project sponsor. Drive partnerships forward through proactive communication and follow-up, build partner buy-in by involving different stakeholders, and manage scope and the risk of over- or under-delivery.

Evaluation design Facilitate evaluation design with partners: create Theories of Change, design research questions, identify outcome measures and measurement tools, and bring these together in an evaluation framework.

Data collection and analysis Identify suitable approaches to recruiting research participants and facilitate quantitative and qualitative data collection (surveys, existing school data, focus groups and interviews), using our School Impact Platform. Carry out simple inferential statistics independently and more advanced analysis with support, including the data cleaning and matching needed to get data ready.

Reporting and insight Engage with partners to understand the context and purpose of a report and agree the output accordingly. Synthesise the key messages from a complex set of data and report them in an accessible, concise way that fits the partner's context and helps them act.

Colleagues, practice and Group Plan and manage your time, give and act on constructive feedback, communicate openly about progress and blockers, and mentor junior colleagues. There is no direct business development target, but you will contribute to proposals and renewals, and take part in Group-wide work, residentials and professional development.

Closing date: Monday 12th October at 9am

About the role

This is a technical leadership role, helping deliver the modernisation of the technology that lets our community of over a million people take action every day on the issues they care about. Our enterprise scale tools are being re-built into a modern, modular platform and you’ll be joining the team as a leader in this work

You’ll be the second senior engineer on the team, joining as an equal partner to our existing senior engineer. This role requires an experienced technology leader with a proven track record of delivering great product and engineering outcomes — someone who has already shaped product engineering strategy, architected and engineered great products, developed people and teams, and established engineering standards through the delivery of significant projects at this level.

For many years, we have maintained a spectrum of different in-house products and are now building a modular platform, and your experience of leading on projects or products like this will be extremely valuable to us.

AI first development is central to our operational and development model and this role will offer you the opportunity to work with a team who’ve already proven that we can use AI development tools to deliver for our organisation. We’re looking to you to help us explore and achieve even more.

We’re on a mission to create an elegant, stable and highly effective platform that sits at the core of our mission – to make our country a fairer, more respectful, more sustainable place, and we’re excited to learn how you’ll help with this.

You will have real agency and influence within a small, growing team to try new things and contribute to making a real-world impact. You will help deliver our product roadmap and identify areas for technological innovation that will continue an exciting new chapter of 38 Degrees. Day-to-day, we are working out how to deliver cutting-edge software development in the age of AI and we are excited for the successful candidate to be a core part of this process.

This is a rare opportunity to help redesign a tech stack, develop a best practice AI-enabled software development model with the highest technical standards and deliver a sector-leading set of tools for one of the biggest campaigning organisations in the UK.

There are no formal education requirements for this role. As long as you can show us that you have the skills we don’t mind where you got them from! To be successful in your application you must meet the requirements of this role and answer the questions below which are part of the selection criteria. Without completion of this task your application cannot be considered.

Your background and experience

We are looking for someone with experience leading development, teams, products and technical standards – you’ll be adept at setting direction and bringing others with you. You’re someone who’s accountable and takes ownership, delivering what they promise. You’re always striving to improve and effective at motivating others to follow the standards you set. You will have experience developing software using AI tools, and be brimming with ideas about how a small technology team can make the most of tools like Claude Code to multiply our impact and how you’ll use your influence in the team to make that happen.

You’re someone who understands the discipline around leading and maintaining a product, not just working across technologies. You are creative and curious when it comes to solving business problems, comfortable asking users “why” and understanding what they are trying to achieve, and you enjoy collaborating to identify and deliver the best technical solutions. You understand the non-profit campaigning domain we’re operating in, or you’re excited to learn. You demonstrate the specific technical expertise the role requires while also applying product-outcomes-thinking best practice to work effectively with end users.

You are a patient and clear communicator with non-technical stakeholders, and you’re motivated by achieving real lasting business impact and collaboratively solving business problems with users rather than simply delivering requested features. You’re driven by the opportunity to build best-in-class campaign tools and deliver professional, high-quality work that makes our tech products a joy for users and supporters to interact with.

You are flexible, as comfortable responding to short-notice reactive requests and staying cool-headed in a crisis as you are pushing forward longer-term product development work. You’re eagle-eyed when it comes to tackling technical debt and putting effective processes in place to maintain high-quality development. You’ll be keen to play a key part in shaping the culture and professional standards of our team.

And finally – you’ll need a passion for being part of our mission to make the country a fairer, more respectful, more sustainable place, and a hunger to give our supporters the power to help make that happen.

Full job description: Salary Scale F1 – Senior Developer _ Campaign Technologist

About us

38 Degrees is a community of more than a million people who – in a moment away from their busy days – take small actions on issues they care about, which all add up to something bigger, a movement for a better Britain for everyone who calls our country home.

A Britain where we all get a fair chance in life and where the place we were born, or the area we live in, doesn’t decide that chance. Where we protect our planet and hold those in power to account for doing the same, and where we are treated, and treat one another, with respect.

In the space of a week, millions of supporters could be campaigning on anything from protecting our NHS and stopping cuts to Universal Credit, to saving local green spaces and protecting our democracy.

38 Degrees is fiercely independent. We are primarily funded by small donations from hundreds of thousands of members of the public from all over the UK. This independence means we never have to hold ourselves back from taking on those with power and can truly listen to our supporters.

Benefits of working for 38 Degrees

38 Degrees’ approach to total rewards (salaries, rewards and benefits) is rooted in our Compensation Philosophy which defines our principles and the criteria to ascertain whether decisions on pay and reward meet those principles – our ultimate aim is to attract and retain a talented, driven team, and reward all of us for the impactful work we do in a way which is fair, equitable and sustainable, based on this philosophy and our vision to make the UK fairer, more respectful and more sustainable.

38 Degrees employee salaries, rewards and benefits are benchmarked against the UK Not For Profit sector.

38 Degrees’ culture is honest, kind, supportive, courageous, and respectful. We move fast, and frequently change plans to respond to events. We work hard but we also have fun.

We regularly enjoy team away days and social hours.

Additional Benefits (as per the statutory or enhanced qualifying conditions in the staff handbook)

Currently we provide:

• 38 Degrees operates a four-day working week. Our working days are Monday – Thursday. On rare occasions employees may work on a Friday to manage reactive work or communication with organisations that work a five-day week. If a bank holiday falls on a Monday, employees are required to work Tuesday – Friday
• For a four-day working week employees receive 24 days (pro rata) annual leave per year (plus bank holidays) pro rata. The office closes between Christmas and New Year, employees do not need to take this additional time from their annual leave allocation
• Employer pension contribution
• 24 hour employee assistance programme
• Family leave policies (some with enhancements)
• Employer paid annual flu vaccination
• Rental deposit loan
• Contribution to eye tests/glasses
• Learning and development budget

We are developing the following benefits which we will communicate when finalised:

• One month paid sabbatical leave as per policy terms after 5 years of service
• Cycle to work scheme
• IVF
• Menopause
• Religious leave
• Surrogacy
• Parental Bereavement Leave
• Global Remote working

Our commitment to Diversity & Inclusion

We’re especially keen to hear from people who’ll bring lived experience of the issues we work on and who’ll make our team more diverse as a result. So if you’re Black, Asian or from any other minority ethnic group, if you’re disabled, LGBTQIA+, or if you’re from a working class home, your application will be especially welcome. And thanks to our flexible home working approach and network of offices, we have a staff team that is increasingly based across the UK. A third of us live outside London. We’re keen to continue diversifying geographically, so that we’re rooted in our supporters’ communities.

To make sure that we are able to reach our goal of a diverse team we have equal opportunities monitoring requirements. Your application will not be complete without the equal opportunities monitoring form.

38 Degrees is committed to inclusive working practices, so during the application process we commit to:

• Paying for childcare whilst you’re at 38 Degrees interviews or tasks.
• Paying for your travel costs to the office and back – and for overnight accommodation if you’re travelling from a long distance for an interview although at present the majority of interviews are held online.
• Making any reasonable adjustments – for example ensuring we have a BSL interpreter organised in advance if you’d need one.
• If there is anything else you’re concerned about or think we could provide, please let us know.

To be successful in your application you must meet the essential requirements for this role and answer the questions below which are part of the selection criteria. Without completion of this task your application cannot be considered.

The successful candidate must have the right to work in the UK at the time of appointment.

The recruitment process: In addition to your written application (details below), you will be required to complete a ‘live’ technical test and two rounds of interviews (all remotely). You can apply for this through Charity Job, please ensure you have answered the application questions below.

Application Questions (max. word count: 2000 words across all questions)

1. As a senior engineer, how have you approached managing the adoption of AI tools (e.g. Claude Code or similar) across a team? How do you balance encouraging adoption with maintaining code quality and standards? Can you give an example of a decision you made, or would make, about where AI tools should and shouldn’t be used, and how you’d bring the rest of the team along with that view?
2. In your view, how is the day-to-day practice of software development changing as AI tools become more capable? What has and hasn’t changed about how a team should be structured or how work should be planned, compared to a traditional development model?
3. Please outline an example of an unexpected technical issue that impacted core business operations and how you dealt with that.
4. Select an application you regularly use and describe three key design features that enhance its user experience. What considerations do you think influenced these design choices?

Volunteer It Yourself (VIY), a UK-wide not-for-profit organisation linked to youth skills/employment, volunteering and construction, is looking for a passionate Fundraising Coordinator to support our income generation work and help us grow our funding.

VIY combines volunteering and DIY by challenging young people aged 14-24 to learn trade and building skills, on the job, by helping to renovate and retrofit community buildings (e.g. youth clubs, community centres, sports clubs, and arts, music and cultural venues).

Importantly, the majority of young people we work with are outside of, or at risk of being outside of employment, education or training. Young people participating in VIY are mentored by professional tradespeople and gain vocational skills accreditations as well as access to further training, work placement and apprenticeship opportunities with local providers and employers beyond the project.

VIY launched in 2011 and now operates UK‑wide with £2.6 million annual income and 25 full time employees. To date, over 1,000 youth and community buildings across the UK have been renovated, involving 18,000 young people and 1,200 trade skills mentors. You can read more about our work in our impact report.

As the Fundraising Coordinator you will support VIY’s new business function by keeping information organised, managing key systems, and helping with early‑stage bid writing. You’ll make sure the ream has what they need to move funding opportunities forward and help keep our processes running smoothly.

We’re seeking someone who is organised, curious and confident in their writing, with the ability to juggle different tasks and build positive relationships across the team. You don’t need previous fundraising experience — transferable skills from other roles or sectors are just as valuable.

You will play an important role in supporting VIY’s income growth and helping the team work efficiently as we expand nationally. This is a great entry point into fundraising, giving you hands‑on experience in research, bid coordination, stewardship support and Customer Relationship Manager CRM (we use Salesforce) within a fast‑moving, mission‑driven organisation.

Please read the full job description and person specification in our Application Pack before applying.

Join SafeLives and help transform the response to domestic abuse across the UK through the groundbreaking work of The Drive Partnership.

As our Project Support Officer (Drive Partnership), you will play a key role in supporting the delivery of one of the UK's leading programmes working with high-harm, high-risk perpetrators of domestic abuse. Through excellent coordination, administration and project support, you will help ensure that projects are delivered effectively, deadlines are met and teams have the information and systems they need to achieve safer outcomes for victims, survivors and their families.

Working closely with colleagues across The Drive Partnership, SafeLives, Respect, Social Finance, commissioners and delivery partners, you will provide essential support to the Project Management Office (PMO) and wider programme teams. You will help maintain project documentation, trackers, risk and action logs, coordinate meetings and reporting cycles, manage shared inbox enquiries and ensure key project information is accurate, organised and up to date. You will also support the development of effective project management processes and contribute to the smooth running of multiple workstreams across the programme.

We're looking for someone with strong organisational and administrative skills, excellent attention to detail and experience coordinating projects, meetings or team activities. You'll be confident managing competing priorities, maintaining accurate records and communicating effectively with a wide range of stakeholders. You will be proactive, solution-focused and able to identify and escalate risks, issues or missing information appropriately. Strong Microsoft Office skills, particularly in Excel and PowerPoint, are essential.

This is an exciting opportunity to join a collaborative and values-led organisation while contributing to the work of The Drive Partnership, which is transforming the national response to perpetrators of domestic abuse. An understanding of the importance of partnership working, attention to detail and a commitment to ending domestic abuse for everyone, for good, will help you thrive in this role.

About SafeLives We are SafeLives, the UK-wide charity dedicated to ending domestic abuse, for everyone, for good. We work with organisations across the UK to transform the response to domestic abuse. We want what you would want for your best friend. We listen to survivors, putting their voices at the heart of our thinking. We look at the whole picture for each individual and family to get the right help at the right time to make families everywhere safe and well. And we challenge perpetrators to change, asking ‘why doesn’t he stop?’ rather than ‘why doesn’t she leave?’ This applies whatever the gender of the victim or perpetrator and whatever the nature of their relationship.

Last year alone, we delivered more than 700 sessions to over 15,000 learners across the UK in policing, health, housing, justice, education and the specialist sector. And we have reached 90,000 adult and 100,000 child survivors through programmes designed and delivered with partners.

In the last 9 years, close to 7,000 perpetrators have been challenged and supported to change through flagship interventions developed by The Drive Partnership and the programme continues to expand year on year. 

Together we can end domestic abuse. Forever. For everyone.

Benefits:

• 34 days holiday inc. public holidays
• Paid annual wellbeing day
• Cycle 2 Work scheme
• Eye care vouchers
• Pension scheme with 4% employer contribution
• Length of service award
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Enhanced family leave Policies
• Holiday purchase scheme - buy up to an additional 5 days

How to apply

If you believe you have the qualities we have described, please look over the full job description and submit your CV and cover letter by 9am on 16th October. As part of our commitment to become a Disability Confident Committed employer we are happy to accept alternative applications such as video, voice note etc.

WHO WE ARE

University Hospitals Birmingham Charity consists of four hospital charities supporting some of the busiest hospitals in Birmingham – Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, Heartlands Hospital, Good Hope Hospital and Solihull Hospital.

Being in hospital can be really tough physically and emotionally. This is why our hospital charities do as much as they can to help patients and their families feel as supported as possible during their treatment.

Each hospital charity provides the added extras that are "over and above" what the NHS can fund as standard. This includes life-saving equipment, state-of-the-art facilities, training and research, as well as free accommodation and patient comforts.

Across UHB Charity we are currently raising funds for a Total Body PET CT Scanner as well as our Children's and Newborn Appeals and Home from Home accommodation for civilians and military personnel, to name just a few.

As a Legacy Administrator you will help us raise much needed funds that will make a real difference to our patients and their families.

JOB SUMMARY

This role is primarily based at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, with the expectation of occasional travel to other hospital sites.

This post is within the Fundraising Team at University Hospitals Birmingham Charity, which is the official charity of Heartlands Hospital, Good Hope Hospital, Solihull Hospital and the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham.

This is a new role within the Charity Team. In this role, you will be a crucial part in ensuring that all legacies to the charity are administered in a timely and sensitive manner, maintaining and building great relationships with both internal and external stakeholders.

This role will involve occasional evening and weekend work at charity events and events organised by our supporters. 

PRINCIPAL DUTIES

• Work with the Senior Fundraising Officer responsible for Legacies to actively manage a varied caseload
• Handle a mixture of pecuniary, residuary and reversionary legacy cases
• Tailor your approach to each case depending on the circumstances, having a flexible approach whilst ensuring that all gifts are administered in a timely manner
• Work to optimise University Hospitals Birmingham Charity legacy income where appropriate
• Ensure that all bequests to UHB Charity are received and utilised, in accordance with UHB Charity policies
• Maintain your knowledge of current legislation
• Play an active role in the wider legacy team and promoting Gifts in Wills where necessary
• Working alongside the Stewardship Team, ensuring accurate data inputting and correspondence both written and verbal with supporters
• Managing and prioritising unpredictable and frequently interrupted busy workload.
• Working with and deliver clear objectives and key performance indicators.
•  Proactively contributing to the achievement of targets and the ongoing fundraising success of the Charity as a whole and to be a supportive, effective and collegiate team member.

COMMUNICATION

• Relaying accurate and timely information to the fundraising team, communications team, grants team and stewardship team. Communicating with donors and fundraisers.
• Dealing with enquiries from the general public, disseminating information and ensuring that the appropriate action is taken, whilst maintaining the Charity’s policies and procedures

ORGANISATIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES

• Maintaining Raiser's Edge donor management system. Accurate data inputting of donations, fundraising, thank you letters and general archiving, production and upkeep of databases. 

PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES

• Ability to present oneself in a professional manner as a representative of the hospital and the charity.
•  To maintain confidentiality in all aspects of duty including fundraiser and donor data.
•  To assist in maintaining accurate records and to complete and return as requested statistical data.
• To maintain an accurate effective database, recording essential information and providing statistical data in accordance with guidelines and policy using Raiser's Edge, Microsoft Office, Word and Access.
• To represent the Charity in a variety of different contexts and to a variety of different audiences.
• To ensure that a positive image of the hospital and the Charity is projected at all times.
• To hold a flexible approach to working hours (the role will require the post holder to work evenings and weekends as necessary).
• To hold a flexible approach to work when asked to take on other fundraising or admin duties when the team needs to cover holidays, or at times of workload pressure. 
• To adopt a supportive and collegiate approach when working with the fundraising team and other colleagues within the hospital.

The Legacy Administrator will also carry out other projects and duties as directed by the Head of Fundraising, Director of Fundraising and Charity Chief Executive.

NOTES:

This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of responsibilities but more an outline framework against which the post holder will be given flexibility to define the detail. Any changes will be the subject of consultation with the post holder.

All employees must adhere to and perpetuate Charity Policies and Procedures relating to:

• Health and Safety
• No Smoking at Work
• Equal Opportunities in Employment, including responsibilities under the Disability Discrimination Act.

Your attention is drawn to the confidential nature of information collected within the NHS. The unauthorised use or disclosure of patient or other personal information is a dismissible offence and in the case of computerised information could result in a prosecution for an offence or action for civil damages under the Data Protection Act 1984.

Please note that employees are employed directly by the Charity and not the NHS.

Employees of the Charity are eligible to join a defined contribution pension scheme, to which the Charity will contribute 8% of an employee’s annual salary in addition to employee contributions.

Employees of the Charity are eligible for enhanced maternity and sickness pay.

Employees of the Charity receive 27 days holiday per year, plus Bank Holidays.

SKILLS/KNOWLEDGE and ABILITY

Essential

• Excellent written skills with first class spelling
• Use of Microsoft Office including Word, Excel, Access, Outlook, PowerPoint along with other software packages
• Ability to ensure accurate data inputting
• Ability to work independently and under pressure, prioritising work to meet deadlines
• Ability to deal with heavy, unpredictable workloads
• Ability to set up and maintain organisational systems
• Ability to work flexibly to meet the needs of the charity
• Problem solving
• Record keeping
• Non-judgemental attitude
• Accepts responsibility for own decisions
• Ability to represent the Charity at events and functions
• Good interpersonal skills and ability to
• influence people at all levels
• Understanding and respect for the importance of patient confidentiality
• GCSE English Language or equivalent
• GCSE Mathematics or equivalent

Desirable

• Educated to degree level or equivalent
• Qualification in community fundraising, corporate fundraising, communications, PR or marketing
• Membership of the Institute of Fundraising

EXPERIENCE

Essential

• Experience and understanding of charity legacy administration
• Ability to communicate clearly, assertively and compassionately with Executors, solicitors and bereaved family and friends
• High level of numeracy skills in order to approve complex Estate Accounts and tax calculations
• Experience of operating in a modern digital workplace, including using digital tools to work collaboratively and productively
• Experience of working on own initiative

Desirable

• Experience of working with donors and fundraisers
• Raiser's Edge donor database experience
• Experience of working and consulting with patients and/or the public 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Essential

• A team player with a flexible approach
• Available to work out of hours if required.

Desirable

• Car driver with a clean licence