Technical officer jobs in oxford, oxfordshire

About the opportunity
As Head of Impact & Quality, you’ll lead the department that covers impact measurement, evaluation of our programmes, data management, curriculum development, training and quality of tutors and other initiatives that drive the evidence-based culture of Action Tutoring. With a strong understanding of the charity's theory of change, you’ll strengthen existing impact and quality processes and make strategic recommendations that develop these further. You’ll play a vital role in helping the Senior Management Team balance quality and quantity with sustainable business decisions. As well as leading the department, you’ll build external networks and represent the charity externally at relevant events, in person and online. As Action Tutoring begins planning for a new strategic cycle, you’ll design, evaluate and advise on the scale up of pilots in new ways of achieving our mission.

Closing date: Monday, 27th October 2025 at 9am
Interviews:Monday, 3 and Tuesday, 4 November 2025.  There may be a second round of interviews.
Start date: Ideally Monday, 1st December 2025
Contract and hours: Permanent. Full time. We offer flexible hours with 9.30-4 as core hours. A full working week is 37.5 hours.  We are open to 0.8 or 0.9 FTE for the right candidate.
Place of work:This role can be remote, with occasional travel required. Our London office address is: 8-10, Fivefields, Grosvenor Gardens, London SW1W 0DH

Duties and responsibilities
 
People and Cultural Leadership 

• You’ll manage the workload distribution across the Impact & Quality department functions and teams, ensuring that projects are delivered according to strategic priorities. 
• You’ll line-manage a small team of managers who have responsibilities for curriculum, training, quality, insights and data management activities across the department.

 
Strategic and Senior Management 

• You’ll contribute to Senior Management Team discussions and decisions, representing the impact and quality functions, ensuring all decisions consider the implications on our evidence base, protecting the drivers of impact and maintaining our reputation as a sector-leading impact organisation.

Impact and quality oversight

• Leadership and oversight to ensure continued smooth implementation of a Randomised Control Trial lasting the first 6-9 months of this role. 
• You’ll be accountable for the development and implementation of the Impact Strategy of the organisation.

A full list of duties and responsibilities can be found in the job description attached to the BreatheHR advert. 

Person specification
 
Qualifications criteria: 

• The right to work in the UK.
•  University degree or equivalent experience in a relevant field of quantitative or social research. 

We are looking for some of the following attributes, though you might be more experienced in some areas than others:

• Excellent project management and project sponsor skills and experience, able to juggle multiple complex projects that are cross-organisational and manage external stakeholders. 
• Able to manage other experts and get the best from them drawing from an interdisciplinary approach to your work.
• Enjoys leading a team, supporting development of manager skills and capabilities. 
• Understands how a theory of change drives the development of delivery and is able to apply this to new modes of operations. 
• Strong logical reasoning, able to break processes into logical steps and understands how to maintain excellent data management practices. 
• A confident user of databases able to utilise the data it holds to generate insights for the SMT. Champion good data governance in collaboration with the Data Manager. 
• Experience of Salesforce CRM would be desirable but not essential. 
• Very familiar with the principles of evaluation and how to design evaluations to produce meaningful and reliable insights. This includes qualitative and quantitative activities. 
• Experience of working with external partners to evaluate work. Experience of developing pilots or start-up scale organisations would be desirable but is not essential. 
• Strong numerical skills, able to conduct diagnostic and predictive analysis of quantitative data sets. 
• Strong written communication and research skills, able to produce clear and jargon-free reports and summaries that synthesise qualitative trends. 
• Strong change management skills and experience, ensuring innovations are launched and embedded successfully. 
• Able to plan at a strategic level, factoring in external environment trends, financial limitations and scalable solutions. 
• In addition, the job holder is expected to substantially demonstrate the four competencies in our competencies framework at the ‘Head of ‘Level. 

You will be likely be more successful in this role if you have: 

• Experience working in the charity sector. 

With tariffs, geo-economics, diversity and inclusion, and climate change at the top of the global agenda, Oxford’s Department of Economics is leading research into how economics can drive better outcomes for societies and the planet. Among many areas of inquiry, our world-class economists are shaping understanding of the economic impacts and opportunities of artificial intelligence, the shifting dynamics of global trade and power, the benefits of inclusive growth, and the urgent need for sustainable responses to the climate crisis.

To realise the full potential of this work, we are seeking an exceptional fundraising professional to join us in building transformative philanthropic partnerships. This is a unique opportunity to make a direct impact on issues that affect billions worldwide by supporting groundbreaking research and expanding opportunities for the next generation of economic leaders.

The Department of Economics is one of the largest groups of academic economists in the world and regularly ranks as the UK’s top economics department. Our mission is to recruit and support the very best academics and ensure that an Oxford education in economics is accessible to outstanding students from around the globe, regardless of financial means. Philanthropy and corporate partnerships are central to this ambition, and over the next five years we aim to endow key academic posts, expand graduate scholarships, and launch innovative programmes of research.

As the department’s first dedicated major gifts professional, you will establish a pioneering programme of philanthropic giving that powers these ambitious goals. Working closely with Economics’ leadership and as part of Oxford’s highly successful Social Sciences Development team, you will help shape a brighter future.

About you

You will be a collaborative fundraiser with an expertise in major gifts and a strong track record of securing complex philanthropic support. Thriving in a fast-paced, target-driven environment, you will be both a strategic thinker and a skilled operator—communicative, adaptable, and naturally adept at building strong, lasting relationships. Your ability to establish credibility and foster trust across a wide range of internal and external stakeholders will be key to your success. Experience in higher education and/or knowledge of Economics is desirable.  Above all, you will share Oxford’s mission and be driven to create meaningful impact through strategic philanthropic partnerships.

What We Offer

Your happiness and wellbeing at work matters to us, so we offer a range of family friendly and financial benefits including:

· Flexible hybrid working

· An excellent contributory pension scheme

· 38 days annual leave

· Membership to CASE

· Training and development opportunities

· A comprehensive range of childcare services

· Family leave schemes

· Cycle loan scheme

· Membership to a variety of social and sports clubs

· Discounted bus travel and Season Ticket travel loan

You could be helping to deliver philanthropic support that advances world-leading economic research and policy, shaping solutions to global challenges and improving lives around the world.

Visa sponsorship would be available for international candidates.

Application Process 

To apply, please upload: 

· A covering letter/supporting statement 

· Your CV 

· The details of two referees 

Closing date for applications is 20th October 2025.

Interviews will take place week commencing 3 November 2025

The University of Oxford Development and Alumni Engagement Office is committed to having a team that is made up of diverse skills and experiences, and reflects the community that we serve. We encourage applicants from all sectors of the community and are especially keen to encourage candidates from under-represented groups to apply.