Lead Economist

UK Research and Innovation; Swindon; Hybrid; GBP 40,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading research organization in the UK seeks an experienced professional to lead the Economic Appraisal team within their Strategic Analysis department. This role involves managing a team, conducting high-profile business case analyses, and engaging with stakeholders across the government and research sectors. The successful candidate will have a degree in Economics, proven analytical skills, and proficiency in tools like Excel and R. A collaborative work environment with options for flexible working and a robust benefits package is offered.

Benefits

Defined benefit pension scheme

30 days annual leave plus public holidays

Employee discounts on leisure activities

Flexible working options

Employee assistance programme

Qualifications

• Degree in Economics or equivalent work experience required.
• Highly proficient in Excel for analysis.
• Experience with Green Book-compliant value for money analysis required.

Responsibilities

• Manage team resources for business cases and evaluations.
• Lead economic analysis for high-profile business cases.
• Support evaluation projects with economic components.
• Contribute to spending review bids with evidence-based insights.
• Develop a stakeholder community in the R&I sector.

Skills

Analytical skills (Excel proficiency)

Economics degree or equivalent experience

Public sector Green Book value for money analysis

Project management

Leadership in analytics

Applied econometrics

Experience in R, Python, or SQL

Education

Degree in Economics

Tools

Excel

R

Python

SQL

Job description

This is an exciting opportunity to join a multi‑disciplinary analytical team that works on areas at the heart of the UK research and innovation (R&I) system. Our work plays a key role in delivering the government's ambition to strengthen the UK’s position as a global science and technology superpower set out in the UK Science and Technology Framework. The role sits within the Strategic Analysis team (within a wider Analysis team and the Investment Planning and Strategy directorate), which has a wide remit including analysis of the R&I system, Economic Appraisal, Data Science, and analysis for Investment Strategy. The successful candidate will lead the organisation’s Economic Appraisal team, reporting to the Head of Strategic Analysis. The successful applicant will work across directorate and organisational priorities, pivoting to new work areas as business needs evolve. We are a team committed to diversity and inclusion and welcome applications from anyone with the skills required. The team works across the London and Swindon offices. A good proportion of the work can be done from home and there will be opportunities to visit colleagues in the London and Swindon offices and other UKRI sites. We are committed to supporting each other’s personal and professional development and will support your learning and development ambitions in this role.

Key responsibilities

• Managing the resourcing of your team to effectively support the development of business cases and evaluations across UKRI. This requires strict prioritisation and excellent stakeholder communication skills, as the demand for your team's expertise often outstrips supply.
• Leading on the economic cases within UKRI’s most high‑profile business cases, which often get tabled at DSIT’s Investment Committee and considered through HM Treasury’s Treasury Approvals Process. This usually requires ex‑ante value for money analysis with a quantitative component developed in Excel.
• Supporting evaluation, policy, and science teams in the delivery of the economic component of their evaluation projects. This includes reviewing invitation to tender documents, bids, and early drafts.
• Play a leading role in the Analysis team’s input into UKRI’s spending review bid. This requires having an excellent understanding of the evidence base that UKRI is able to deploy in this context.
• Developing a stakeholder community across government and within the R&I sector, sharing approaches for ex‑ante economic appraisal of different R&I benefits, as well as sharing knowledge on robust methodologies and analyses for the evaluation of R&I investments.
• Leading on the production and delivery of guidance and training material related to the development of economic cases, being able to tailor these materials to both analytical and non‑analytical audiences.
• Conceptualising and leading on key ex‑ante and ex‑post economic appraisal projects outside of the realm of business cases and evaluations. This would typically require modelling in Excel or R.
• You will be a key figure within UKRI’s economist community, and as such, you will be responsible for mentoring and developing junior economists across the organisation.

Qualifications and experience

• Degree in Economics (with at least 50 % of course modules in Economics) or equivalent work experience. (S)
• Analytical skills and experience: Highly proficient in Excel. (S)
• Analytical skills and experience: Experience carrying out public sector Green Book‑compliant value for money analysis. (S&I)
• Making effective decisions: The ability to manage a portfolio of projects, understanding where your team can have the most impact. (S&I)
• Leadership: Being an analytical leader and an expert in your domain. (S&I)
• Knowledge of and experience in applied econometrics. (S)
• Familiarity with the Magenta Book and experience in monitoring and evaluation, including identifying the strategic objectives and benefits of a project, and constructing a theory of change or logic model to link inputs to impacts. (S)
• Familiarity with the Aqua Book and knowledge of quality assurance best practices. (S)
• Experience coding in one or more of R, Python or SQL. (S)
• Experience applying economics to science, research and innovation would be desirable, but it is not a requirement. (S&I)
• Examples from previous experience that demonstrate your aptitude in the following two behaviours: 2. Making effective decisions. 3. Leadership. For guidance on Civil Service Behaviours, please see Success Profiles: Civil Service Behaviours (Grade 7 and Grade 6 or equivalent grade).

Benefits and Development

• An outstanding defined benefit pension scheme.
• 30 days’ annual leave in addition to 10.5 public and privilege days. (full time equivalent)
• Employee discounts and offers on retail and leisure activities.
• Employee assistance programme, providing confidential help and advice.
• Flexible working options.
• Plus many more benefits and wellbeing initiatives that enable our employees to have a great work life balance!

UKRI is an organisation that brings together the seven disciplinary research councils, Research England and Innovate UK. Together, we build an independent organisation with a strong voice and vision ensuring the UK maintains its world‑leading position in research, innovation. Supporting some of the world’s most exciting and challenging research projects, we develop and operate some of the most remarkable scientific facilities in the world. We are pushing the frontiers of human knowledge through fundamental research and delivering benefits for UK society and the economy through world‑class research, skills and business‑led innovation. UKRI seeks to ensure it creates and maintains a system of openness, fairness and inclusion – a collaborative, trusted environment, which is attractive and accessible to everyone who is interested in developing their career with us.

The role holder will be required to have the appropriate level of security screening/vetting required for the role. UKRI reserves the right to run or re‑run security clearance as required during the course of employment.

In the event that we receive a high number of applications, we will shortlist based on the lead competency – analytical skills. You should consider using the STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) for each of the skills and behaviours, including analytical skills.

We recognise and value our employees as individuals and aim to provide a favourable pay and rewards package. We are committed to supporting employees’ development and promote a culture of continuous learning!

A list of benefits below: