Chief Research Officer

Our client, The Centre for Transforming Access and Student Outcomes in Higher Education (TASO) is an affiliate What Works Centre, and part of the UK Government s What Works Movement. Their vision is to eliminate equality gaps in higher education (HE). Their mission is to improve lives through evidence-informed practice.

TASO was set up in 2019 and became an independent charity in April 2021. Their work focuses on the generation, synthesis and dissemination of high-quality evidence about effective practice in widening participation and student outcomes. They primarily focus on developing and disseminating causal evidence.

Role:

The Chief Research Officer will ensure the smooth and successful delivery of TASO s Research & Evaluation programme, with overall responsibility for TASO s Research and Evaluation budget. This will involve managing the staff involved in these functions to deliver TASO s research, evaluation, synthesis and evidence mobilisation activities to time and within budget.

Working closely with the Chief Executive, the postholder will help shape TASO s overall strategic direction and translate this into a clear programme of research and evaluation activity. They will lead and manage the teams responsible for research and evaluation to ensure that TASO s strategies are delivered effectively on time and within budget.

The role includes overseeing the delivery of TASO s research programmes, ensuring compliance, managing research funding rounds, and maintaining strong oversight of subcontracted work. The Chief Research Officer will also oversee the development and implementation of TASO s evaluation strategy, including the commissioning and monitoring of evaluations and the effective functioning of governance mechanisms such as the Research Sub-committee and Evaluation Advisory Panel.

Working with the Chief Executive and Head of Communications, they will ensure a strategic approach to communications, dissemination and stakeholder engagement, strengthening awareness and uptake of TASO s work across the sector. The postholder will champion the quality, accuracy and transparency of TASO publications and act as a credible and respected voice for robust service research and evaluation.

Key objectives:

• Act as overall in-house lead on all TASO research and evaluation activities, upholding methodological standards to ensure the production of high-quality casual evidence
• Plan and oversee TASO s research and evaluation programmes, including ensuring adherence to all relevant procurement, legal and ethical requirements, delivery of research funding rounds and effective management of research and evaluation partners
• Take overall responsibility for the TASO research and evaluation budget, including budget allocation, forecasting, monitoring and reporting
• Lead resourcing and budgetary planning and reporting for the research and evaluation team
• Oversee the quality, accuracy and transparency of TASO research and evaluation publications
• Oversee the running of the Research and Evaluation subcommittee of the TASO Board to ensure effective scrutiny of the Research and Evaluation programme and a clear line of support for the Board to understand our work
• Act as ambassador and leader of TASO, speaking at external events about the TASO Research and Evaluation programme
• Provide line management for team members, with overall leadership for a team of seven
• Work with the Chief Executive to develop and monitor TASO s overall strategic direction, and to translate this strategic direction into the effective operations and activities of the organisation
• Lead on work to mobilise Research and Evaluation outputs (e.g. through events, publications and stakeholder engagement) via effective liaison with the Communications team.

Candidate:

Education/qualification and training
Essential

• Undergraduate degree in relevant discipline PhD or Masters level qualification with evidence of applied research

Knowledge/skills
Essential

• Overseeing and managing research projects, including scoping, planning, delivering and reporting, and quality-assurance
• Confident and clear written and verbal communication, and the ability to review and edit others work in line with organisational style
• Considering and synthesising complex information into formats that are useful to a wide range of stakeholders, including senior managers, practitioners and the lay public.

Desirable

• Budget planning and monitoring
• Coordinating and influencing diverse stakeholders to deliver strategic. priorities, including building positive relationships and convening forums where stakeholders can be briefed and issues surfaced.
• Understanding of widening participation and/or student success agendas.

Experience
Essential

• Designing and implementing rigorous quantitative impact evaluations, including randomised controlled trials, difference in differences, regression discontinuity, and propensity score matching, particularly applied to policymaking
• Applying academic research to real-world problems
• Line and project management of staff with a range of development needs, including developmental coaching and performance management
• Managing multiple projects and competing demands.

Desirable

• Commissioning and overseeing external research providers
• Developing and delivering capability-building presentations and workshops for professional audiences.

Personal characteristics/other requirements
Essential

• Committed to evidence-led decision-making
• Determined, resilient and optimistic approach to work
• Able to advocate for robust evaluation and build enthusiasm and capacity in non-expert collaborators.

Apply:

Please review the Job Pack for full details.

To apply, please send of a copy of your CV together with a separate personal statement (maximum 2 sides of A4) outlining why you re interested in the role and how you meet the person specification, to Tim Hamilton-West at Whiton Maynard, via the link below.

Please note that you must already have the right to work in UK to apply for this role.

Closing date: Monday 13 April (1pm)

As specialist recruiters we are committed to building inclusive and diverse organisations, and welcome applications from all sections of the community.