Use your evaluation skills and research experience to help high-impact organisations working with children and young people learn, strengthen their practice and deliver better outcomes.

This is a fantastic opportunity for someone who is passionate about evidence-informed practice and motivated to support organisations that help young people thrive. You will join a small mixed-methods evaluation team within Purposeful Ventures, working closely with colleagues and our partner organisations — inspirational charities and social enterprises we partner with and fund — to support their growth and contribution to systemic change.

Much of your work will involve supporting colleagues and portfolio organisations at the early stages of programme development, helping them apply evaluation and research approaches in a practical and accessible way. You will help them develop useful theories of change, make sense of evidence and build proportionate approaches to learning and evaluation.

Working across the organisation, with an immediate focus likely to be in the maths portfolio, you will work across the full funding lifecycle – from portfolio strategy setting to due diligence through to capacity building, providing hands-on evaluation expertise to organisations and incubations. You will also contribute to developing our understanding of Purposeful Ventures’ organisational impact and how we communicate it.

You will bring a strong grounding in social research and evaluation, with particular experience in relevant quantitative research design and analysis. You will also be comfortable undertaking small-scale qualitative research or be excited to develop your skills in this area with support from colleagues.

You will be excited by using evidence as a tool for learning and improvement. Experience of working with charities, social enterprises or similar mission-driven organisations would be valuable, as would experience of research or evaluation relating to education initiatives, particularly maths attainment or the teaching workforce. Above all, you will be motivated by helping organisations learn, improve and maximise their impact, using evidence to shape better decisions and better outcomes for children and young people.

Please download the full job description on the Purposeful Ventures website

Job Description

Responsibilities and duties

Support development and implementation of evidence-informed portfolio strategies, aligned to organisational goals:

• Work with evaluation and portfolio colleagues to support the development and review of evidence-informed portfolio strategies, ensuring aims, assumptions, intended outcomes and learning priorities are clear and aligned with Purposeful Ventures’ organisational goals.

• Assist with the development and review of practical theories of change, monitoring and outcomes frameworks, selection criteria, data sources and learning processes for allocated portfolios, projects and programmes.

• Contribute to ensuring monitoring, evaluation and learning approaches are proportionate to the scale, maturity, priority, nature and resourcing of the work.

• Develop evaluation recommendations, tools, templates and written outputs, with appropriate support and quality assurance, that help colleagues make decisions, support partner organisations and track progress.

• Contribute to Purposeful Ventures’ organisational impact and internal monitoring work where relevant, helping connect organisational goals, portfolio learning and impact reporting.

Contribute evaluation expertise to organisation selection and due diligence, assessment and onboarding:

• Contribute to the assessment and selection of prospective portfolio organisations, programmes and incubations, using agreed criteria and evaluation judgement to assess programme design, theory of change, evidence, monitoring arrangements, evaluation readiness, opportunities and risks.

• Support the design of proportionate monitoring, evaluation and learning expectations for portfolio organisations, programmes or incubations, within the agreed portfolio approach and aligned with portfolio aims and organisational goals.

Provide tailored monitoring, evaluation and learning support to portfolio organisations and incubations:

• Contribute to the design and delivery of structured monitoring, evaluation and learning support and advice for selected partner organisations and incubations with more substantial evaluation needs.

• Support organisations to develop and strengthen theories of change, monitoring frameworks, outcome indicators and data collection tools, including survey-based and routine monitoring data, and use quantitative analysis to generate actionable learning and evidence, with guidance and support from more senior evaluation colleagues.

• Support organisations to plan out their evaluation and evidence building journey and next steps in a way that is proportionate to their stage and capacity.

• Help organisations improve data quality, timely reporting and learning through practical tools, guidance, templates and proportionate quality assurance.

• Provide advice and support to organisations to use findings to improve programme design, delivery, learning and communication of impact.

• Where appropriate, support portfolio organisations and incubations to commission, manage and use external evaluation or specialist research expertise.

Manage allocated evaluation projects, discrete parts of projects or workstreams, with senior support:

• Manage agreed evaluation projects and workstreams, with support and quality assurance from senior evaluation colleagues.

• Work with colleagues to scope evaluation questions, methods, data requirements, timelines, risks, budgets, outputs and audiences for allocated projects.

• Develop and review research or evaluation approaches, identifying and advising on improvements, clarifications, feasibility issues, limitations and implications for interpretation, in consultation with evaluation colleagues.

• Design and conduct data collection, analysis and reporting for in-house research and evaluation projects.

• Co-ordinate day to day delivery of designated projects to ensure delivery of high quality and timely reports which effectively communicate findings to relevant audiences (e.g. practitioners, academics, policymakers and the general public).

The job description is subject to change and the postholder may be required to undertake tasks not specifically referred to above. Such duties, however, will fall within the scope of the job description.

Who we are looking for

Key requirements

Essential

• Commitment to Purposeful Ventures’ mission and values, with a passion for transforming the life chances of children and young people through entrepreneurship and innovation in education and related fields.

• Demonstrable track record of taking ownership of commitments and working hard to succeed.

• Sound knowledge and experience of applied social research, monitoring, evaluation and learning, with deeper expertise in quantitative research design and analysis, alongside broader knowledge of qualitative approaches. This should include experience developing or reviewing theories of change, monitoring plans, outcome indicators, surveys and other data collection tools; designing proportionate process and impact evaluations; analysing monitoring and survey data; and producing clear reports or learning outputs.

• Experience designing or contributing to proportionate monitoring and evaluation approaches for programmes, projects or organisations at different stages of development.

• Experience and proven success in relevant evaluation roles in/or with the not-for-profit and/or social enterprise sectors.

• Experience working with stakeholders to understand programme theory, evidence needs and learning priorities, and contributing to evaluation activity that informs programme and/or policy development, delivery or learning.

• Right to work in the UK.

Desirable

• Experience working with funders, philanthropists, practice and policy audiences.

• Experience contributing to published research, reports or learning outputs.

• Experience commissioning and managing research or evaluation projects.

• Experience of research or evaluation relating to improving maths attainment, including via teaching-workforce initiatives.

Skills

The successful candidate will demonstrate:

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to present complex information clearly.

• Strong interpersonal and influencing skills with the ability to gain credibility with internal and external stakeholders, including colleagues, portfolio organisations, charity executives and research or evaluation partners.

• Strong project management skills with the ability to work across multiple, varied projects, coordinate contributors, manage timelines and support delivery of agreed outcomes.

• A proactive approach with the ability to work independently, solve problems and seek input where needed.

• Flexibility and strong organisational skills, with the ability to prioritise work to meet deadlines.

• Being comfortable working with a degree of ambiguity, creating processes and ways forwards where they might not yet exist and able to respond to changing priorities as Purposeful continues to develop.