Head of Insight

The Home Office works to build a safe, fair and prosperous UK. We achieve this through our work on counter-terrorism, policing, crime, drugs policy, immigration and passports.

The Communications Directorate is a multi-disciplinary team delivering the Home Offices communications strategy. We are insight-led and results-driven, and our marketing campaigns support strategic objectives using a wide range of channels. We seek to provide high quality media, rebuttal and social media services. Our Internal Communications team supports employee engagement and business transformation.

As a member of the Communications Directorate, youll be supporting our mission to deliver outstanding public services that work for everyone.

You will join a multi-disciplinary team with colleagues based across the UK, working together to deliver the Home Offices communications strategy.

We believe a positive, open and supportive culture is crucial to help everyone deliver their best work. We value diversity and provide an inclusive and encouraging environment for our team members. We nurture our talent and offer a broad range of learning and development opportunities to help you fulfil your potential.

The Insight Team sits at the centre of the Home Office Communications Directorate. This specialist team exists to ensure that our work is audience-led and effectively evaluated. This includes acting as trusted insight advisers to communications colleagues, delivering high quality research and evaluation studies, and working closely with agency partners.

The successful candidate will be responsible for research and evaluation across a range of policy areas, with a focus on immigration and borders, to inform and evaluate wide-ranging communications activity. They will work with the insight team and communications colleagues to set outcomes and KPIs and make sure that communications activity is evidence-based and can demonstrate its value. They will help lead the insight team and have line management responsibilities. The role will be fully supported but offers a significant amount of autonomy and responsibility.

Successful applicants will be highly motivated, adaptable, innovative, dependable and collaborative, and prepared to work on some of the most challenging, high profile and interesting issues in government.

You should have the attitude, knowledge and gravitas to:

• Hold your own in conversations with communications professionals, senior officials, special advisers, ministers, and senior professionals working in research agencies.
• Lead our research agency partners to ensure successful delivery of work against our research contracts, ensuring high standards are met and value is demonstrated.
• Inspire those you manage to deliver their best work and develop their careers.
• Represent the Communications Directorate and insight team positively within a diverse partner network.
• Demonstrate an interest in communications. While successful candidates do not need to be communications specialists, you must have at least a basic understanding of the role for communications in delivering an organisations objectives and experience in delivering research to inform and evaluate communications.

Responsibilities

No day will be the same, but the role demands someone who can:

• Be fully embedded in the directorates strategic conversations, ensuring that insight and robust understanding of our diverse audiences sit firmly at the heart of our communications strategies.
• Be the custodian of the Directorates audience intelligence, holding what we know about our audiences and make sure that knowledge is accessible and shared across the Directorate (and the Department).
• Be a strong voice and positive advocate for audience insight, championing its use in driving effective communication.
• Work with colleagues to identify opportunities for generating new insight, advising teams on best value research solutions.
• Lead the design and delivery of insight and evaluation projects and programmes, including projects run in-house and those delivered by our agency partners, ensuring that all work is carried out to a high standard and offers value for money to the Directorate and the Department.
• Manage our contracts with external research agencies, ensuring the Directorate receives a high-quality service and value for money.
• Be responsible for performance reporting, working alongside colleagues to ensure that all the directorates activities have reported KPIs and outcomes.
• Be an active member of the Directorates wider SMT, contributing to the culture and modelling the values of the directorate.
• Effective line management leadership of team.

Working Pattern

Due to the business requirements of this role, it is only available on a full-time basis.

Travel

If not London-based, the role holder will be expected to travel, on occasion, to 2 Marsham Street e.g. for key meetings with Special Advisors or for major debriefs.

Essential Criteria

Successful candidates must have a strong and demonstrable track record of:

• Working as a senior insight/research professional, with excellent technical knowledge and skills across both qualitative and quantitative methods.
• Leading the design and delivery of high-quality research and evaluation studies using relevant methodologies and models (such as secondary methods including desk research and analysis of existing data; primary methods including qualitative and quantitative techniques; applying behaviour change frameworks to research design and results) and often working to challenging timescales.
• Translating research findings into strategic insights to inform and influence decision-making, as well as identifying insight-led, actionable recommendations and solutions.
• Effectively communicating research and evaluation insight using excellent verbal, written and visual skills (including to non-insight and/or non-communications colleagues).
• Leading others within a high-quality research/insight team (either within a research agency or client side).
• Influencing decision-makers at all levels of seniority to help embed audience insight, including not being afraid to challenge, if necessary, to achieve the right outcomes.

Desirable criteria

• Client-facing agency experience, preferably in a senior role.
• Experience applying research to behaviour change programmes.