Senior Economist

Senior Economist
£55,400 – £61,500 pa
Permanent
Full time (flexible working options available)
London, UK preferred (however, potential to be based outside the UK in a country with an SCI or SC Member office)

We are looking for a Senior Economist to join our Global Programmes Division to provide strategic leadership to Save the Children in economics analysis and economic approaches in the field of programme value for money and support the wider movement to apply rigorous and proportionate methods for the appraisal, assessment and management of value for money in our programmes and advocacy work.

About Us

Save the Children UK believes every child deserves a future. In the UK and around the world, we work every day to give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. When crisis strikes, and children are most vulnerable, we are always among the first to respond and the last to leave. We ensure children’s unique needs are met and their voices are heard. We deliver lasting results for millions of children, including those hardest to reach.

About the Team/Department

The Programme Quality and Impact (PQI) department works to ensure we deliver high-quality, evidence-informed programmes and that we develop technical approaches to achieve positive sector-wide change for children. We work with partners and across the Save the Children movement to provide technical support to programme design and implementation, partnership development and in developing quality standards, technical approaches, and tools.

About the role

As a Senior Economist, you will hold responsibility for providing leadership in economics analysis and economic approaches to drive impact in support of Save the Children UK’s strategy.

You will be the main interface between Save the Children UK Global Programmes Department and the Economic Evaluation Team in Save the Children International. You will represent the organisation with external experts and will lead on engagement with technical partners.

You will be a recognised expert in your field, providing leadership on complex assignments and projects, and providing technical guidance to others in resolving complex issues related to economic analysis and evaluation. You will also play an important role in sharing your expertise, building the capacity of others, and providing valued guidance to colleagues.

In this role, you will:

Generation of Value for Money Evidence

• Work with colleagues on the development of new proposals/bids, providing technical advice and support from an economic evaluation perspective, both in ensuring existing evidence is incorporated, and – where appropriate – in including economic analysis in new programmes.
• Conduct different types of economic evaluations and Value for Money (VFM) analysis, including Cost Efficiency and Effectiveness analyses, leading on every stage, from design to data collection, analysis and write up. Most of the analysis will be based on Save the Children (and partners) own accounting data and relate to specific projects or programmes This will include using the Interagency Dioptra Tool https://www.dioptratool.org/
• Ensure that economic evaluations conducted by others (g. consultants, partners) are effectively and efficiently managed.
• Provide leadership (g., in working groups) on economic evaluation and Value for Money within the Save the Children UK and the wider sector.
• Drive Value for Money in Save the Children UK’s programmes and partnerships, reflecting your high-level responsibilities, and articulate a compelling vision to inspire others to achieve our ambitious goals for children.

Use of Value for Money Evidence

• Drive the uptake of relevant internal and external VfM evidence and tailored products to informSave the Children UK strategic goals and programmes programming and thought
• Communicate the data, evidence and learning from economic analysis across the Global Programmes Department to support new business development, quality programming and decision-making.
• Translate and present data to promote its use for programme, policy and advocacy, decision-making
• With SCI Economic Evaluation, Knowledge Management and with SCUK Policy and Advocacy teams, promote communication of research findings to policymakers, communities, service providers, partners and the general public
• Collaborate with colleagues to build and maintain strategic partnerships in economic evaluation, including actively seeking out and leading on engagement with high-impact partnerships.
• Deepen and expand relationships with key high-level external stakeholders and build strong working relationships with technical experts, partners and advocacy targets for technical exchange and policy and practice influence on Value for Money.
• Provide and facilitate formal and informal support and capacity building to technical colleagues, including partners, for example through mentoring, coaching, training, or guidance.
• Drive Value for Money thinking and practice to expand the knowledge base, promote a learning culture and identify new / enhanced approaches to amplify impact.

About you

To be successful, it is important that you have:

• Experience conducting Value for Money analysis, including Cost Efficiency and Effectiveness analyses.
• Direct experience of conducting research and/ or carrying out evaluations; and an understanding of a range of qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, ideally in international development programmes
• Experience in programme monitoring, ideally in international development or humanitarian settings
• Strong understanding and demonstrable experience applying good project management practices (including project governance, resource management, activity scheduling)
• Experience in the development of funding bids/ proposals to donors
• Computer literate, including comfort with using some relevant analysis software (g. Python, STATA, SPSS, R)
• Experience of contracting and managing consultants
• Degree in Economics, Statistics or equivalent
• Ideally a Knowledge of FCDO’s Value for Money Framework
• Ability and willingness to travel a minimum of three weeks per year

To learn more about the position, please review the Job Description in the attached Documents.

What we offer you:

Working for a charity provides one of the best benefits there is – a sense of purpose and reward for helping others. However, we understand the importance of giving back to our employees to ensure a happy and healthy working environment and work/life balance.

• We focus on flexibility, inclusion, collaboration, health and wellbeing both in and outside of work.
• We provide a wide range of benefits which will reward your hard work, motivate you, and inspire you to work to improve the lives of children every day. You can read more about our benefits here.

Closing Date: 26/2/24

Please note:

To avoid disappointment, you are advised to submit your application as soon as possible as we reserve the right to close the vacancy early if a high volume of applications are received. This is to ensure that we can manage application levels whilst maintaining a positive candidate experience. Unfortunately once a vacancy has closed, we are unable to consider further applications.

Ways of Working:

Remote First – The majority of our roles can be performed remotely, however you may work from the office as often as you wish. Whilst you will be predominantly working from home, we may at times require you to come to your contracted office (up to 2-4 days per month or 6-8 days per quarter). Note: This will be agreed with your Line Manager and team. This is intended to be time spent on collaborating with colleagues and relationship building.

On-site – There are certain roles that cannot be performed remotely and so your role will be based in an office location and you may occasionally be able to work from home.

Flexible Working – We are happy to discuss flexible working options at interview**.**

Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion:

Save the Children UK believes in a world that is fair, inclusive and equitable where all children have the opportunity to change their world. We apply this to our workforce and we are committed to developing and supporting a diverse, equitable, and inclusive organisation where all employees have a sense of belonging and feel that they can be “Free to Be Me”. We are not looking for just one type of person – we want to recruit people who can add fresh perspectives, innovative ideas or challenge that disrupts the risk of group think.

We are especially interested in people whose childhood experiences – of life on a low income, of migration, of being in a racialised community, of the care system, of being LGBT+ or in an LGBT+ family or living with (or with someone with) a disability – help us to see things we might otherwise miss. Whatever your story is we want to hear it because we know that different voices, ideas, perspectives and knowledge, working together will enable us to better the lives of children around the world. This is the reason why we are all here.