We are looking for an outstanding economist or policy thinker to lead Onward’s economic research this year. This is a role with significant opportunities to drive our economic research and to take responsibility for one of Onward’s most exciting new programmes, closely aligned to the Government’s own interests and agenda.

You will primarily be responsible for managing Onward’s Levelling Up project, which will consider how to boost productivity and bring prosperity to parts of the country that have not always had either. This will include a serious programme of research into all aspects of regional growth, including R&D and science; investment and infrastructure; human capital; and FDI.

The ideal candidate would be a trained economist with advanced skills, experience working on regional policy in national or local government (in the UK or internationally), with deep links in both industry and academia. Crucially, you will be expected to develop answers to long standing economic problems that are both political and practical.

Within the role you will also oversee portions of quantitative research in each of our other major research programmes. This will involve conducting in-depth quantitative research and economic evaluations yourself, as well as managing analysts to build Onward’s internal capacity.

Job requirements:

• A strong track record of producing high-quality economic research in a policy or commercial setting;
• Experience producing highly-engaging written content that effectively communicates findings from economic research to a non-specialist audience;
• Experience managing and training a team of analysts to produce quantitative research, including ensuring that it is of a high standard.
• A strong understanding of British politics and the current major policy issues.

You would ideally have:

• A high level of understanding of economic theory and how that relates to policy creation (i.e. policy costings, evaluating deadweight in policy programmes, etc);
• A good level of understanding of basic econometrics and proficiency working with and coding in a statistical or economic package such as Stata or R in addition to an intermediate-to-advanced understanding of MS Excel;
• Experience building political networks and speaking to both media and political audiences