Evidence Engagement Manager /Rheolwr Ymgysylltu â Thystiolaeth

Evidence Engagement Manager - 12-month FTC (Maternity Cover)

At The National Lottery Community Fund we are committed to making a bigger difference. Our 2030 strategy 'It starts with community' puts impact at the heart of what we do. Our Evidence and Impact Strategy explains how we will do this by transforming how evidence is used across the organisation; helping us better understand community needs, make better funding decisions, and demonstrate the difference National Lottery funding makes across the UK.

We are recruiting an Evidence Engagement Manager to join our Evidence Services: Northern Ireland, Scotland & Wales Team as an embedded manager in Wales. This is an important role in delivering our Evidence and Impact ambitions. You will act as the link between Wales Portfolio and the wider Evidence and Impact team, improving how evidence is used across the funding cycle and helping colleagues make confident, evidence-based decisions.

Working closely with portfolio teams to understand their priorities, challenges and decision-making needs, you will identify where evidence can add value. This could include evidence to understand community needs and support assessment of applications, to shaping major funding programmes, supporting monitoring and evaluation practices and supporting decisions at leadership and committee level.

You will translate user needs into clear evidence requirements, commissioning or coordinating the development of products within Evidence Services, across the Evidence and Impact team or externally. Products can include:

• Data analysis and insight reporting
• Interactive dashboards
• Literature reviews and evidence syntheses
• Theories of Change
• Systems mapping

You will help build evidence capability across the Fund, helping colleagues access and use evidence more independently through self-service tools, guidance, support and development. You will lead roll out of products, ensuring they meet user needs, are adopted effectively and continue to improve through feedback and review.

You will have strong experience of project management and delivery across the evidence product lifecycle from understanding user needs and specifying products, through managing development and delivery against requirements to rollout, feedback and review.

This role requires a strong understanding of how evidence can be applied in real-world decision making, alongside excellent stakeholder engagement skills, supported by a breadth of evidence and analysis knowledge.

This role will include matrix and task management of other staff from across Evidence and Impact, and may include the direct line management of an evidence engagement officer.

We're looking for someone passionate about the pragmatic use of evidence to improve decisions and maximise impact. Above all, you'll be motivated by helping The National Lottery Community Fund make the greatest possible difference to communities across the UK.

Interview Date: w/c 30th November

Format: Virtual (Microsoft Teams)

Location:Cardiff

We have a hybrid approach to working. Work pattern will be agreed with the successful candidate. There will be some travel required within the UK. As this role serves the Wales Portfolio, it will ideally be based in our Cardiff Office.

If you would like an informal conversation about the role specifically, please contact the recruitment team.

Any questions about the recruitment process, please email the recruitment team.

How to apply:

Upload your CV in word format and write a supporting statement (1000 words) with the following criteria, we will use this to score your application.

Essential criteria

• Experience of project management and delivery across the evidence product lifecycle from understanding user needs and specifying products, through managing development and delivery against requirements to rollout, feedback and review.
• A professional qualification, bachelor's degree or equivalent level of experience in a relevant discipline such as social research, public policy or economics
• Experience of applying evidence into decision making across a strategy, policy or funding life cycle, working with non-analysts.
• Knowledge of a breadth of evidence and analysis approaches, including collection and use of quantitative and qualitative data, evidence review and synthesis across sources, Theory of Change, monitoring and evaluation.
• Experience of working with multiple stakeholders often with competing priorities and across different disciplines and professional roles, to gain agreement.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, ability to effectively communicate with different audiences, including compelling communication of insight, sharing complex information in an engaging way.

Desirable criteria

• Knowledge of the voluntary and community sector and the funding landscape, and a passion for working in this area.
• Strong facilitation skills and the ability to drive user engagement in use of evidence and development of evidence products.

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

Communities in the UK come in all shapes and sizes. National Lottery funding is for everyone - therefore, we are committed to equity, diversity and inclusion and we work hard to ensure our funding reaches where it is needed.

We also believe our people should represent the communities, organisations and individuals we work with. That's why The National Lottery Community Fund is committed to being an inclusive employer and a great place to work. We recognise and celebrate the fact that our people come from diverse backgrounds. We positively welcome applications from people from ethnic minority backgrounds, people with disabilities or longstanding health conditions, people who are LGBTQ+, and people from different socio-economic and educational backgrounds, as well as people of all ages.

As a Disability Confident Employer, we take a proactive approach in making reasonable adjustments, if needed, throughout the recruitment process and during employment. (This can be related to a physical and mental health condition.)