PLEASE DO NOT APPLY THROUGH INDEED - SEE OUR WEBSITE:
https://healthinnovationsouthwest.com/about-us/careers/
Contract type:
Part time / full time (minimum 22.5 hours / week)
At least one permanent with an option for a further permanent or Fixed Term
Contract (with potential to extend after 12 months)
At Health Innovation South West, you’ll join a highly skilled, welcoming team of evaluation specialists who are passionate about turning evidence into impact. As an Evaluation Researcher, you’ll deepen your mixed‑methods expertise while contributing to projects that influence how innovation is designed, tested and scaled across the region. You’ll be supported, stretched, and trusted to bring your curiosity, rigour and creativity to a diverse portfolio of work.
About the Role Our Evaluation and Learning team delivers bespoke evaluation and learning projects that span local pilots, regional programmes and national initiatives. As part of this team, you’ll work in a fast‑paced, applied environment where innovation is happening in real time — and your insights help shape what happens next.
You’ll collaborate with cutting‑edge innovators, health and care leaders, frontline teams and system partners to understand what works, why it works, and how it can be improved or scaled. Using both qualitative and quantitative approaches, you’ll design and deliver evaluations that illuminate impact, uncover learning, and support decision‑making.
This role gives you the chance to:
- Test new ideas in real‑world settings
- Build evaluation approaches tailored to complex contexts
- See your findings directly influence service improvement
- Contribute to the spread of promising innovations across the South West and beyond
It’s a role for someone who thrives on variety, values evidence, and wants their work to make a tangible difference.
Role profile:
The Evaluation and Learning team bring together a range of specialists with varied and complimentary skillsets. We are keen to provide the opportunity for people to join us to use their existing quantitative and qualitative skillets and to further develop and use these skills to support health innovation work.
Our Evaluation Researchers work across a portfolio of projects committed to developing, testing and evaluating new innovations, interventions or approaches. We work with innovators and health and care professionals to help them shape and understand complex problems. We test and evaluate solutions using robust methods, and work alongside those who commission, manage or deliver services to provide rapid, actionable insights that inform improvements and understanding of impact. The findings of our evaluations are often used to understand and advise on potential for scaling and rolling out promising new solutions and approaches more widely.
As part of our approach to evaluation, we aim to ensure that our work is practical, embedded and applied, to enable services and organisations to use and apply evidence and evaluation in the design and assessment of their services.
The Evaluation Researcher role is one where you will be working in a fast-paced and applied context using evaluation to test and understand innovative approaches. Often as part of the work you will be working alongside those overseeing or delivering services and blending your skills as an evaluator alongside those working in the service delivery field, to help those delivering a service or new approach to understand their impact.
Key success factors
- Mixed methods training, skills and experience.
- Experience of, or willingness to learn, undertaking applied evaluations within real world settings,
- Ability to work in a fast-paced environment across multiple projects/teams.
Responsibilities
The main purpose of the role is to support evaluation design, fieldwork, analysis and reporting. Supervised by a Head of Evaluation and Learning or an Evaluation Lead, this role will be working as part of matrix-based teams, supporting a wide range of projects across different areas of our organisation. The main duties for the role will include, but are not limited to:
- Supporting evaluation project planning and design,
- Carrying out desk research and literature reviews,
- Undertaking evaluation fieldwork, including:
o Undertaking secondary data analysis,
o Developing and running surveys/questionnaires,
o Facilitating rapid evaluation methods such as online data collection,
o Undertaking depth interviews,
o Facilitating focus group sessions,
o Collating, analysing and reporting on health economics data .
- Carrying out qualitative and quantitative data analysis. This could involve:
o Undertaking qualitative data analysis organising, coding and theming the data as relevant.
o Organising, cleaning, data matching and running statistical analyses as appropriate to the dataset under investigation.
o Undertaking analysis and reporting on health economic data.
o Analysing benefits realisation and outcomes data.
o Use of data visualisation tools such as Power BI, Tableau etc.
- Undertaking dissemination activities which include activities such as writing evaluation reports, learning pieces, and delivering presentations for clients, stakeholders and for Health Innovation South West.
- Helping our partners to understand complex problems, utilise relevant data and insights to define opportunities for innovation and improvement aligned to defined regional priorities.
- Working with partners from across the health and care system, academic, commercial and VCSE sectors to test and evaluate innovation in the real world.
- Supporting the organisation and partners to plan and deliver evaluation projects across the region.
- Finding and using opportunities to share learning inside and outside of Health Innovation South West.
- Assisting with bids and tender processes for evaluation projects to support income generation.
- Other appropriate responsibilities as, from time to time, instructed by the line manager.
- Able to demonstrate the values of the organisation in all your work as impact led, improvement focused and collaborative.
Person specification:
Experience we are looking for
- Knowledge and understanding of evaluation methodologies.
- Experience of planning and delivering evaluation projects .
- Mixed method research skills.
- Qualitative research skills which might include areas such as: developing topic guides, undertaking semi-structured interviews, coding interviews using approaches such as thematic analysis and inductive/deductive techniques, knowledge of qualitative research theory including realist evaluation, grounded theory and thematic analysis.
- Quantitative research skills which might include knowledge of basic and/or advanced statistical techniques.
- Willingness to contribute to the design of evaluation projects drawing on the above qualitative and quantitative techniques, to combine and triangulate analysis from a range of techniques, deliver evaluations using this analysis, write clear and compelling evaluation reports and communicate these to commissioners.
- Experience or willingness to work with stakeholders to develop a logic model and/or theory of change.
- Experience or a willingness to develop skills in the areas of health economics (e.g. cost benefit analysis, cost effectiveness, budget impact models)
- Excellent skills across all Microsoft applications (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, MS Teams, Office 365)
- Experience of using software such as SPSS, Power BI, NVivo, Smart Survey/MS Forms or similar.
Experience and capabilities you will develop in the role
- An interest in innovative approaches to health and social care.
- Application of evaluation methods in the health and care sector with a particular focus on innovation.
- Experience of designing and delivering evaluation projects within an organisation with strong social purpose, combined with a consultancy/commercial focus.
- An understanding and/or interest in approaches to help innovators generate the evidence required to be adopted, where appropriate, into the NHS and social care system.
- Good understanding of the health and social care sector and current policy direction.
- Excellent project management skills and experience.
Abilities and attributes
- Comfortable working in a dynamic and changing environment.
- Excellent interpersonal and negotiation skills with the ability to build mutually beneficial relationships.
- Able to deliver consistent and high quality standards.
- Ability to work independently but also as part of a team.
- Ability and willingness to travel (across the South West).
Reporting to:
Head of Evaluation and Learning or Evaluation Lead
PLEASE DO NOT APPLY THROUGH INDEED - SEE OUR WEBSITE:
https://healthinnovationsouthwest.com/about-us/careers/
Pay: £30,000.00-£40,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Casual dress
- Company pension
- Cycle to work scheme
- Discounted or free food
- Enhanced maternity leave
- Enhanced paternity leave
- Free flu jabs
- Free parking
- Health & wellbeing programme
- Life insurance
- On-site parking
- Referral programme
- Sabbatical
- Sick pay
- Work from home
Work Location: Hybrid remote in Exeter EX2 5FD
