Director of Insight and Evidence in London/Hybrid - National Employment Savings Trust (NEST)

London/Hybrid

circa 110,000 dependent on experience

Permanent

Not Specified

37.5 Working Hours - (Flexible)

20 Nov 2026

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Director of Insight and Evidence

*Please note we only accept online applications.*

Role Overview

The closing date for this role is Friday 20th November

What if your research could do more than explain a problem and actually help change the system behind it? As Director of Insight and Evidence at the Centre for Inclusive Money, you’ll shape how we understand the financial lives of low and moderate-income households and importantly, turn that understanding into action.

You will play a key role in the leadership of Inclusive Money, with collective responsibility for the strategy, success and sustainability of the Centre. With accountability for our research programme, you will ensure that Inclusive Money is an evidence-led organisation, leading a talented multidisciplinary research team and providing the intellectual leadership that connects complex evidence to a clear story about what works, why it matters and what should happen next. We’re looking for an inclusive, curious leader who can bring clarity to complexity, challenge thinking and inspire experts around them.

You don’t need to be the deepest technical specialist in every research discipline. What matters is your ability to lead great research, see the bigger picture and make sure evidence ultimately translates into meaningful change.

The minimum skills criteria for this role are:

Organisational leadership: Significant leadership experience in a mission-led, research, policy, innovation or impact-focused organisation, contributing beyond your own functional specialism to organisational strategy, culture and performance.
Intellectual and strategic leadership: An exceptional ability to make sense of complex evidence, identify what matters, connect insights across different sources and translate them into strategic implications and priorities.
Evidence and insight development: Substantial experience leading a complex programme of research, evidence or insight, with sufficient breadth of research understanding to set direction, ask the right questions and provide credible challenge to technical specialists.
Influence and communication: A strong record of turning complex evidence into clear, compelling propositions capable of influencing senior decision-makers in policy, industry or practice.
Leadership of expert teams: A track record of leading, motivating and developing high-performing multidisciplinary teams, including people with deeper technical expertise than your own.
Impact orientation: Demonstrable experience using evidence to contribute to changes in policy, practice, markets, products or services, rather than seeing publication as the end point of research.
Partnership working: Strong experience of building senior external relationships and delivering through partnerships across organisational or sector boundaries. Understanding of and the ability to work with commercial organisations to design and deliver public benefit projects and outcomes
Judgement and assurance: The judgement to maintain appropriate standards of research quality, ethics and governance while balancing rigour, pace, cost, opportunity and impact.

Don't worry if you think you don't have all the key skills, it might be worth taking the few minutes to apply as we're good at spotting potential. At Nest, you’ll have access to a range of learning opportunities to learn, grow and build the skills you need to be successful in your role and career.

Please download a full job description to find a full scope, deliverables, experience and personal attributes required for this role.

Flexible and agile working

Everyone's personal situation is different.

To make the most out of hybrid working, we've introduced different ways of working, which include (subject to role requirements):

hybrid of office (Canary Wharf, London) and home working (there will be an expectation to attend the office, once - twice a week, or more, as required)
reduce or vary working hours
reduce or vary the days worked
work compressed hours
job share

Click here to see the benefits we offer at Nest.

For more information about our recruitment process click here

Directorate/Department Overview

The Centre for Inclusive Money at Nest is a public benefit research and innovation centre. Our mission is to find what really works in supporting low- and moderate-income households to be financially secure, both today and into retirement, and to drive transformational change in the system.

We build and amplify deep, rigorous insight into the lived experience of low- and moderate-income households, seeking to better understand how people actually earn, spend, save, cope with the unexpected, and invest for the future.

We develop innovative solutions grounded in that understanding. We test them in the real world. We gather robust, rounded evidence about what genuinely makes a difference. And throughout, we work with the people who have the power to act – industry, employers and government – to turn that evidence into lasting change; informing decisions and catalysing the adoption of what works at scale. We work inclusively and collaboratively across boundaries and silos, because we know no single organisation can deliver this kind of change alone.

We are building towards a fairer and more inclusive system of joined-up products and services that meets people where they are, supports their diverse needs and makes it easier for them to achieve good outcomes. Getting this right and improving household financial security can unlock greater individual wellbeing, social participation and economic growth.

Organisational Overview

The Centre for Inclusive Money was founded by Nest, the workplace pension provider built to give everyday workers somewhere good to save – already supporting more than 14 million people to plan for the future. We work with a wide range of organisations to explore, test and scale new ideas in the real world.

For more information visit www.inclusivemoney.org.uk.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Everyone is welcome to apply for our roles and we particularly encourage applications from Black, Asian and minority ethnicity, LGBTQ+, and disabled candidates.

Everyone is welcome to apply for our roles, and we are determined to ensure that no applicant or employee receives less favourable treatment because of their age, disability, gender identity, marital status, national origin, pregnancy or caring responsibilities, race, religion/belief, sex, sexual orientation or socio economic background.

We also recognise the importance of diversity of thought and other forms of neurocognitive variation.

Nest is a Disability Confident Leader, which is the highest level of the Disability Confident Scheme. If you have a disability, please declare that you’re applying through the scheme.

We aim to offer an interview to those applicants who apply through the Disability Confident Scheme and best meet the minimum criteria. However, there may be some circumstances where this is not possible due to the volume of applications.

Please note that this advert may close early if we receive a sufficient number of satisfactory applications.

If you have any difficulty in sending your application or need the application pack in an alternative format, or you require any reasonable adjustments please contact: [email protected].

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