Benefits and Impact Specialist - UKIFS Ltd.

The UK Government has established UK Industrial Fusion Solutions (UKIFS) Ltd., a subsidiary of UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), to lead the charge in delivering fusion energy through design and delivery of the Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP) protype fusion plant. UKIFS is establishing itself, setting up the company, attracting talent, engaging with industry, developing a supply chain, and planning and constructing of the STEP prototype. 

Fusion energy, crucial for combating climate change and ensuring energy independence, is expected to be commercially viable by mid-century. The UK, led by UKIFS, aims for a prototype fusion plant, targeting first operations around 2040. UK Industrial Fusion Solutions Ltd. will lead delivery, collaborating with industrial partners and building a fusion supply chain with an estimated global sector value of £7tn per year. Join UKIFS and the STEP programme to be involved in this ground-breaking journey. 

As an employee of UKIFS, you will benefit from: 

• Outstanding defined benefit pension scheme, details of which can be found at the end of this advert. 
• Corporate bonus scheme up to 7% and a Relocation allowance (if eligible). 
• Flexible working options including family friendly policies and the right to request flexible working from the start of your employment. 
• Employee Assistance Programme and trained Mental Health First Aiders.
• Generous annual leave allowance starting with 25 days, plus 3 days Christmas closure and 2.5 privilege days, in addition to UK bank holidays.
• Wide range of career development opportunities.
• A vibrant culture committed to being fully inclusive.

For more information on UKIFS, visit: https://careers.ukaea.uk/wp-content/uploads/download/UKIFS_CandidateRecruitmentPack.pdf 

The salary for this role is £48,376, and onsite working is expected for 3 days each week, however, we actively support requests for Flexible Working.

Employees of UKIFS can be based at either of our sites; West Burton, Nottinghamshire or Culham, Oxfordshire

This role requires employees to complete an online Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS), including The Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) checks for criminal convictions and possibly a search of open-source data.

As part of your application, please submit your CV, supported with a Covering Letter detailing your relative knowledge and experience for the role.

The Role  

As our Benefits and Impact Specialist, you will develop and deliver benefits, monitoring and evaluation (BM&E) activities for STEP. You will play a pivotal role in development of a robust evidence-base to demonstrate the value of STEP and impact on the nation and furthering the goals of the UK fusion strategy. You will join the Business Strategy team to support the Benefits, Monitoring and Evaluation Lead to generate timely and fit-for-purpose evidence and insight, enabling STEP to be effective in maximising our impact. You will help to build databases of insight and evidence, to communicate the impact of the programme. You will lead activities to promote benefit identification and management, to help bring clarity to the unique elements of the programme and what impact they are likely to deliver. You will support the collation of quantitative and qualitative date, the identification of key evaluation questions and development of M&E plans to address these. You will contribute to and support delivery of internal and externally commissioned process and outcome evaluations to help improve understanding on how effective, efficient, and equitable the programme is to support continuous improvement, and to better understand and demonstrate the impact of the programme. This opportunity will involve engaging with all aspects of the STEP programme as well as supporting the programme’s interface with the Government’s assurance and approval processes for project funding and delivery. You will support the development of STEP business cases, in part through the production of supporting evidence documents, through managing other’s contributions, and through peer-reviewing the work of others.

Key Accountabilities:

Provide the Evidence-Base for Policy and Decision Making

• Design, deliver, and manage both in-house and commissioned research projects.
• Undertake qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods research, from the development of research materials and surveys, through to the management and analysis of data and evaluation.
• Help build and manage internal data collection and conduct and commission in-depth research, monitoring, evaluation, and analysis to build the evidence base to support STEP in meeting our strategic priorities.
• Provide training, coaching, and mentoring to ensure the continued growth of skills and capabilities within the organisation.

Deliver Impactful Products

• Produce research reports and briefings which communicate evidence in a user-friendly way.
• Respond to ad-hoc request for evidence relating to policy, key thematic areas, for example the UK Government Spending Review.
• Contribute to the development of business cases through the evidence that feeds into these.
• Produce and peer review reports, presentations, and journal/conference papers. Work to enable the collection of benefit insights across UKIFS to ensure we have high quality evidence covering all the breadth and depth of benefits across the programme.

Build a Strong Network

• Build relationships across STEP, UKAEA and relevant HMG teams to ensure effective co-ordination and collaboration.
• Build Interfaces with:
  • STEP: Executive team, business strategy team, commercial team, costing team and wider delivery team
  • Government: DESNZ Fusion policy team, Infrastructure and Projects Authority, Cabinet Office, and HM Treasury
  • UKAEA: Executive Office
• Provide necessary support to the Benefits, Monitoring and Evaluation Lead, to engage across the STEP and UKAEA organisation, ensure delivery of high-quality products, and navigate internal and governmental assurance and approval processes.
• Support the wider business strategy team through contributions to project reporting documents, dashboards, risk registers etc.

Embody a Leadership Mindset

• Embody a leadership mindset and a set of leadership behaviours, embracing our organisation's culture, values, and mission in all aspects of your work.
• Foster a positive and inclusive team environment that aligns with our cultural values.
• Contribute to maintaining a respectful and collaborative workplace, valuing diversity, and promoting teamwork.
• Act as a cultural ambassador, representing our organization's values and professionalism in interactions with colleagues, clients, and stakeholders.
• Lead by example, demonstrating integrity, professionalism, and ethical behaviour.
• Make informed decisions and solve problems effectively, enabling change management and the set up of new processes and systems.

The above is not intended to be an exhaustive list of activities and you may be required to undertake other reasonable tasks or duties requested.

Essential:

• Experience working with programme benefits and/or monitoring and evaluation.
• Experience of quantitative and/or qualitative data management and/or analysis.
• An ability to grasp issues quickly and understand the big picture for DESNZ, the wider fusion sector, and government.
• Able to quickly grasp new technical information, and credibly distil and communicate this to non-technical audiences.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and confidence forging relationships across teams and government.
• Ability to quickly respond to changing demands and priorities, with the confidence to take quick decisions without comprising the quality of work.

Desirable:

• Experience of delivering large scale complex evaluations.
• Experience of delivery in fast-paced, complex, and ambiguous environments.
• Experience of working with Government stakeholders on large scale complex transformative programmes.
• Experience of working in a multi-disciplinary environment collaboratively with colleagues in finance, policy, engineering, scientific, commercial, project delivery, legal and senior leadership teams.
• Experience of emerging or disruptive technologies. • Ability to train, coach and develop indirect reports.
• Ability to train, coach and develop indirect reports.

A full list of our benefits can be found here https://careers.ukaea.uk/life-at-ukaea/employee-benefits/.  

We welcome talented people from all backgrounds who want to help us achieve our mission. We encourage applications from under-represented groups, particularly from women in STEM, people from Black British Caribbean and African, Pakistani and Bangladeshi British, and other ethnic minority backgrounds, people with disabilities, and neurotypical individuals. Our Executive team, supported by our 'Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion' (EDI) and Wellbeing and our EDI Networks actively promote Inclusion and takes steps to increase diversity within our organisation. We reinforce best practices in recruitment and selection and evaluate approaches to remove barriers to success.

Please note that vacancies are generally advertised for 4 weeks but may close earlier if we receive a large number of applications. 

For applicants applying from outside the United Kingdom or those who have spent time outside the UK in the last five years, please visit the following link for information on criminal records checks: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/criminal-records-checks-for-overseas-applicants If your country of residence or previous residence is not listed on the website or if the UK Government does not have information on obtaining a criminal records check from that state, we regret to inform you that we cannot process your application.