Evaluation Specialist

Reporting to the Lead Specialist for Innovate UK Core Evaluation, this role supports the design, coordination, and delivery of Innovate UK’s core and managed evaluation portfolio.

*Please note this advert will close on the 22nd of June 2026 at 23.59pm.

Watch our video “Why Join Innovate UK?” here.

Title:                  Evaluation Specialist

Band:                UKRI Band E (UKRI Ts & Cs)

Salary:              £46,743 gross per annum

Reports to:     Lead Specialist - Innovate UK Core Evaluation

Location:        Field based

Contract:        Fixed Term Until (31/05/2028)

Employees applying for any opportunity which may mean being away from your substantive role for a temporary period of time, please refer to the Recruitment Policy for further information in the first instance.  If you are made an offer, please ensure you liaise with your Line Manager and the designated HR Team as soon as possible in order that implications of any move are clear and understood, prior to a move taking place.

Innovate UK recognises the importance of work-life balance and we will be happy to discuss any requests for flexible working arrangements.

Context:

The Economic Appraisal and Evaluation (EA&E) team is part of the Strategy directorate in Innovate UK. Innovation is a key component of economic growth, and it is the team’s role to ensure that appropriate evidence is collected and interpreted through economic appraisal and evaluation to inform Innovate UK’s decision making. This evidence will inform the development of effective programmes, build understanding of impact, and assess the overall performance and balance of Innovate UK’s portfolio

We particularly welcome female applicants as women are under-represented within Innovate UK in this type of role.

Job Purpose:

Reporting to the Lead Specialist for Innovate UK Core Evaluation, this role supports the design, coordination, and delivery of Innovate UK’s core and managed evaluation portfolio.

 The postholder will work closely with programme teams across Innovate UK to embed robust, proportionate evaluation approaches that align with Green Book and Magenta Book standards. This includes providing expert advice, sharing best practice, and supporting teams to commission and manage complex evaluation activities that demonstrate the impact and benefits of Innovate UK’s investments in the innovation landscape.

Combining hands-on project delivery with strategic input, the role has a strong focus on organisational learning and improving the use of evaluation evidence to inform strategy, policy, and programme delivery. The postholder will contribute to the ongoing development of Innovate UK’s evaluation framework in a dynamic and evolving context.

They will collaborate with colleagues across Innovate UK, UKRI, and DSIT to embed evaluation activities and ensure key insights are used to shape future direction.

The successful applicant will be proactive, professional, and ambitious in driving the creation, development, and delivery of evaluation projects through a range of communication channels. They will be confident working across busy, multi-organisation teams, managing a variety of tasks, and building strong relationships with both internal and external stakeholders.

Key Responsibilities and Accountabilities:

• Lead the delivery and support of specific evaluations, including managing externally commissioned work and ensuring evaluations meet quality, relevance, and value-for-money standards.
• Support Strategy and Programme teams to design and implement monitoring and evaluation plans, ensuring clarity of purpose, outcomes, and evidence needs.
• Support the commissioning of external evaluation contractors, including raising Purchase Orders, monitoring procurement activities.  
• Manage elements of Innovate UK’s evaluation portfolio, including workplans, documentation, and reporting, ensuring effective oversight and progress tracking.
• Synthesise insights from across Innovate UK’s evaluation portfolio, identifying key messages and translating them into evidence-informed narratives for internal and external stakeholders.
• Work closely with the Lead Specialists within the team and colleagues across the Economic Appraisal & Evaluation team to refine and communicate Innovate UK’s evaluation tools and practices.
• Support and deliver evaluation training and events to build Innovate UK’s internal capability.
• Maintain awareness of current and emerging good practice in innovation evaluation, supporting Innovate UK to remain at the forefront of evaluation thinking.
• Communicate technical evidence clearly and accessibly, adapting content for different audiences, and highlighting key findings, implications, and limitations.
• Manage Innovate UK’s Evaluation Evidence Library, ensuring evaluation findings are accessible and used to inform ongoing work.
• Operate autonomously, delivering high-quality work across multiple priorities and contributing to cross-organisational evaluation capability and maturity.
• Build and maintain effective working relationships with contractors, programme teams, analytical colleagues, and external stakeholders, including UKRI and government departments.
• Support the development and review of theories of change (TOCs), or Logic Models, helping to ensure logic models are robust, and evidence pathways are credible.
• Improve accessibility to the team’s by organising and maintaining the team’s internal vast catalogue of historical evaluations and developing the team’s internal presence on SharePoint / TeamSite.

This is not an exhaustive list and you might be encouraged to undertake any other duties across the wider directorate, commensurate with the Band and level of responsibility of this post, for which the post holder has the key experience and/or training.

Shortlisting criteria

(S) – Assessed at shortlisting

(I) – Assessed at interview

(S&I) – Assessed at both shortlisting and interview

Person Specification:

Experience & Qualifications:

Essential –

• This is a technical analytical role. Applicants must either have a degree-level (or higher) qualification in a course which contained at least 50% of one of the following(s): Mathematics, Economics, Statistics and data analysis, Social Research using qualitative and/or quantitative methods or have considerable experience applying these skills in a relevant work environment. (S)
• Strong knowledge and broad experience in applying a range of quantitative and/or qualitative analysis methods and evaluation approaches, including interpreting and drawing insights from results (S&I)
• Experience of managing multiple complex projects simultaneously, including planning, monitoring, reporting, and overseeing external contractors to ensure effective delivery. (S&I)
• Evidence of strong written and oral communications skills, including explaining technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders (S&I)
• Experience of working with and influencing both internal and external stakeholders incl.  suppliers/contractors (S&I)
• Experience of facilitating stakeholder workshops (S&I)

Competencies:

All team members demonstrate compatibility with and capability against our Core Competencies such as:

Thinking and Problem Solving – Stakeholder management – Communication skills – Influencing – Self-awareness/self-management – Strategic awareness – Working with others– Project management

Some of the above competencies will be assessed at interview stage, in addition to the criteria’s listed in the person specification.

Travel Requirements:

Field-based: There will a requirement to travel, mostly national, and there is some flexibility in this. Innovate UK staff make extensive use of telepresence tools for meetings to minimise unnecessary travel.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

Innovate UK is a diverse workforce of people. We believe that encouraging these differences and drawing the best from them will build a productive environment in which everyone feels valued, where talents are fully utilised and in which organisational goals are met. Underpinning this is a belief that it is a fundamental right for everyone to be treated equally, with fairness, respect and dignity. We will act directly and use our influence to ensure that this right is promoted and upheld; we encourage applications from all those who meet the criteria set-out in our role profiles.

Equal Opportunities:

We are an equal opportunities employer, committed to employing any person who meets the criteria for our roles. When undertaking recruitment we may require applicants to undertake certain tests or assessments, some of which will be online and others may be in-person. If you have a disability, heath condition or specific learning difficulty such as dyslexia then you may be entitled to support with undertaking this type of assessment exercise. Where you feel that reasonable adjustments are required to support you, we ask that you advise your recruitment point of contact in a timely fashion, providing further information. In confidence, Innovate UK will then review your application for adjustments and provide support as required.

UK Research and Innovation:

Innovate UK is partner organisation within UK Research and Innovation. If successful in securing the position, your employer will be UK Research and Innovation. More information can be found online http://www.ukri.org/.

Employee Benefits:

We offer a benefits package crafted to provide an excellent work/life balance. This includes 30 days’ annual leave, 10.5 public and privilege days, flexible working hours, an exceptional defined benefit pension scheme, and access to a variety of support networks and discount schemes.

Benefits of working at UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)

Flexible Working:

We understand the importance of work-life balance, and are happy to discuss the possibility of flexible working with applicants.

Pre-employment Screening:

To enable us to hire the very best people we will conduct a comprehensive pre-employment check on successful applicants as part of the recruitment process.

The role holder will be required to have the appropriate level of security screening/vetting required for the role.  UKRI reserves the right to run or re-run security clearance as required during the course of employment.

UKRI supports research in areas that include animal health, agriculture and food security, and bioscience for health which includes research on animals, genetic modification and stem cell research. Whilst you may not have direct involvement in this type of research, you should consider how this aligns with your personal values or beliefs. To enable us to hire the very best people we will conduct a full and comprehensive pre-employment check as a crucial part of the recruitment process on all individuals that are offered a position with UKRI. This will include a security check and an extreme organisations affiliation check.