Monitoring and Evaluation Team Lead

Location - London or Milton Keynes

Reporting to - Chief of Staff

Responsible for - Monitoring and Evaluation team

Band - 4.1

Salary - £60,000 - £75,000 (depending on location and proven ability)

Working hours - Full time (9 day fortnight)

Contract type / duration - Permanent

Closing date - 30th May 2024

Connected Places Catapult is the UK’s innovation accelerator for cities, transport, and places. Our mission is to connect people, places and businesses to a future of sustainable growth and prosperity. We provide impartial ‘Innovation as a Service’ for public bodies, businesses, and infrastructure providers to catalyse step-change improvements in the way people live, work and travel. We connect businesses and public sector leaders to cutting-edge research to spark innovation and grow new markets.

The Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) team was established in early 2022 and the newly created M&E Team Lead role is a unique opportunity to join the team to play a pivotal role in demonstrating the Impact that the Catapult is delivering for the ecosystems that it works with. You will have the opportunity to shape and the develop the role and the approaches that are adopted to achieve the desired outcomes.

Purpose of the Role

The M&E Team Lead will be responsible for the delivery of the Catapult's Evaluation Framework, proactively working with the M&E team and colleagues to evidence the Impact from our activities to our key funder, Innovate UK, and strategic accounts such as the Department for Transport (DfT).

The successful candidate will work with peers to foster collaboration across a wide variety of stakeholders within the Catapult. You will be an exceptional communicator across all levels of the business who demonstrates an appetite to learn, to develop themselves and others through training and mentoring of the team, approaching challenges with ideas and creativity. You need to be able to guide and lead your small team, deploying Monitoring and Evaluation best practice throughout the lifecycle of our activities to robustly evidence our outcomes and impacts.

In addition to internally focused activities, the postholder will be required to develop and manage strong relationships with key individuals within Innovate UK, the DfT and key strategic accounts to foster collaborative working, identify opportunities to align shared objectives and extend the reach of our respective activities. You will be responsible for comprehensive quarterly reporting and governance to provide assurance on progress against our annual Grant Work Programme, Key Performance Indicators and Outputs & Outcomes.

The postholder will proactively work with colleagues to lead the production of evidence to demonstrate a clear return on investment from the public funding that Connected Places Catapult receives and the value this adds to society.

Key Responsibilities

Working closely with the team, colleagues and peers across the business, the M&E Team Lead will drive the delivery of an effective and efficient Monitoring and Evaluation function with associated processes, systems, tools and templates to delivery high quality and robust evidence within clear reporting timelines.

This will include driving forward the design, implementation and continuous improvement of the following key areas:

Team Development

• Provide visible leadership for the M&E team (currently 3 colleagues), developing its strategy and direction to achieve a well-respected and trusted approach to Monitoring and Evaluation of our Core activities.
• Development of the team through training and mentoring, building its credibility across the business.

Relationship Management

• Develop and maintain strong relationships with key stakeholders within Innovate UK, acting as the first port of call for Monitoring and Evaluation queries and activities.
• Lead on Cross Catapult Impact related Working Groups, proactively contributing to discussions and shared objectives.

Tracking Portfolio Benefits Realisation and Return on Investment

• Deliver the multi-year Evaluation Framework, developing annual delivery plans and methods for measuring the longer-term impacts and return on investment generated by the Catapult’s portfolio of activities.

• Lead the Monitoring and Evaluation Team to embed and support the effective capture of quantitative and qualitative evidence throughout the lifecycle of programmes, projects and activities, Developing new data sources and providing the analytical foundation for evaluating outcomes and impacts.

• Responsible for the development of Impact case studies to proactively raise the profile of the work of Connected Places Catapult to internal and external stakeholders and evidences the mechanisms through which the Catapult adds value.  

Monitoring and Evaluation

• Lead the commission and management of external evaluations at relevant points throughout our funding cycle. Acting as the intelligent customer to shape the focus and quality of the evaluation activities and deliverables, ensuring they add value to the wider impact evidence base.
• Responsible for the ongoing management and population of Connected Places Catapult’s Value for Money Framework and Model.
• Acting as the intelligent customer to shape the focus and quality of the evaluation activities and deliverables, ensuring they add value to the wider impact evidence base.
• Directing the scope and quality of technical analytical projects, including econometric analysis to evidence the return on investment, to ensure the findings stand up to analytical scrutiny.

Annual Account Planning

• Support the Chief of Staff in the delivery of the annual planning cycle for Innovate UK.
• Gather and synthesise intelligence to inform the prioritisation of Core Grant on an annual basis, providing recommendations for how the Catapult could maximise the benefits (Impact) from investment of Core Grant.

Governance and Management Information

• Manage the end-to-end reporting and governance requirements for Innovate UK, producing high quality information to support Quarterly Monitoring Reviews, Board reporting and internal governance reviews providing insights, analysis and trends at a project and Funder level.
• Develop high quality narrative on projects and activities such that the Catapult can demonstrate progression towards long term Impact metrics aligned to its Logic Model.

Continuous Improvement

• Proactively identify ongoing improvements to the Evaluation Framework and the data collection and processes that underpin it.
• Act as a conduit for sharing knowledge and lessons learned across the business, encouraging openness and transparency across the Core Grant funded projects and activities that we deliver on behalf of Innovate UK.
• You may be required to undertake any other reasonable duties to support the Catapult in achieving its strategic outcomes and ensure effective business operations.

Requirements

Skills and Experience

• Relevant qualifications and experience in Monitoring and Evaluation, with a good working knowledge across a range of impact and process evaluation methods, including Theory-based Evaluation, Contribution Analysis and economic Return on Investment
• Strong understanding of evaluation best practice as captured by HMT's Magenta Book and experience of developing evaluation plans and analytical projects and analytical projects
• Proven ability of leading and managing a team to effectively deliver across a broad work programme
• Ability to support colleagues to understand and buy into the merits of Monitoring and Evaluation, translating what is required to colleagues on a non-technical level
• Experience of delivering and communicating with external customers within central Government is desirable
• Experience of designing mix-method approaches and collecting / analysing qualitative and quantitative data to demonstrate impact and attribution
• Experience of commissioning external evaluation and embedding arising learning.
• Ability to produce high-quality deliverables and communicate insights in an interesting and compelling way using a variety of formats to suit the target audience.
• Ability to successfully develop collaborative working relationships across the business and work with colleagues with diverse skill backgrounds
• Strong attention to detail and ability to support process development and compliance
• An excellent working knowledge of the MS Office 365 suite including MS Project
• The ability to plan, prioritise and manage a varied and busy workload delivering to a high standard with measurable outputs and meeting deadlines
• Demonstrating professionalism, resilience and self-awareness, always acting in a professional manner and showing determination, drive and commitment particularly when faced with challenges and setbacks

Benefits

• 9 day fortnight for everyone, we have a full company shutdown every other Friday.
• 23.5 holiday entitlement for everyone, with pro-rata calculations for part-time employees, along with a Christmas shutdown period for additional days off.
• Competitive pension, up to 10% company contribution to help you save for your future.
• Two paid days of volunteering leave per year (pro-rata for part-time employees) to support charitable activities.
• Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) providing 24/7 confidential work/life support services to you and your immediate family members.
• Cycle to Work Scheme with bike racks and showers available, encouraging a healthy and sustainable commute.
• Cash Health Plan, offering reimbursement for a wide range of essential and everyday healthcare expenses, promoting your well-being.
• Payroll Giving scheme, allowing regular charitable contributions from pre-tax income, maximizing the impact of your donations.
• Discounts and offers from a wide variety of retailers, enhancing your purchasing power and providing savings opportunities.

Employment here is based solely upon individual merit and qualifications directly related to professional competence. We strictly prohibit unlawful discrimination or harassment on the basis of race, colour, religion, national origin, ancestry, pregnancy status, sex, gender identity or expression, age, marital status, mental or physical disability, medical condition, sexual orientation, or any other characteristics protected by law. We also make all reasonable accommodations to meet our obligations under laws protecting the rights of the disabled.