About Nesta

We are Nesta, the UK’s innovation agency for social good. We design, test and scale solutions to society’s biggest problems. Our three missions are to give every child a fair start, help people live healthy lives, and create a sustainable future.

For over 20 years, we have worked to support, encourage and inspire innovation. We work in three roles: as an innovation partner working with frontline organisations to design and test new solutions, as a venture builder supporting new and early stage businesses, and as a system shaper creating the conditions for innovation.

Harnessing the rigour of science and the creativity of design, we work relentlessly to change millions of lives for the better. Find out more at nesta.org.uk.

Whatever it takes

Everyone works at Nesta because we are driven by a deep commitment to our missions. A guiding principle of our culture is that we do whatever it takes to achieve them, bringing our best to all our work.

The role

Analysts in Nesta’s Sustainable Future Mission team provide the research and analysis that underpin our projects, as well as getting stuck in to the practical delivery of those projects. This role will suit someone who is curious and excited to develop new skills through working on a range of activities relevant to the mission: over a given week you might be conducting qualitative user research to understand how a service works (or doesn’t), interpreting findings from quantitative survey results, and working with partners to test and implement a new way of doing things to improve outcomes.

This role will contribute to our Sustainable Future Mission work across the UK, but will be based in our Edinburgh office with a primary focus on supporting our work in Scotland.

The following list sets out the core tasks an Analyst in the team will be expected to participate in. We don’t expect you to be an expert at this stage, but we want you to come to Nesta with a growth mindset where you are ready to experiment and learn.

• Undertake high quality research ranging from light touch information gathering to deep dives, including the following elements:
• Identifying and gathering relevant information using primary research methods, for example interviews, observations, case studies, and data analysis.
• Identifying and gathering relevant information using secondary research methods. You should be able to critically and accurately appraise and summarise existing evidence on the problem and potential solutions. This means you should be able to undertake literature reviews, interpret common research reporting statistics, and critique research designs.
• Synthesise the material collected as part of your research activity and select the key ideas from this, taking into account the aims of the project and the needs of the project team.
• Communicate the findings to project teams in a way that enables colleagues to act on them, including through spoken feedback in meetings, informal notes, internal briefing papers, and oral presentations.
• Play a key role in the delivery of innovation projects, including the following elements:
• Undertaking practical and administrative tasks necessary for the coordination, deployment and management of a project, including liaising with partners, preparing agendas and minutes for meetings and coordinating updates.
• Using knowledge gathered from research to help devise novel solutions to problems, and then work with a mixed methods project team to pilot or prototype these before implementation, and evaluate whether or not they work.
• Working closely with stakeholders throughout, keeping in mind what is important to them and why, and keeping the project moving by proactively resolving issues and mitigating risks.
• Communicate and disseminate the team’s work externally, which may include producing reports and publications, content for the Nesta website, and slide decks for partners. It may also include managing social media, public speaking, stakeholder engagement, networking, and leading new and creative ways to communicate ideas to different audiences.
• Take responsibility for managing your own contribution to the project components you’re working on.
• Get to grips with new areas, topics and contexts that the range and variety of your projects take place in.
• Support development of new work, including generating ideas, scoping, research, writing bids and proposals.

This is a role with the potential for a lot of variety. We set aside dedicated time every week for personal learning related to the mission or to skills development; we work in multidisciplinary teams by default; and run ad hoc projects with other teams in Nesta. Through these you will have the opportunity to grow your skills and experience and learn new ways of working.

Skills specification

Essential

• Some knowledge of at least one aspect of our Sustainable Future Mission work in Scotland, such as the devolved policy context, specific challenges and opportunities in Scotland, and/or relevant stakeholders in Scotland.
• Some knowledge or experience in the practice, policy or research context of the Sustainable Future mission. This can be derived from a wide variety of contexts including campaigning, study, work experience, or a mixture. For example:
• Knowledge or practical experience of policy around the decarbonisation agenda,
• Research experience on home decarbonisation or decarbonisation in heating or in an adjacent area like transport,
• Practical experience such as having worked in energy, retrofit or the low carbon heating sector.
• Research and analysis skills: you understand the fundamentals of exploratory research and evaluation and can develop hunches or take a well evidenced position based on such research. Ability to quickly build contextual competence in unfamiliar topics (e.g. learn what key jargon means, be credible in conversations with stakeholders, understand what is measured and what is important).
• Project organisation skills: you can work independently to organise practical elements of a project such as organising meetings or interviews, making payments, or acting as a go-between for different stakeholders.
• Presentation skills: you can report back on research findings in a range of settings, including presentations, slide decks, research reports and blog posts.

Desirable

• Technical expertise in one or more of the following areas: behavioural science; design thinking; experimental/quasi-experimental design.
• Experience of working in multi-disciplinary teams making use of mixed research or innovation methods.
• Project and programme management skills:
• you can plan work, execute against the plan, identify and act on risks and issues, ensure that key stakeholders are engaged throughout, and keep track of spend against budget,
• facilitation skills, e.g. running workshops,
• excellent writing skills to tailor content to different audiences,
• ovisual communication skills (e.g. advanced PowerPoint, data visualisation).

What we offer

Salary:£37,400 - £51,400 (note that we typically place new starters towards the bottom of this salary band) plus array of benefits, including health cash plans, dental insurance, the ability to buy and sell annual leave, eyecare vouchers and more.

Location: The postholder will be based at our Scotland office and would be expected to attend the workplace twice per week. The postholder must also be available for monthly travel to London.

Term: Permanent

Hours: This is a full-time role but we offer a range of flexible working arrangements and encourage our people to take advantage of them. Many do.

Reports to: Mission Manager, A Sustainable Future, Nesta Scotland

To apply for this role, please visit our website to submit your application before 9:00am on the Monday 16th of June 2025.

Shortlisted candidates will be invited to provide a short video in which they present their response to a question. Successful candidates will be invited to interview the week of 14 July 2025. This interview will be held on Zoom.

At Nesta, we believe that a diverse workforce leads to an organisation that is more innovative, more creative and gets better results.

We want our workforce to represent the diversity of the people and communities we serve. We also want our workplace to be one where different experiences, expertise and perspectives are valued, and where everyone is encouraged to grow and develop.

This means that when we are recruiting, we actively seek to reach a diverse pool of candidates. It also means that we are happy to consider any reasonable adjustments that potential employees may need to in order to be successful.

We recognise the importance of a good balance between work and home life, so we do everything we can to accommodate flexible working, including working from home, compressed or part-time hours, job shares and other arrangements.

Please just let us know in your application or at any stage throughout the process (and beyond) if these are options you’d like to explore.