Join our Good Problems Team to help us design a more inclusive, transparent, and strategic funding sector.

• Permanent (3 month probation)

• Full time (40 hours per week) or part time (at least 3 days per week)

• £35k–£42k

• Family-friendly and flexible working arrangements

• Location: London, Old Street; hybrid or remote working options are available.

To apply, please submit your details via this form. The deadline for applications is 12 noon on Tuesday, 10th May 2022. We will review applications on a rolling basis.

About us

Our Good Problems Team at Science Practice helps science and innovation funders to design responsible and effective programmes to tackle pressing global and local challenges.

Since 2014, we have designed over 50 innovation programmes, including challenge prizes – such as the £10M Longitude Prize – and innovation funding calls around problems in healthcare, food and water sustainability, transportation, and humanitarian aid. Our clients include Wellcome Trust, the Humanitarian Innovation Fund, Impact on Urban Health, and Nesta.

We are a small, dedicated team of researchers, designers and strategists passionate about transforming the philanthropic sector into a more equitable, collaborative and evidence-based one.

Our expertise covers a range of skills and expertise including research and synthesis, interaction and content design, programme strategy and design, innovation and entrepreneurship, and public policy.

Right now, we’re scoping opportunities for public engagement at the intersection of climate change and health, we’re exploring equitable practices to reduce research funding biases, and developing a methodology to explore sanitation problems in humanitarian settings.

The role

We are looking for someone to join our team and help us design impactful, problem-led funding programmes.

As a programme designer, you will be working on client-facing projects in a small team of two or three, or will lead projects with support from the wider team.

You will have an opportunity to work across diverse domains; at the moment, we are focusing on a range of healthcare topics (eg, climate change and health, pain, air pollution) and humanitarian challenges (eg, solid waste management).

We are looking for someone available to start ideally in May 2022.

Activities the role will include:

• Conducting desk research and interviews with diverse stakeholders to better understand specific domains or problem areas.

• Synthesising research insights into compelling and engaging materials for senior decision-makers.

• Working together with funders to help them prioritise problems they are best placed to address or opportunities to act on.

• Developing strategic recommendations for funders on how to respond to identified problems or opportunities.

• Designing innovative funding programmes to address identified problems or opportunities. Testing proposed programmes through interviews and workshops.

• Designing and facilitating workshops to gather feedback on priority problems, recommendations, or programme designs.

• Managing relationships with clients and leading projects.

We’re looking for someone who:

• Has strong research skills and enjoys exploring new topics through a range of research methods including desk research and interviewing diverse actors such as scientists, policy-makers, people with lived experience, industry representatives, and civil society.

• Has experience designing funding programmes or programmes to incentivise innovations (eg, funding calls, prizes, competitions, grants, accelerators, hackathons).

• Has excellent communication and organisational skills and can effectively build and manage relationships with diverse stakeholders and clients, including senior decision-makers.

• Is interested in the philanthropic sector and motivated by improving how funding decisions are made and resources allocated.

• Is naturally curious and interested in making connections between ideas, practices, and people from across different fields.

• Writes well and communicates complex subject matter in simple, engaging language.

• Can rapidly gain a competent understanding of new topics in unfamiliar domains (in particular, health research) and make judgements based on complex evidence.

• Is excited about engaging with domain experts, other organisations and the general public through talks, workshops, events, and social media.

We are keen to hear from a range of applicants, not just those with explicit programme design experience. We are particularly interested in service designers or researchers interested in applying their skills to the development of impactful and evidence-led funding programmes.

We are a small but committed team. To help us evolve our practice and achieve our ambitions, we are looking for a new team member who will challenge us, build alongside us, and play an active role in shaping our ideas, practices, and approaches.

Right to work

To apply for this job, you should have the right to work in the UK or be eligible to apply to work in the UK through an authorised immigration scheme for work placements.

How we work

Our approach to working is open, agile, and iterative. This means that you will work closely with the team and clients to understand the challenges they face, develop programmes, and iterate on these based on ongoing conversations and feedback.

We have weekly team catch-ups on Mondays to plan the week and on Fridays to reflect, as well as daily written check-ins to coordinate and unpack any challenges. We also run a weekly Journal Club to delve deeper into topics that shape our practice.

Every quarter, we have team and individual reviews to reflect on what went well, what we can improve on and how we’re achieving our strategic ambitions as a team.

We aim to keep our work setup lean and simple. We use Slack, G Suite, and Airtable.

What we are offering

• A competitive salary and matched pension contributions.

• Family-friendly and flexible working arrangements. Part of the team is based in London and coming into the office every other day; others are working remotely from across the UK.

• The opportunity to grow your skills and professional interests as part of a curious, supportive, and dedicated team.

• A London office studio that we share with our sister company, Ctrl Group, who develop digital health products.

How to apply

We value diversity at our company. This is core to our work as developing a robust understanding of problems and how to tackle them requires a diversity of thought, experience, and perspectives. We welcome applications from all backgrounds and abilities, and encourage applications from those who identify as members of frequently excluded groups.

Throughout our recruitment process as well as once part of our team, we are happy to consider any reasonable adjustments that employees may need in order to be successful.

To apply, please submit your details via this form.

The deadline for applications is 12 noon on Tuesday, 10th May 2022.

We will review applications on a rolling basis.

The application process will consist of two interviews – one with our team lead to discuss the role and your experience, and (if shortlisted) one with the wider team to explore in more detail your interest in the position and relevant experience. We will start interviewing eligible applicants the w/c 25 April 2022.

We look forward to hearing from you! 🙌

No agencies, please.