Senior Economist Research AND Innovation

Senior Economist, UK RESEARCH AND INNOVATION

Salary: £46,743 per annum

Band: UKRI Band E

Contract Type: Open-ended or fixed-term external secondment opportunity (two years)

Hours: Full‑time / Part‑time (minimum 0.8 FTE), flexible working available

Location: Swindon – hybrid working available

Closing Date: 11th January 2026

This is an exciting opportunity to join a multi‑disciplinary analytical team that works on areas at the heart of the UK research and innovation (R&I) system. Our work plays a key role in delivering the government’s ambition to strengthen the UK’s position as a global science and technology superpower as set out in the UK Science and Technology Framework.

The role sits within the Strategic Analysis team (part of a wider Analysis team and the Investment Planning and Strategy directorate). It includes analysis of the R&I system, economic appraisal, data science and investment strategy.

The successful candidate will report to the Lead Analyst for Economic Appraisal and Business Cases, working across directorate and organisational priorities and pivoting to new work areas as business needs evolve.

We aim to recruit an economist to support our strategic economic appraisal work, covering both ex‑ante and ex‑post economic appraisal.

• Ex‑post economic appraisal: lead the management of ex‑post work, supporting evaluation, policy and science teams by reviewing and advising on the economic components of their evaluations, in close collaboration with the UKRI Analysis Evaluation team.
• Ex‑ante economic appraisal: support the Lead Analyst in various projects, including business case development, leading the economic component of economic cases, and reviewing the work of other analysts.
• Mentor and guide junior analysts across the organisation.

• Lead business case analysis, focusing on economic cases and ex‑ante value for money analysis with quantitative components in Excel.
• Mentor junior analysts to deliver economic appraisal projects.
• Support evaluation, policy and science teams with the economic component of their projects, including reviewing invitation to tender documents, bids and early drafts.
• Support analysis for fiscal events and spending reviews.
• Engage with internal and external analysts to develop robust methodologies and analysis for UKRI investments.
• Develop guidance and training for analytical and non‑analytical audiences.
• Support the Lead Analyst on the conception and development of key ex‑ante and ex‑post projects, usually requiring modelling in Excel or R.
• Run literature and evidence reviews, assessing robustness and relevance, finding and analysing data sources, and summarising key findings.

Essential skills and experience

• Degree in Economics (or equivalent work experience) with at least 50% of modules in Economics.
• Experience in Applied Econometrics.
• Highly proficient in Excel.
• Strong relationship‑building with technical and non‑technical users at varying seniority levels.
• Ability to communicate analysis to non‑technical audiences.

Other desirable experience

• Public sector Green Book compliant value for money analysis.
• Familiarity with the Magenta Book; monitoring and evaluation experience, constructing theory of change or logic models.
• Familiarity with the Aqua Book and quality assurance best practices.
• Experience coding in R, Python and SQL.
• Experience applying economics to science, research and innovation.

Applicants are invited to submit a CV and a statement of experience (max 1,000 words) covering:

• Analytical skills and experience – examples from previous experience that support the analytical role. Refer to the “Key responsibilities” and “Personal Specification” sections.
• Behaviours – Working together and Communicating and influencing.

Use STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) for each skill and behaviour.

In case of many applications, we will shortlist based on analytical skills. A reserve list will be maintained for 12 months.

Contact the hiring manager:
Patrick Rigby, Head of Strategic Analysis (patrick.rigby).

• Outstanding defined benefit pension scheme.
• 30 days’ annual leave plus 10.5 public and privilege days (full‑time equivalent).
• Employee discounts and offers on retail and leisure activities.
• Employee assistance programme.
• Flexible working options.

For more information on our benefits, see Benefits of working at UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

Apply online. For any application issues, contact Recruitment.