Research & Impact Lead

Why Southwark?

Southwark Council is committed to ensuring that decisions about services and policy are informed by strong evidence and a clear understanding of residents’ experiences.

The Community Insight team, within Strategy, Insight and Performance, brings together consultation and engagement, research, evaluation and voluntary sector partnerships to help the council understand its communities and use that insight to shape services and strategy.

We are looking for a Research & Impact Lead to lead the council’s approach to research and evaluation, ensuring that insight from residents, communities and services informs decision making and demonstrates the impact of our work.

What You'll Be Doing

In this role you will:

• Lead research and impact activity including the resident insight survey, and the use of research in priority council programmes and services.
• Design and deliver qualitative and quantitative research to understand resident experiences and community needs.
• Develop outcomes and evaluation frameworks that assess the impact of policies, programmes and commissioned services.
• Work with services and partners to ensure insight is used to inform strategy, commissioning and service improvement.
• Synthesize complex research findings into clear, accessible evidence for senior leaders and Members.
• Promote standards and good practice in research and evaluation across the council.

What We're Looking For

We are looking for someone who has:

• Strong experience in research, evaluation or policy analysis.
• Experience designing and delivering qualitative and quantitative research.
• The ability to translate complex findings into clear insight for decision makers.
• Strong stakeholder engagement and communication skills.
• Experience working with communities or voluntary sector organisations.

Additional Information

Advert close date: 11:59pm on Sunday 26th April 2026

Guaranteed Interview Scheme:

As part of our commitment to inclusion, we offer guaranteed interviews for specific groups of people. To qualify, you'll need to meet the minimum requirements for the role, and identify with one of the below criteria:

• Members of the Armed Forces and veterans
• Are currently in care, or have previously been in care
• If you consider yourself to be disabled or if you have a long-term health condition

Redeployees will be prioritised for vacancies and interviewed first.

Interim staff are eligible to apply for internal vacancies and include agency workers and those on fixed term contracts.

Interviews are expected to be held on 19 and 20 March (provisional dates only)

We are an organisation who is passionate about our people and understands that richness of diversity is a requirement to provide the best possible services to our communities. This is demonstrated through our council-wide ambitious commitment to tackle racial inequality in our communities and workforce through our Southwark Stands Together programme. We particularly welcome applications from members of the Black, Asian and ethnic minority communities to increase representation at senior management level in the Council.

Attachments

• Research and Impact Lead G12.pdf