Senior Researcher

To manage social research work packages or projects within the Research and Analysis (R & A) team and contribute research skills to a range of CSE projects across all teams and work programmes. The role requires knowledge of social science research methods and research administration skills including time management, contributing to funding proposals and bid developments, and supporting outreach and impact work. Some knowledge of energy is required.

Pay and conditions

• The role is full-time (37.5 hours per week).
• The salary for the role will be £36,075 - £43,211 per year (starting salary will depend on skills and experience).
• You will be entitled to 25 days paid holiday (plus statutory holidays).

CSE offer a range of benefits including, subsidised bike purchase and Tech Scheme, Life Assurance, Health Cash plan, retail discounts and discounted breakdown cover and many more.

We will pay fees and expenses on relevant training courses.

Specific responsibilities

An applicant appointed to the role will be expected to:

Delivery of projects and activities:

• Effectively manage work packages and small projects within the Research and Analysis portfolio.
• Oversee the timely delivery of data analysis outputs across multiple projects,.
• Explore innovative outputs to enhance the impact of the work and make best use of your own specialist skills, knowledge and experience in project design, delivery and dissemination.
• Have expertise in a particular research method or approach (e.g. qualitative analysis, survey analysis, statistics), and develop new approaches to advance CSE’s research.

Operation and development of the team:

• Participate in relevant meetings and processes to enable good internal communication and effective workload planning.
• Provide effective line management that supports staff in line with CSE policies.
• Mentor junior staff and support them to develop research or analytical skills and subject matter knowledge. Input to team development & strategy, supporting recruitment when appropriate.
• Explore new uses for datasets created by CSE that build our reputation and demonstrate CSE’s commitment to open access principles.

Income generation, partnerships, and generating opportunities:

• Lead method development for new research work and proactively seek new opportunities for funding and partnerships.
• Work with CSE’s development team to develop new research proposals aligned with CSE’s strategy and work programme priorities.
• Support the development of social research at CSE. Actively seek out and assign work to junior staff that matches their specialist skills and interests.

Communications and impact:

• Communicate outputs effectively to internal team members, CSE staff wide, and external stakeholders.
• Create impact & recognition of research outputs, liaise with CSE's Comms team about disseminating outputs to key audiences and author CSE website pages and blog posts where relevant.

Professional development:

• Continuously improve research and analytical skills and expand knowledge of research areas relevant to CSE’s work programmes
• Stay current with relevant trends in energy social sciences to help foster innovation within CSE’s work.

Essential attributes for this role include:

• Degree level qualification or equivalent in a relevant topic
• Relevant formal research methods training – as part of degree course or continuing professional development
• Experience in management/coordination of small-scale research or evaluation projects or significant work packages with demonstrable success in delivering work on budget and on time.
• Track record of delivering research, with evidence of conducting primary data collection and analysis, inputting to study design and managing diverse and complex project data
• Project management skills including excellent time management, organisation of self and others, budgeting and record-keeping, priority setting and problem-solving
• Advanced understanding of social research methods and associated software (e.g. SPSS, Nvivo, Excel)

Please note, the above is an overview of the skills required for this role. To see the full list of essential and desirable skills please see the attached job description.

The closing date for applications is 12pm on Friday 13 June 2025.

Interviews are scheduled for Thursday 3 and Friday 4 July 2025 at our office in Bristol. The interview process will consist of a short presentation and a formal interview of approximately 1 hour. We will also ask you to complete a timed written task at home; this will also take approximately 1 hour. We will arrange the time for completing the task in advance of the interview.

If invited to interview, we will ask you to provide evidence of eligibility to work in the UK.