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Insights and Data Senior Associate

Application Deadline: 31 August 2025

Department: Insights

Employment Type: Permanent - Full Time

Location: London

Reporting To: David Ruddle

Compensation: GBP 28,155 / year

Description

Are you ready to help shape the future of education? Ambition Institute is looking for a motivated and enthusiastic professional to join our Insights team on a permanent basis.

In this role, you will play a vital part in supporting our mission to help educators serving children from disadvantaged backgrounds to keep getting better. You will work closely with colleagues to collect, manage and interpret data from across Ambition's programmes, turning information into actionable insights that drive decision-making and continuous improvement.

This is an excellent opportunity to build on your skills in data analysis, project coordination and communication. You will co-ordinate projects to improve data quality and reporting, ensuring our stakeholders have the evidence they need to make informed choices. You will deepen your understanding of both quantitative and qualitative data, learning how to tell compelling stories about our impact on schools, teachers, leaders and pupils. If you are organised, keen to learn and passionate about making a difference, we want to hear from you.

Who are Ambition Institute?

A great teacher changes the future every day. Especially for children who have had a tough start in life, a teacher can be the critical factor in their success.

At Ambition Institute we help schools tackling educational disadvantage to keep getting better and help their teachers and school leaders to become more expert over time.

That's how we'll make sure every child gets a great education and the best possible start in life.

• We train teachers and leaders at all levels to get better at the things that make the biggest difference: what you teach, how you teach it, and how you create the conditions for schools to thrive.
• We share what works. Everyone can benefit from evidence of how great teaching and leadership can improve schools and change lives, so we connect people to the latest research and best practice.
• We champion every teacher and school leader's potential to develop, as the driving force for sustainable school improvement.

We would like you to:

• Support the collection, management, analysis and reporting of quantitative and qualitative data across Ambition Institute's programmes, ensuring high-quality and timely insights for decision-making.
• Lead or assist with data-related projects to improve data quality, reporting processes and the implementation of new tools, working collaboratively with colleagues and stakeholders.
• Plan, coordinate and deliver qualitative research activities such as focus groups and interviews, helping to capture and present the experiences and impact of Ambition Institute's work.
• Maintain accurate documentation, provide administrative support to senior team members, and contribute to continuous improvement by monitoring data quality and gathering user feedback.

Working in a hybrid way, you'll be attached to either our Birmingham, London or Manchester office and will report to Associate Director of Insights . In line with our current ways of working, you'll be expected to be in the office at least 1 day a month, in addition to team days and this may be reviewed by Ambition.

Skills, Knowledge and Experience

Essential requirements

• Commitment to Ambition Institute's mission to improve the education and outcomes of children from disadvantaged backgrounds.
• Excellent analytical skills, with experience working with quantitative and qualitative data.
• Strong attention to detail, organisation and prioritisation skills.
• Experience using data management and reporting tools (such as Excel, Power BI, Tableau or similar).
• Excellent communication skills (written and oral), with experience presenting complex information to a range of audiences.
• Ability to use own initiative to respond positively to change and challenging situations.
• Experience of working with data in a fast-paced environment, managing competing demands.
• Ability to build strong working relationships with colleagues and stakeholders at all levels.
• Computer/IT skills and knowledge of Microsoft Office, including Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

Desirable requirements

• Experience of line management or supporting the professional development of others.
• Experience working with CRM systems (such as Salesforce).
• Experience supporting or leading data-related projects.
• Experience of building surveys.
• Experience working within an education, charity or not-for-profit context.

What's in it for you....?

• Competitive annual salary
• Professional development for all staff
• 25 days' annual leave, plus bank holidays and 'winter shut down' at the end of December/beginning of January
• Employer pension contribution of 11%
• Agile, hybrid working culture, so you can manage when and where you work
• Staff affinity networks that help keep equality, diversity and inclusion at the heart of our work
• Blind recruitment process to ensure equality and fairness in our hiring
• Enhanced maternity pay after a year's service
• Shared parental leave package
• Access to free, confidential 24/7 wellbeing and support line
• Comfortable and collaborative workspaces in the city centres of Manchester, Birmingham and London
• Work-from-home technology package to support hybrid working
• Interest free season ticket / bike loans

We don't expect the person we hire to have all of the following, but this should give you a sense of what would enable you to thrive in this role and in our organisation:

• You care deeply about educational disadvantage and being part of an organisation that challenges inequality
• You have a good work ethic and strive to make a difference in the job you do
• You always give maximum effort to understand and meet the needs of our partners and participants
• You always have a great attitude so we "can do" for all our colleagues, partners and participants
• You are open to feedback and learning because we want to keep getting better
• You work with your initiative to bring new ideas and a fresh perspective
• You are well organised and can prioritise work that will have the greatest impact

• You want a career with a person-centred organisation with a cause at its heart.
• You have a collaborative work ethos, bring warmth and good humour to work and constructive outlook to every situation
• You enjoy working in a fast-moving workplace, with a great support structure around you
• You would like to grow with an ambitious organisation as it progresses over time
• Want flexibility in how you work - splitting your time between one of our offices and remote working and managing your own working patterns to get the job done.

Applications will be accepted for all office locations.

All applications must be received by the closing date 23:59 on 30 August 2025. Interviews are expected to take place week commencing 8 September 2025

We recognise that AI function tools (i.e. ChatGPT or other generative AI tools) are here to stay and can be helpful for applications e.g. to assist in researching for application responses and to shorten your first draft. However, we are observing a growing trend in the use of AI, and we would caution applicants against relying too heavily on such tools when drafting responses.

The pitfall of such tools is that they produce generic responses that don't showcase individuality, specific experiences or real-life examples. This usually results in applications being unsuccessful. We want to evaluate your response, and we will be looking for answers that use examples and experiences that are clearly specific to you. You are more likely to successfully demonstrate your soft skills like communication and teamwork when preparing answers to application questions yourself and this helps mitigate the unintended consequences of AI-generated responses.

If we suspect you have used AI inappropriately, the panel reviewing your application may adjust how your response is rated. For more details of what we consider to be acceptable use of AI function tools in our application process, please review our FAQs on our careers page.

We are committed to the safeguarding of children and the most vulnerable in our society and, as such, we are unable to employ individuals with relevant convictions, including the following: a conviction for an offence involving violence or dishonesty, of a sexual nature or against minors, or for any other offence that is relevant to the nature of the services provided by our organisation.

For any questions or queries please review our FAQs | Ambition Institute Careers (pinpointhq.com) in the first instance. If we've not addressed your question in this section, please email us at jobs@ambition.org.uk

As an employer, we have a responsibility to prevent illegal working in the UK by ensuring that our employees have the right to work in the UK. Therefore, as part of the recruitment process to verify your eligibility you will be required to produce relevant documentation.