Senior Economist x2

1x Permanent, Full Time (35 hours per week)

1x 12 Months Fixed Term Contract, Full-time or Part time (up to 35 hours per week)

JRF works to speed up and support the transition to a more equitable and just future, free from poverty, in which people and planet can flourish. We are a UK-wide social change organisation, with a focus on all four nations. Our work is anchored around the reduction of poverty and household economic insecurity. We recognise that both poverty and insecurity are multi-dimensional, with material, social and emotional aspects, and we also consider economic, social and environmental justice to be inextricably linked.

About the role

We organise our Policy & Ideas work around the following issue areas: families, work and care; housing, land and climate; community, place and social security; and macroeconomics and fiscal policy. This role will have a focus on either macroeconomics or fiscal policy, or both, whole also working to support out other policy themes. We want our work to confront the immediate manifestations of poverty and insecurity but also the deeper social and economic conditions on which these rest.

That’s where you come in.

We are seeking two Senior Economists, one full-time permanent role and one 12-month fixed term role, which could be either full-time or part-time. In both roles, we are looking for someone to develop and lead research projects that generate arguments, policies and ideas to address the social and economic challenges that underpin poverty and household economic insecurity in the UK today and chart a course to a different and better future.

You will devise, lead and deliver high quality economic analysis and thinking to JRF’s policy & ideas work and offer a professional economics perspective across the wider organisation – and as a trusted, expert voice externally. You will seek out and connect with people or organisations developing new ideas and strategies that can contribute to our mission; and to develop proposals for how JRF should use its platform and resources to support their development and diffusion.

About you

As a Senior Economist, we would like you to either have a professional economics training or equivalent professional work experience, advanced data analysis skills and the ability to use a wide range of tools and software to undertake large scale and groundbreaking economic analysis (including using micro-data from major national surveys).

With experience of working on policy issues relating to poverty, you will have significant experience of having initiated, designed, led and delivered projects that included original economic analysis that generated a different or better understanding of policy challenges and helped to guide new arguments and ideas. You will be able to think critically and creatively, analyse and problem solve, and contribute to the generation of new ideas and alternative ways of approaching an issue, able to communicate arguments and ideas persuasively, via writing and speaking.

You will have advanced knowledge and critical awareness of economic theory, principles, datasets and analytical techniques and how to deploy these effectively in support of understanding and addressing the drivers of household economic insecurity. With significant knowledge of one or both of macroeconomics or UK fiscal policy and a strong understanding of how policy making works across the UK, devolved and sub-national governments, you will have an awareness and engagement with relevant political, policy and intellectual debates, plus models and approaches to social change.

How to apply

If you share our passion and this role sounds like you, then we’re looking forward to hearing from you.

Please submit your CV and supporting information via our online application platform.

The closing date for applications is 27th June 2025.

Interviews will take place at the end of July (Date TBC)

We will be holding an online webinar to provide prospective applicants the chance to meet JRF staff and learn more about the role. If you might be interested in attending this session, please fill out the short form via this link, and we will contact you by email with the time and date.

Additional Information

Applications are welcome from all, regardless of age, disability, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, religion or belief, race, sex, sexual orientation, trans status or socioeconomic background.

We positively encourage applications from people from marginalised backgrounds, including but not limited to those with experience of living in poverty.

We are committed to being an anti-racist organisation and operate an anonymised recruitment process so that bias is eliminated from the shortlisting process.

In support of our approach to flexible working, we are happy to receive applications from those seeking full-time employment, as well as those who may want to share the role on a part-time basis. When making your application, please state whether you want to be considered for either full or part-time work and, if part-time, the number of hours per week you would be looking for.

At JRF we’re at our best when we’re continually building on trust, showing we care and making a difference – and hope others will do the same. So, for those roles which allow it, we’re developing a more blended approach to how and where you work. This means you can expect to work flexibly between the office and home (with an expectation of two days a week in your home office).

We encourage you to read our EVP, which is located here: https://jrf-jrht-brand.frontify.com/share/7C1kD2FusMtEVnje2ijA

We are a Disability Confident Employer. This means that we are committed to the recruitment, progression and retention of disabled individuals. We shall also offer interviews to disabled candidates who meet the minimum criteria for the job. If you have a disability, please tell us if you would like to be considered for an interview under the Disability Confident Scheme.

If you have any additional needs and need reasonable adjustments to be made to the interview process, please let us know.