Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER)
The Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) at the University of Essex wishes to appoint an individual to lead on the development of content and questionnaire design for Understanding Society, including production of additional materials and documents related to the annual development of these surveys.
Understanding Society: The UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS) is a major household panel survey funded by the Economic and Social Research Council with co-funding from some government departments. The main study began in 2009 and incorporated its predecessor the British Household Panel Study (BHPS) and together, at wave 1, they included approximately 40,000 households. The Innovation Panel is similar in design to the main survey, consisting of approximately 1,500 households, with a focus on employing experimental designs to study content and methods longitudinally. Both surveys are multi-topic including families, health, employment, income, education and civic participation. Fieldwork has a sequential mixed mode design, including web, telephone and face-to-face. In addition, Understanding Society is in a process of expanding its data collections, with new surveys of significant others, the development of an event history calendar, and the collection of biomarkers within the survey context.
Duties of the Role
This role is an integral part of Understanding Society’s leadership team. The position holder will be part of the Study’s Executive Team and attend meetings of external-facing groups, such as our Topic Champion Network, and the Co-funder’s group, composed of several government entities. The position drives the development of the highest standard of content relevant to the Study’s overall goals, through research, team management and leadership, communication with many key stakeholders, and a continually developing understanding of how data users utilise the data. The Study’s data quality and its international reputation as a leading source for knowledge generation across academic, public, private, and third sector is directly impacted by the work conducted by the Associate Director.
You will lead and manage a team of survey designers responsible for specification and testing of these annual questionnaires, maintaining workflows and deciding among alternative designs and modes. As content development and questionnaire design lead, you will also work closely with a variety of topic experts and stakeholders to determine the content to be carried within the survey, within time and other practical constraints. For the Innovation Panel, you will work with proposers to improve and implement experiments within the survey. In addition, you will maintain communication with the wider Understanding Society team to inform of progress and changes of the content.
Understanding Society is seen as world-leading in its survey design, provides unique longitudinal data on within household dynamics for the UK and has a high international profile. You will be a key part of maintaining the quality of these data, while contributing to innovations in the study to further improve the data products it generates.
A full list of duties and responsibilities can be found within the attached job pack.
Qualifications and Skills required
You should hold a higher degree in survey methodology or related social science, or commensurate experience.
You should have demonstrable expertise in designing questionnaires for social surveys, ideally in a mixed mode context, and experience or understanding of opportunities and challenges of longitudinal surveys. You will be able to manage teams and interrelationships across a project or institution, and possess the skills required to work with multiple stakeholders to develop plans and communicate outcomes.
You will also have the ability and willingness to engage in knowledge exchange and outreach activities, have strong communication skills, both written and verbal, and the ability to work in a multi-disciplinary research centre. You will also have a proven ability to produce high quality work within deadlines, with strong negotiation and decision-making skills.
This post may involve access to Government systems, information or data and may therefore, be subject to the staff vetting process. Further information can be found in the job pack.
At the University of Essex, internationalism and diversity is central to who we are and what we do. We are committed to being a cosmopolitan, internationally oriented university that is welcoming to staff and students from all countries, faiths and backgrounds, where you can find the world in one place.
To support this commitment we have our Global Forum, a staff-led network that promotes and celebrates the rich cultural diversity among Essex staff, and our Colchester campus based Faith Centre, which hosts regular services, meetings and events organised by our chaplains and faith representatives. For more information see: https://www.essex.ac.uk/life/student-facilities/religion-and-faith
Please see the attached job pack, which contains a full job description and person specification, which outlines the full duties, skills, qualifications and experience needed for this role plus more information relating to the post. We recommend you read this information carefully before making an application. Applications should be made on-line, but if you would like advice or help in making an application, or need information in a different format, please email the Resourcing Team (resourcing@essex.ac.uk).
*More information: Working at the University