The Researcher is a new, important post at Arthritis UK. Working within our Health Intelligence team, you will lead on providing expertise on the latest relevant research evidence, providing a responsive, robust and balanced assessment of the available evidence and any key gaps to shape the charity’s UK advocacy agenda, and drive organisational priorities.

As a hybrid worker the expectation is that you will spend around 40% of your working time in our office spaces or working in community settings. As an inclusive employer we will consider home-based working for anyone where office-based hybrid working would be a barrier to being able to work for us, for example for someone living with a long-term health condition or disability.

Fixed-term for 2 years.

Occasional travel across the UK including Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

• To deliver timely, robust and succinct briefings (primarily for but not limited to internal audiences) using pragmatic approaches which rapidly review, summarise and evaluate the current research landscape on key topics relevant to people with arthritis.
• To work closely with the UK Advocacy and Health Intelligence Department to ensure our UK influencing strategy is well-informed by the latest research; and additionally supporting wider cross-organisation priorities (for example, developing a strong evidence base for an organisational approach to health inequalities).
• To provide the senior leadership team of the charity with responsive critical evaluation and guidance on availability and interpretation of evidence, ensuring work is well framed to guide decision-making.
• To maintain a proactive view of the research literature as relevant to people with arthritis, identifying emerging areas where evaluation of evidence is needed to ensure the charity’s influencing approach is informed by and responsive to the latest research developments.
• To identify areas for additional analysis or research, and as required develop research briefs and support or oversee management or external consultants or researchers.

We have made a commitment in our Diversity and Inclusion Strategy to increase the diversity of our charity and we welcome candidates from a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences. We want our employees, volunteers and trustees to represent the broad diversity of the communities of which we are a part.

• In-depth knowledge and experience in working in health-related, research.  
• Experience in the synthesis and evaluation of research evidence across a range of sources (including grey literature), including in the design and delivery of rapid reviews. 
• Experience in communicating clearly and succinctly to non-technical and non-expert audiences, through both written formats (for example briefing papers) and verbally (for example via presentations and meetings with senior stakeholders), with a robust approach to accessibility throughout communication.  
• Demonstrable understanding of how research can be used to shape policy and practice. 
• Experience of consistently applying a range of techniques and research methods applicable to framing research questions, evidence review and research evaluation. 
• Able to communicate findings and conclusions clearly to non-specialist and specialist audiences. 
• Educated to at least master’s degree level or equivalent.