**INTERNAL APPLICATIONS ONLY**

Organisation: London Borough of Waltham Forest

Salary: PO6 £54,267 - £57,402

Contract Type: Full-time/Fixed Term (24 months)

Working hours per week: 36

Application Deadline: 14/05/2026

Proposed Interview Date(s): 20/05/2026

Reference: 2100

About Us:

Bursting with culture, energy, and opportunity, the London Borough of Waltham Forest is a fantastic and exciting place to work.

We are a highly ambitious borough. Driven by culture and the innate creativity of our residents, we have developed new and innovative ways to build our communities. Our Council is relentlessly resident-focused, insight-led, digitally driven and commercially minded; a Council focused on meeting the needs of our existing and future residents.

London Borough of Waltham Forest is one of the Mayor of London’s Good Work Standard employers. This accreditation is a proof of our commitment to creating a healthy, fair and inclusive workplace. This includes fair pay and conditions, workplace well-being, skills and progression and diversity and recruitment.

The Council’s preference is for online application. However, if you have a disability and are unable to complete an online application, please email recruitment@walthamforest.gov.uk so we can arrange an alternative application method.

About the role:

This role will help embed an evidence-based approach across the council, incorporating research into practice and helping support key council priorities in line with Mission Waltham Forest.

Based in the Strategy and Change team within the Chief Executive’s Directorate, this post will play a central role in developing corporate research and engagement capabilities and forging relationships with partners. This post is part funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research as part of the Local Authority Research Practitioner (LARP) Programme and therefore the postholder will have a dotted reporting line to the Public Health team to ensure particular join up with the health and care landscape and wider public health & prevention agenda.

The post-holder will have a deep appreciation for evidence-led policy design and will be responsible for bringing stakeholders together to build internal and external practice networks, seeking new research funding opportunities and working with services to elevate research insights to senior decision makers.

>> Click here to download the Role Profile <<

Qualifications and Requirements:

To be considered for this position, you should meet the following requirements:

Understanding of different infrastructures within the higher education sector, Local Authority, NHS, public health and partner organisations.
Comprehensive knowledge of research and evaluation approaches and underpinning methodology.
Excellent networking, facilitation and organisational skills, including experience of partnership working.
Excellent communication skills, including the ability to write clear and concise reports and communicate effectively with a wide range of people including other professionals and members of our diverse communities.
Ability to coach and inspire colleagues to learn research skills, and to support them when putting into practice.
Evidence of an innovative mindset, with ability to drive innovation in the field of research, developing and embedding cutting edge techniques for a range of projects and initiatives.
Experience of applying and complying with information governance, confidentiality and ethical guidance in data sharing and research.
Ability to write successful grant funding applications.

Indicative Qualifications

A degree level qualification, or a professional qualification of an equivalent level, in a relevant subject, such as public health, population health, health policy etc or a relevant social science.
Postgraduate degree in a relevant subject OR at least 2 years’ experience in a relevant subject.
Desirable: Advanced research degree (PhD or equivalent) OR equivalent experience of conducting research (ideally on the wider determinants of health).

Terms and conditions:

The below terms and conditions apply to this role:

Satisfactory employment references and CIFAS identity checks

Satisfactory declaration of interest;

How to Apply:

Interested candidates are invited to submit their applications online by pressing the ‘Apply’ button below. This includes a supporting statement that outlines to us how your skills and experience make you a good candidate for this vacancy.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.

Equal Opportunity Employer:

Waltham Forest is a diverse borough where diversity is valued and is integral to both, service delivery and employment of its staff. The Council is proud of its rich mix of communities and as the largest employer in the area, it works hard to respond to the changing needs of its population. We use our statutory duties on race, gender and disability equality and best practice in respect of age, faith and sexual orientation to ensure equality of opportunity in the workplace. The Council is committed to meeting its 4 equality objectives: - Promoting equality of opportunity - Opposing all forms of discrimination, intolerance and disadvantage - Ensuring our workforce reflects the diverse communities of Waltham Forest at all levels. - Providing fair, appropriate, accessible and excellent Services to all. Respecting Diversity is a core Council value.

To support the above and reduce the risk of bias in its recruitment activities, the council is operating an anonymous shortlisting process, which hides personal information that can identify individuals until their application has been considered for shortlisting. The council also operates a scheme whereby, for jobs graded up to and including scale SO2, internal candidates are considered first. This includes those candidates who self-identify as having a disability for the purposes of the Disability Confident scheme. For more information, please refer to our recruitment and selection policy.

We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual's personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below or feel free to discuss this during your interview.

For more information on the benefits of working for the Council, please visit https://www.walthamforest.gov.uk/jobs-and-training/find-jobs-and-other-opportunities/working-us.

Contact Information:

If you have any questions about this vacancy or the application process, please contact Carla Johnson, Senior Research and Consultation Manager at carla.johnson@walthamforest.gov.uk

If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post, please contact our Recruitment Team via email at recruitment@walthamforest.gov.uk.

Click here for further information on the Human Resources recruitment privacy notice.