The Productivity Institute is a £32 million investment, made possible by a grant from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), focusing on improving productivity and living standards across the UK.
The Institute is headquartered at Alliance Manchester Business School at the University of Manchester, working in partnership with eight other institutions (University of Cambridge, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, University of Warwick, University of Sheffield, Cardiff University, University of Glasgow, Queen’s University Belfast, King’s College London) and the Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence.
The Institute combines research, practice and stakeholder engagement to deliver sustained and inclusive growth by raising economic productivity. The focus will be on enabling policy and business leaders across the UK to improve productivity by engaging with regional productivity forums across the four nations of the UK and a national productivity panel.
The TPI Productivity Laboratory
On January 1st 2022, The Productivity Institute established The TPI Productivity Laboratory at the Institute’s headquarters at UoM.
The Productivity Lab is the Institute’s data science centre of excellence and operates as the “engine room” for all data-related activities at the Institute. The Lab acts as a nationwide (and internationally accessible) portal for external users to access productivity-related data and collaborate with others in person at the Institute’s headquarters or virtually. The Lab also provides data-based insights for researchers, policymakers and business strategists, employing analytical methods rooted in econometrics and data science.
The Productivity Lab’s main objectives are to maximize the potential of the TPI’s research and engagement programmes by:
- Providing strong central support and coordination around the collection, monitoring, processing and analysis of data that the institute and the projects it supports will create
- Joining data in a central repository for usage across the Institute and beyond
- Creating opportunities for augmented work by updating, scaling up or repurposing datasets
The Productivity Lab’s main functions are: (1) to process, categorise and aggregate data from the research projects to inform impact activities and identify opportunities for further research; (2) to identify generalisable business insights from firm-level research; (3) to provide “on-demand” capability to carry out experimental data-related studies around productivity; (4) to develop the empirical basis for The Productivity Institute’s flagship publications; (5) to deliver a ‘rapid response function’ which tailors knowledge and insights from the Institute in response to short-term requests from stakeholders across the country.
The Productivity Lab aims to be a place for data and measurement experimentation that brings all the productivity researchers and stakeholders at TPI and beyond working together.
About you
- The candidate is expected to have an advanced degree (MSc minimum) in Economics, Business, Statistics, Computer Science, Decision Sciences or another quantitative discipline
- An understanding of statistics (e.g. SPSS, Stata, Matlab, R), database management (e.g. SQL, Java) and visualisation techniques (e.g. Power BI, Tableau, ArcGIS) the mastering of various statistical methodologies, experience with machine learning as well as with SQL, Scala, Python or Java is necessary
- Some years of experience in a research-type environment, including demonstrable experience in projects using high complexity or big data to produce data-driven outcomes with appropriate techniques to address business and/or public policy questions
- Some experience with internal and external cloud computing is preferred, including familiarity with external providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and Microsoft Azure is preferred as is coding in SQL, R, Python, Tableau and other analytical tools
- Experience working in a matrixed organization - preferably in a university environment - supporting multiple stakeholders across multiple organizations
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills and the ability to develop relationships across a diverse community are also necessary
What you will get in return
- Fantastic market leading Pension scheme
- Excellent employee health and wellbeing services including an Employee Assistance Programme
- Exceptional starting annual leave entitlement, plus bank holidays
- Additional paid closure over the Christmas period
- Local and national discounts at a range of major retailers
As an equal opportunities employer we welcome applicants from all sections of the community regardless of age, sex, gender (or gender identity), ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation and transgender status. All appointments are made on merit.