Lead Benefits Analyst (Rail)Connected Places Catapult

Location - London or Milton Keynes (minimum of two days a week in the office. You can do more than two days if preferable)

Reporting to - Business Case and Impact Assessment Team Lead

Working hours - Full time

Band - 3.3

Salary - £63,000 - £69,000 (depending on location and proven ability)

Contract type/duration - Permanent

Closing date - 26th October 2023

Connected Places Catapult is the UK’s innovation accelerator for cities, transport, and places, removing the barriers to new technology and helping to connect people and places. We provide impartial “innovation as a service” for public bodies, businesses and infrastructure providers to catalyse step-change improvements in the way people live, travel and work.

We connect businesses and public sector leaders to cutting-edge research to spark innovation and grow new markets. We run technology demonstrators and SME accelerators to scale new solutions that drive growth, spread prosperity and eliminate carbon.

Rail innovation at Connected Places Catapult

It is an exciting time for innovation in UK rail. We are living in a rapidly changing world where technology will drive radical changes in mobility over the next 10 years, and we are bringing this innovation to the railway. We need your creativity, enthusiasm, and passion for making a difference to help us accelerate rail at the heart of future transport.

Connected Places Catapult is at the forefront of rail innovation. We are deploying innovative technologies in Bristol Temple Meads Station to test solutions and change passenger experience in real time; we support Network Rail in accelerating the adoption of proven technologies; we are investigating technologies and services for passengers.

Purpose of the role

We need your skills and experience to join our innovative team helping to drive the robust assessment of benefits which acts as a foundation for technological change in a more connected and low carbon economy.

We seek a Lead Benefits Analyst to develop and lead economic and other types of analysis to support our programmes of innovation across the Rail sector. To do this, you should be passionate and highly skilled at developing and leading rigorous qualitative and quantitative analysis throughout various stages of programme lifecycles from bidding for funding to supporting feasibility studies, pilots or large-scale trials.

The role is based in the Business Case & Impact Assessment Team. The team is diverse and highly motivated, including experts on business case development (inc. HMT Green Book), impact assessment and evaluation. We use this broad base of specialist knowledge to apply evidence-based approaches to analyse the economic, social and environmental benefits of innovative new solutions across our domains. We use our expertise to advise stakeholders and help them to make more informed decisions. We also support the monitoring of our own organisational impact, reporting progress to our board and to Innovate UK.

The Team supports project across the whole Connected Places Catapult and as such you will typically be working on multi-disciplinary projects with engineers, data scientists, planners, modellers, software developers, environmental specialists, social researchers, designers and a diverse range of external stakeholders from Industry, Academia and Government. Having an eye for innovation and seeing how economics can be used to drive and set a new narrative is a key requirement for this role. You will also be expected to contribute to the dissemination of our project findings through online and physical events, conferences, and seminars.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership on the development and delivery of project tasks involving transport (rail) economics, evaluation and impact estimation.
• Provide thought leadership within CPC and externally across the full spectrum of rail projects and areas that CPC are involved in. Help grow the team’s capability and understanding of economics, evaluation and business case development in relation to innovation projects across all CPC domains.
• Manage internal and external relationships with subcontractors, clients and other stakeholders, including industry practitioners, decision-makers and academic stakeholders.
• Offer support, training and coaching to colleagues.
• Assist in business development activity and the preparation of bids and fee proposals.
• Lead the dissemination of our economic analysis output.
• Guide and support the project work and benefits case analysis from other members of the team.
• Additionally, you may be required to undertake other reasonable duties – including work with other sectors - to support the Catapult in achieving its strategic outcomes and ensure effective business operations.