Senior Research and Policy Officer

Our mission in An Cosán is “to empower women and children left furthest behind through learning, leadership and enterprise.” In An Cosán we are passionate about the use of research and evidence to transform the lives of those we serve through both continual improvements in the services we deliver and national advocacy for changes in policy.

We are seeking an experienced Senior Research and Policy Officer to join An Cosán. This role will report to Operations Manager. This new role will enhance how we use evidence to support those “furthest behind, first” and will interact with and contribute to rapidly evolving national conversations on critical social issues.

In this role you will lead the research function for An Cosán, coordinating the monitoring and evaluation of our services against best practice and national policy frameworks. In conjunction with the CEO (Chief Executive Officer) and their colleagues on the Senior Management Team, you will strengthen An Cosán’s advocacy for policy interventions that address inter-generational poverty and create awareness of An Cosán and its mission.

Role Title: Senior Research and Policy Officer
Reporting to: Operations Manager
Contract: Permanent
Probation: 9 Months
Location: Tallaght, Co Dublin
Direct Reports: Hospitality, Facilities
Salary: €36 - €45 K

An Cosán (Irish for ‘The Path’) is Ireland’s largest community education organisation. We seek to bring about social equality and an end to poverty through community-based adult education, the provision of early years supports, wrap around counselling services, and empowering social enterprise development. Over the past three decades, we have supported over 20,000 people to reach new pathways to empowerment via community education and development. Using innovative technology to deliver virtual access to its range of learning programmes An Cosán now reaches communities across Ireland. Under our ambitious new strategy “Vision 2026: Transforming Lives Together” we plan to transform the lives of another 20,000 people in the next five years.

The Role

Key Responsibilities

• Coordinate all aspects of research, data analysis and evaluation for internal usage, management and Board decision making, accounting to funders, and influencing national policy.
• Promote and undertake high quality, ethical and relevant research and evaluation to publication standard, ensuring use of robust methodologies and alignment with An Cosán’s mission
• Provide in depth knowledge and analysis of global research and policy in educating women and children in marginalised and disadvantaged communities
• Working with the CEO, contribute to national policy dialogues based on the experience and insights of An Cosán, our learners and wider communities
• Develop and lead a monitoring and evaluation framework for the new 5 year strategy and support the Senior Management Team in the strategy’s successful delivery
• Write briefings, reports and speeches in supporting the CEO and other senior colleagues; participate in high level meetings and events with funders, policy makers and public representatives; and deliver oral briefings and presentations to senior management, the Board and external stakeholders
• Undertake other duties as required/assigned by the CEO from time to time.

Requirements

• Five years previous experience in a research, evaluation and policy function
• An honours degree in a relevant discipline
• Demonstrated capability to participate credibly as a member of a Senior Management Team
• Excellent interpersonal and communication (both written and verbal) skills.
• Excellent knowledge of Microsoft Office and in particular Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
• Strong organisational and time-management skills and ability to work on own initiative.
• Strong attention to detail and record of accomplishment of delivering to a high standard and meeting deadlines.

Please email the following documents to jobs@ancosan.ie with subject line clearly marked Senior Research and Policy Officer role:

• Cover letter
• Curriculum Vitae
• Completed Application Form

Closing date for applications is Close of Business on 3rd April 2023.