Behavioural Insights Lab Manager

Salary: National – ranging from £49,700 – £70,000 and London from £53,300 – £75,000 per annum

The team/department

Economics is at the heart of what the FCA does. Economic thinking and analysis inform our regulatory decisions and shape how we tackle some of the biggest issues in financial services. There are few jobs where you can make a real difference to the 40 million consumers of financial products, the 2 million people who work in the UK Financial Services industry, and to the integrity and stability of the financial system.

The Economics Division is formed by a vibrant mix of nationalities and works closely with colleagues across the FCA to ensure high-quality analysis and effective decisions across all aspects of FCA regulation. The Division is made up of teams covering policy analysis in retail and wholesale financial markets, economic strategy, behavioural and economic data science, evaluation, and financial stability and international engagement. Teams work closely with other domestic and international regulators and regulator forums such as the Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum, the academic community, the Bank of England and central government. Staff are eligible to join the FCA’s growing Economics Profession network.

We are currently recruiting for a Lab Manager role in our Economics Division in the Behavioural Economics & Design Unit (BDU), in the Behavioural Insights and Policy Lab team. This is an exciting opportunity in the specialist unit responsible for the FCA’s pioneering behavioural science work. This unit’s recent work includes investigating gamification in trading apps ( initial results here ), looking at sustainable finance disclosures , going beyond disclosure for high risk investments (featured in the FT ) and getting what’s owed to pawnbroking customers .

The unit supports the FCA’s policy, competition, supervisory and enforcement functions by using the latest ideas and techniques from psychology, economics, data science and behavioural design, and works extensively with academic contacts in these disciplines.

The unit produces behavioural insights and empirical work to understand consumer behaviour using online experiments, field experiments and econometric techniques. We also use the same skillsets to think about how to influence firm behaviour and how to improve internal operations. We achieve impact by developing practical insights for FCA policy and operational use.

While this role is being advertised at the Senior Associate level, the role may be offered at the Associate level instead, depending on the experiences of the successful candidate. We encourage applications from people that feel that with development they would be able to grow in the role, and so please feel free to apply even if you think your skills and experience do not fully match the essential criteria.

What you will be doing (the role)

As the Lab Manager for the behavioural insights and policy lab, you will be responsible for the technical development, programming, and administration of the lab’s online experimental capabilities. Through this, you will help to deliver behavioural insights and empirical work across the FCA’s policy and rulemaking as well as internal operations, working alongside other professionals in a multidisciplinary environment. You will play an integral role in directly influencing the FCA’s approach to regulation.

In particular, you will:

• Program robust online experiments (usually in Qualtrics and/or oTree) and manage their roll-out, including liaising with panel providers and overseeing data collection

• Maintain and enhance the FCA’s online experiment capabilities, such as updating code repositories and keeping operational guides updated, keeping abreast of latest best practices

• Use your knowledge to help to design experiments, typically as part of a small behavioural team and in collaboration with relevant policy and supervision teams (and often external academics), to test policy interventions and behavioural drivers of financial decision-making

• Support the team in producing experiment results and prepare drafts for presentations to internal and external audiences (including non-technical senior stakeholders) as well as written FCA research papers (and academic articles where appropriate)

• Complete work to deadlines while maintaining a high degree of technical proficiency and accuracy. You will demonstrate a confident, thorough and diligent approach, initiative, and good judgement

What you will get from the role

• This is an exciting and mentally stimulating environment, with the opportunity to make a difference to the workings of the financial sector by helping the organisation diagnose issues and design remedies

• While the primary focus of the role will be the designing and programming of experiments as well as management of the lab, the role holder will get the opportunity to develop stakeholder engagement and project management skills within the heart of an economic regulator

• Because of this, the role is ideal for candidates with a strong academic background wanting to gain some early experience in rigorous policy research with a focus on behavioural economics, which could help to advance a career in public policy and/ or applied behavioural science

• The value we place in our people is reflected in an attractive package of salary and benefits, and extensive development opportunities in applying behavioural economics and design to policy and operational issues, as well as development in financial services and broader professional skills

Core benefits that you will receive as standard are:

• 25 days holiday per year plus bank holidays

• Private healthcare with Bupa

• A non-contributory Pension of at least 8% of basic salary each month (there are several contribution levels that increase depending on your age – up to 12% a month once you reach age 35)

• Life assurance of eight times your basic salary

• Income protection

We support hybrid working which means you will be able to work from home up to 60% of the time over a month with the remainder of your time in one of our three office locations.

The skills and experience you will have

Minimum

We are a signatory to the Government’s Disability Confident scheme. This means that we will offer an interview to disabled candidates entering under the scheme, should they meet the minimum criteria for a role.

• Academic background in behavioural economics, experimental economics, psychology, economics, statistics, public policy, or other relevant subject areas

• Experience in delivering experimental research (preferably in behavioural economics) – this includes designing, implementing, producing, and presenting findings from randomised controlled trials (lab, online, and/ or field) either in an academic or applied setting

Essential

• Robust understanding of experimental methods and how to produce policy-relevant insights from lab, online, and field experiments

• Proficiency in programming experiments. This preferably includes proficiency in using tools such as Qualtrics and advanced knowledge of Python (particularly the oTree framework), HTML, CSS and JavaScript, or proficiency in another programming language

• Ability to code in R, or proficiency in another programming language (such as Stata or Python) and willingness to learn R

• Experience in delivering behavioural research with strong project management skills, maintaining pace and quality of delivery. Ability to take initiative and juggling multiple small and large concurrent projects at the same time. Interpret and distil findings into impactful and policy-relevant insights, particularly interpreting complex information for non-expert audiences, both in writing and orally

• Be comfortable with ambiguity, identify the most important policy issues or use cases, frame problems conceptually, structure and prioritise work to address these, and distil results to generate insight

• Work effectively with and influence internal and external stakeholders, developing and maintaining good working relationships

• Role model commitment to self-awareness and learning. Build own network and support others to identify effective coping techniques

About the FCA

The FCA regulates the conduct of 50,000 firms in the UK to ensure our financial markets are honest, fair and competitive. We do this to make sure markets work well for individual businesses and the economy as a whole. For more information on what we do, our three-year strategy can be found here.

The FCA's Values & Diversity

Our ambition is to cultivate a culture of inclusion for all employees that respects their individual strengths, views, and experiences. We believe that our differences and similarities enable us to be a better organisation – one that makes better decisions, drives innovation, and delivers better regulation.

The FCA is committed to achieving greater diversity across all levels of the organisations. Given this, we particularly welcome applications from women, disabled and minority ethnic candidates for our role.

Flexible working

We welcome applications from candidates who are looking for flexible arrangements. Many of our staff work flexibly including working part-time, staggered hours, and job shares. We can’t promise to give you exactly what you want but we won’t judge you for asking.

Multi-location

As part of the FCA’s on-going commitment to develop our national presence, most of our vacancies are now open to working in our Edinburgh, Leeds, or London offices. This means that as part of the application process you will be able to select your preference of which office location you would like to work from.

Useful information

Applications for this role close at midnight on Tuesday 7th November 2023.

This role is graded as Senior Associate – Regulatory.

Got a question?

If you are interested in learning more about the role, please contact:

• For internal applicants, please contact Melanie Dubock at Melanie.Dubock@fca.org.uk

• For external applicants, please contact Beth Haydon at Beth.Haydon@fca.org.uk

What to expect from our interview process

You will first be invited to complete a case study exercise. Successful applicants at this stage will be invited to an interview comprising and technical/ competency-based questions.

Please note that all applications must be submitted through our online portal, applications sent via email will not be accepted.