Researcher x 3

About this Role

The National Education Union is a powerful force for change in education, representing 500,000 teachers, lecturers, support staff, and leaders. As we undertake an extensive staffing review, this is an exciting time to join us on our journey to becoming a more agile, strategic, and powerfully coordinated trade union—ready to meet the challenges of the future and drive lasting change in education.

We are seeking professionals to join the Policy, Research and Equality team and provide high-level statistical research expertise that both underpins and challenges policy development, contributing to the NEU’s research strategy. Successful applicants will support the development of policy in ways that advance the Union’s mission to shape the future of education, raise the status of education professionals, and hold the government to account for the impact of education policies.

Working under the direction of the Senior Research and Statistics Manager, you will provide specialist research expertise to support other teams within the organisation as required. You will help to identify, analyse and report on government data from the Department for Education (DfE), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and other government departments. You will develop and use a range of statistical tools to elicit and report member opinion on policy issues in liaison with colleagues across the department, and assist in collecting views from member groups and committees as appropriate.

The role also involves preparing reports—including survey reports and literature reviews—and developing briefings for colleagues, members and external audiences. You will summarise and critique reports from external organisations such as the DfE, the OECD, NFER and other educational research bodies. You will undertake and commission research to understand the impact of policies and to develop evidence of effective practices and approaches.

Prospective applicants should be educated to degree level in a subject with a significant element of mathematics or possess equivalent proven relevant experience. You will need a high level of mathematical and statistical skill; experience using a range of research methods, particularly survey development and analysis; and the ability to produce clear, high quality written communications on detailed, specialist and complex issues—for example, quantitative analysis of large datasets, literature reviews and briefing documents.

You will also have strong IT skills, including proficiency with the Microsoft Office Suite, statistical applications (Python), data dashboards (Power BI / Tableau), code collaboration tools (GitHub), survey applications, and other relevant programmes used to support and manage a wide range of research work.

In addition to salary, we offer good conditions including 33 days’ annual leave plus Christmas closure days and a defined benefit pension scheme. Salary and benefits are pro-rata for part-time applicants.

Further information

Further details can be downloaded from our website at https://neu.org.uk/working-neu where applicants will be able to complete an online application on the NEU recruitment portal.

Closing date is midday Wednesday 10th June 2026.

We welcome applications from individuals seeking part-time, job-share or other flexible working arrangements.
Please note: We reserve the right to close this position early if we receive a high volume of applications.