Reporting to: CEO and Founder
Days and hours of work: Full time 37.5 hours per week
Type: Permanent; Senior Leadership Team position
Location: Remote
Salary: Competitive along with sector-leading bonus scheme

Looking for your next big challenge?

We are Lynn. Data-driven, insights-led, behaviourally-charged.

We are one of the UK’s leading behaviour change communications firms. We put data, science and experimentation at the heart of creative communications to design and deliver campaigns that improve and save lives.

We also created the Misinformation Cell – the UK’s first PR and Communications anti-mis/disinformation service – which delivers start-of-the-art products and services in fighting fake news.

Our clients include NHS England & Improvement, Welsh Government, Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, the Office of the Public Guardian, Department for Education, Cavendish Square Group, Thrive LDN, Our Healthier South East London ICS, Public Health Wales, Hertfordshire Local Resilience Forum, local authorities across England and Wales, and more. And we are growing our private sector client portfolio, for example, working with the Jockey Club on research and campaigns.

In just two years, we have been recognised by the wider communications industry:

• PRWeek New Consultancy to watch 2020
• PRCA New Consultancy of the Year 2020
• CIPR Excellence New Consultancy of the Year Mark of Excellence 2021
• PRWeek Best Healthcare Agency of the Year Highly Commended 2021
• PRmoment Best New Agency of the Year 2021 finalist (winner declared April 2022)
• CIPR Excellence PR Consultancy of the Year and Specialist PR Consultancy of the Year (winner declared June 2022)
  

We deliver integrated or digital campaigns working across the portfolio of strategic communications, marketing, and advertising. But we do so much more. We run standalone research projects helping clients find solutions to complex societal challenges. We offer a wide range of experimentation capabilities from basic A/B testing to large-scale RCTs. And we provide strategic evaluation services, analysing products, services and campaigns to see if they delivered what they set out to do.

Now, we’re investing in expanding our dedicated The BS Unit and are seeking an experienced, senior behavioural scientist/applied behavioural science practitioner to join our Senior Leadership Team (SLT) as Director of Behavioural Science Unit. Other SLT members and key collaborators are: Director of Client Services, Director of Campaigns and Operations, and Head of Misinformation Cell.

The Director of Behavioural Science Unit will play a key role in our growth and development, taking responsibility for the revenue target and operational effectiveness of the Unit.

Lynn is an equal opportunities employer and we welcome applications from all suitably skilled or qualified applicants, regardless of their race, sex, disability, religion/beliefs, sexual orientation or age.

What we’re looking for…
We’re looking for someone who is rigorous, thoughtful, and can help us further define, refine and drive value creation for clients.

As our senior leader in Behaviour Science, you will have five primary areas of focus, with an expectation that you will be measured on your ability to create behaviour change both internally and externally. Specifically Director of Behavioural Science Unit would be:

● Designing, running, evaluating and owning our behaviour change efforts – standalone research projects as well as behaviour change campaigns – by establishing a clear, replicable process that can be used across products and teams

● Leading high visibility projects that deliver specific behaviour outcomes

● Building a diverse team to broaden impact and power this vertical for Lynn

● Leading research & development, including product development and innovation, within the Unit with a view to deepening Lynn’s visibility in key markets and sectors. This year, we are focusing on growing our presence in health and pharma, sustainability, and change management to name a few sectors. We currently operate in the UK but aim to expand into other markets including the US.

● Demonstrating commercial acumen, a growth mindset, and the confidence to take responsibility for the Unit’s revenue targets, working in an integrated way with other SLT members and contributing towards the firm’s profitability

Your primary partners will be the Board and SLT stakeholders, cross-functional peers (design, product, operations, etc.), and risk and legal groups that help ensure compliance. As with all of Lynn PR, you will work at the highest standard of ethics, using behaviour change to improve outcomes for both the company, and our customers and their audiences at every opportunity.

While Behavioural Science sits at the intersection of many disciplines, this role reports to the CEO.

Previous management experience is a key component, as the role is expected to lead a team of 5-10 individuals over time. And because of the executive nature and public visibility of the role, you must be able to present confidently and clearly to internal and external stakeholders about both the outcomes and processes of behavioural science – an emphasis on framework over phenomenology is key.

Expectations

As the leader of the Behavioural Science Unit, you need to know enough about each of the subdisciplines of behavioural science (qualitative research, quantitative research, strategy, design, and project management) to be able to manage them but you are not expected to be an expert in each: managing a quantitative researcher is not the same as scratch coding hierarchical linear regressions in R.

Your key responsibilities…

As Director of Behavioural Science Unit, you’ll lead the business strategy for this pillar of the firm ensuring that we are always delivering high quality, accurate work, in line with our brand, framework and methodologies, and values.

You’ll be able to respond to both firm and client needs, and work proactively with teams to find robust solutions to multiple, complex, critical (and often competing) deadlines.

The recruitment process will include opportunities to demonstrate skills in each of the following areas:

1) Leadership:
a) Know how to effectively and efficiently demonstrate the impact of behavioural science methodologies to internal and external teams that is persuasive and demonstrates return on investment.
b) Know how to effectively and efficiently line manage a range of individuals with different experience, expertise, and career aspirations. As part of this, cultivate a unified culture that reflects the vision, mission and values of the firm, and supports our wider people strategy.
c) Be able to communicate about behavioural science to a wide range of internal and external stakeholders who may not understand complex academic concepts. Be sensitive and flexible with a view to bringing stakeholders on a journey and showcasing the power and potential of behavioural science. Equally, be open to understanding concepts in communications and mis/disinformation research and strategy and work collaboratively to fuse these insights into the work of the Unit.

2) Strategy:
a) Know the fundamentals of enterprise revenue models and be able to build a basic business model, including costs and benefits, as well as known and unknowns.
b) Be commercially-minded and consider how to improve efficiency and productivity to drive profitability. We understand if you’ve previously not had relevant business development experience – and that’s ok – because we’re looking for confidence in stepping into a role such as this and will provide the necessary support to help you succeed. For example, you may have developed a commercial growth mindset through an internal consulting role (even if money never changed hands!). We’re looking for someone who is ambitious and can confidently own revenue targets, drive lead generation, and participate in, and lead where relevant, pitches with internal partners.

3) Quantitative: Know basic inferential statistics and be able to run and interpret a T-Test, bivariate correlation, and regression.

4) Qualitative:
a) Know observational techniques and be able to conduct both individual and group research interviews, including but not limited to informal, formal (structured, semi-structured), depth interviews and focus groups.
b) Have some knowledge of creating discussion guides, focus group stimuli and experience of coding insights back to COM-B and TDF frameworks.

5) Design:
a) Know a range of behavioural design methodologies including how these can impact the design and delivery of communications and campaigns.
b) Know a range of behavioural design methodologies including how these can impact the design of choice architectures (physical nudges, websites etc.).
c) Know how to use a range of design and barrier analysis frameworks including but not limited to COM-B, TDF, BCW, ISM etc.

6) Experimentation: Know experimentation methodologies and techniques including but not limited to:
a) scoping, developing and executing a range of experiments
b) experience in conducting or managing data collection and analysis to measure the impact of interventions.

The Director of Behavioural Science Unit will also deputise for the CEO when needed.
In this role, you would report to:

• CEO
• Board

In this role, you would directly partner with, and work alongside:

• SLT (Client Services, Misinformation Cell, Campaigns and Operations)
• Finance
• HR

Desirable skills and qualifications:

• GAABS member

To apply for this role, or to have an informal discussion, please email contact@lynnpr.co.uk with your CV quoting ‘Director of Behavioural Science Unit’ in the subject line.