Senior Programme Manager
London, SW1P (a minimum of one day per week in the office)

About Us
The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) is an independent charity dedicated to breaking the link between family income and educational achievement.

We do this by supporting schools, colleges, and nurseries to improve teaching and learning through better use of evidence. We generate research evidence on effective practice in supporting learning outcomes and narrowing the socioeconomic attainment gap, and we work with education professionals to ensure this evidence is applied to achieve the maximum possible benefit for children and young people.

The EEF’s reach and impact has been tremendous: the English education system is now one of the most evidence-informed in the world. Over half of state primary and secondary schools have taken part in an EEF-funded trial, and 70% of all school leaders use the Teaching and Learning Toolkit to inform their decision-making.

We are now looking for a Senior Programme Manager to join us on a full-time, permanent basis.

The Benefits
- Salary of £51,750 per annum
- Flexible working opportunities
- 27 days’ holiday a year (plus 8 bank holidays including 3 which can be taken flexibly)
- 2 festive season closure days
- 6% employer pension contributions, minimum 3% employee contribution
- Life insurance cover
- Interest-free season ticket loan and cycle scheme
- Enhanced maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental leave pay (conditions apply)
- Confidential Employee Assistance Programme to help you deal with any personal and professional problems

The Role
The Research Directorate is responsible for commissioning real-world research evaluations to improve learning outcomes for children and young people from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds, as well as producing guidance to communicate the research evidence picture to education professionals.

As a Senior Programme Manager (SPM), you will deploy your strong research literacy, exceptional relationship management and nuanced communication skills to take a leadership role within the programmes team, providing strategic and line management and modelling quality expectations with relation to our grantmaking and research communication activities.

About You
To be considered for this position you will need to demonstrate:
- An interest in education and commitment to our mission
- Strong knowledge of the education system in England in at least one of the early years, school and 16-19 stages
- A detailed, practical understanding of grantmaking relating to research generation (which may come from working within the EEF programmes team or a similar role in another organisation)
- An ability to analyse a project’s prospects of success and anticipate problems it might face delivering at scale in England
- An ability to contribute to the design of robust evaluations, including randomised controlled trials
- An ability to work autonomously, displaying strong attention to detail
- Excellent relationship management skills including confidence challenging beliefs or giving hard news
- An ability to analyse and interpret education research, including knowledge of diverse research methods
- Excellent written and spoken communication skills, including the ability to communicate complex information to a non-specialist audience
- A strong track record of delivery and achievement
- An ability to work well in a team
- An entrepreneurial, flexible and pragmatic approach, with an ability to balance a commitment to rigour with accessibility and impact
- Strong advocacy for equity, diversity and inclusion, ensuring these principles are upheld in all aspects of your work
- A willingness to travel occasionally to project sites

The closing date for this role is 22nd February 2026.

The Education Endowment Foundation is an equal opportunities employer, values diversity and is strongly committed to providing equal employment opportunities for all employees and all applicants for employment. Equal opportunities are the only acceptable way to conduct business and we believe that the more inclusive our environment is, the better our work will be.