Head of Data & Impact

Job description

# Head of Data & Impact ## About Babyzone Babyzone is an innovative and fast-growing UK early childhood charity. We run free, open-access community hubs for families with children aged 0–5 in areas of high deprivation, with no booking or referral needed. Since launching in 2019, we have grown to 14 hubs across England, Wales and Scotland, welcomed more than 100,000 parent and child visits — over 70% from the most deprived communities — and we are on track to reach 20 hubs by the end of 2027. Our hubs are evidence-informed spaces, with programmes co-developed alongside families, practitioners and world-leading researchers, then rigorously evaluated and improved. More than 300 partner organisations — including NHS teams, local authorities and specialist charities — co-locate in our hubs to create a joined-up local system for families. We hold research partnerships with leading universities and are building the definitive evidence base for what works in the early years. ## The Opportunity Backed by significant new multi-year philanthropic investment, we are building the data and evaluation infrastructure that enables Babyzone to evaluate and improve its work at scale — capturing what happens across every hub, tracking outcomes for children and families over time, and translating the evidence into national influence. This is a new, senior role to lead that work. We are looking for a genuinely high-calibre data scientist and leader who can elevate everything we do to measure activity, capture insight, evidence impact, and strengthen monitoring and evaluation across the whole organisation — while working at the frontier of what AI makes possible. ## Purpose of the Role As Head of Data & Impact, you will own how Babyzone measures its activity, understands its families, and evidences its impact across every hub and central function. You will build our data infrastructure end to end, from frontline capture to longitudinal outcome tracking, and establish a modern, AI-enabled approach to analysis, evaluation and reporting. This is a senior leadership role with a hands-on, build-it mindset: as comfortable architecting a data pipeline or standing up an AI workflow as coaching a frontline team in a hub. You will be the internal counterpart to our external academic advisers and Research & Impact Advisory Board, translating rigorous methods into practical systems, and turning our evidence into influence with funders and policymakers. ## Key Responsibilities ### Data Infrastructure and Engineering - Own the design, build and running of Babyzone's data platform end to end — from parent-facing capture, such as QR-code attendance and engagement, through to integrated longitudinal records that follow families and child outcomes over time, from infancy through to a Good Level of Development and beyond. - Establish a modern, reliable data stack covering ingestion, integration across hubs and hundreds of partner touchpoints, storage, modelling and dashboards that give the organisation a single, trusted view. - Build data quality, security and governance into systems by design. ### Measurement, Evaluation and Impact - Lead Babyzone's monitoring and evaluation approach across the organisation, defining the outcomes, indicators and methods that credibly demonstrate what our work achieves. - Operationalise and scale the **Parent Confidence Index (PCI)** and lead analysis of children reaching a **Good Level of Development (GLD)**, working with academic partners and the Research & Impact Advisory Board on validation and methodological rigour. - Coordinate independent evaluation and build a longitudinal evidence base tracking child and family outcomes over time. - Produce high-quality, transparent impact reporting for trustees, funders and partners, ensuring external reporting obligations are met in full. ### AI and Ways of Working - Put Babyzone at the frontier of AI-enabled working by designing and implementing AI and automation across data pipelines, analysis, qualitative insight, reporting and day-to-day operations, enabling a small team to achieve outsized impact. - Set up and implement tooling hands-on: evaluate, build and deploy, rather than only advise. - Champion responsible, safe and ethical AI and data use, appropriate to an organisation working with young children and families. ### Delivery in the Field and in Practice - Spend meaningful time in hubs, working alongside frontline teams to embed measurement into everyday practice and make data capture simple, respectful and genuinely useful for families and practitioners. - Help hubs turn insight into action, using data to improve what families actually experience. - Build and support embedded data-collection capability across the network. ### Evidence into Influence - Translate Babyzone's evidence base into scalable delivery models and compelling narratives for national and international policy influence, including research publications and policy roundtables across government, academia and the wider sector. - Support the development of further research and funding bids to major funders, including organisations such as the Nuffield Foundation and Education Endowment Foundation, and government routes such as NIHR, strengthening the data and methodology behind them. ### Leadership and Capability - Build, lead and develop a small data and insights team. - Raise data literacy and AI fluency across the organisation. - Act as the internal lead working with external academic advisers and the Research & Impact Advisory Board. - Contribute to organisational strategy as a senior member of the team. ### Data Protection and Safeguarding - Own data protection, information governance and research ethics for sensitive data relating to children and families, working within Babyzone's safeguarding framework and UK GDPR requirements. - Ensure Babyzone maintains appropriate standards of security, privacy and ethical data use across all data and research activity. ## Who We're Looking For ### Essential - A high-calibre data scientist and data leader with strong technical depth — advanced Python and/or R, SQL, data engineering and pipeline building, applied statistics/ML, and modern dashboards/BI — with the judgement to architect systems, not just analyse data. - Demonstrable experience **at the frontier of AI**, using LLMs, automation and modern AI tooling to work more effectively and efficiently, and comfortable setting up and implementing these tools hands-on. - A track record of **building data infrastructure and monitoring and evaluation systems from the ground up**, ideally in a fast-scaling or resource-conscious environment. - Strong grounding in **impact measurement, monitoring and evaluation**, including designing outcomes frameworks and turning messy, real-world data into credible evidence. - Strong expertise in **data protection, security and governance**, particularly when handling sensitive personal data. - An excellent translator, able to make technical work meaningful and accessible to frontline practitioners, trustees, funders and policymakers. - Genuinely comfortable working **both in the field and in a central team** — hands-on, pragmatic and motivated by Babyzone's mission. - Right to work in the UK. The role involves contact with children and families and is subject to safer-recruitment checks, including an enhanced DBS check. ### Desirable - Experience in early years, education, health, social policy or another outcomes-driven, social-impact setting. - Familiarity with longitudinal data, cohort tracking or linked administrative datasets. - Experience collaborating with academic researchers and independent evaluators. - Experience presenting evidence to funders or shaping policy. - Experience with modern cloud data platforms and tooling. ## What Success Looks Like in Year One - A single, trusted data platform capturing activity and engagement consistently across every hub. - The Parent Confidence Index operationalised and progressing towards external validation with academic partners. - AI-enabled workflows that save the team significant time and surface sharper, faster insight. - Impact reporting that meets funder requirements in full and tells Babyzone's story with authority. - Stronger data capability and confidence embedded across the organisation. ## What We Can Offer You You will be employed directly by **Babyzone** and will be part of an ambitious, fast-growing charity working to improve outcomes for young children and families. Babyzone offers: - 25 days of paid holiday plus your birthday off. - Pension Scheme. - Cycle to Work Scheme. - Training and development opportunities. - The opportunity to play a senior role in shaping the data, evidence and impact infrastructure of a rapidly growing national charity. - The chance to work closely with leading researchers, funders, partners and practitioners across the early years sector. Any additional benefits applicable to the role will be confirmed as part of the recruitment process and will be in line with Babyzone's employment terms and policies. ## Terms and How to Apply - **Contract:** Full-time, permanent employment with **Babyzone**. - **Location:** Based at Scale Space, W12 7RZ, with regular travel to Babyzone hubs across the network. - The role is subject to Babyzone's safer-recruitment standards, including references and an enhanced DBS check. - Applicants must have the right to work in the UK. Babyzone is committed to building an inclusive and diverse workforce and welcomes applications from all backgrounds. We particularly welcome applications from people with backgrounds and lived experience reflecting the families and communities Babyzone serves.