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.