Cities and Data Research Analyst

Employer: The Business of Cities
Position: Cities and Data Research Analyst
Salary: £30,000.00-£50,000.00 per year/ Performance bonus
Job Type: Full-time
Contract Type: Permanent, Graduate
Location: Remote (Work from home)
Schedule: Monday to Friday
Education: Bachelor’s (required)
Experience: 1 year (preferred)
Application Deadline: 31/01/2025

 

About the Role
The Business of Cities is a boutique company that advises cities and companies worldwide in the quest for better cities, drawing on industry-leading data and comparative analysis.
Our research team seeks an analyst with project management skills to help us produce and publish data-rich text and visual content. The audience is usually influential leaders, public and private organizations, and decision-makers who play a role in cities and major projects or investments globally.
Degree disciplines that have successfully performed similar roles include Economics, management, Modern Languages, Political Science, Land Economy, Geography, and Law, but this role is not exclusively open to such disciplines.
The role is likely to suit someone with 1-3 years of demonstrated experience in a professional working environment. Applications are welcome from those with more or less experience than this if there are reasons you are a firm fit for this role.

Key Responsibilities
1. Collect, analyze, and visualize data relating to cities and ecosystems.
2. Access and collect tabular data from dozens of different sources (e.g. global organizations, national census data, platforms, etc.)
3. Keep this data organized and accessible across e.g. Google Sheets, Excel, and Tableau
4. Keep track of multiple projects’ data repositories over weeks to months, from project inception to delivery
5. Turn data into visual content (mainly using PowerPoint templates but also online tools)
6. Help coordinate project progress
7. Work directly with the delivery team to keep track of team to-dos across several concurrent projects, helping to manage fast-moving projects which typically take between 3 weeks and 3 months
8. Distribute data-gathering tasks across data entry team members, verify completion, and update the senior team accordingly
9. Track progress, take and circulate notes on team actions, commitments, and capacity
10. Maintain digital systems up to date

 

Requirements
• Have an undergraduate or graduate degree in a relevant field that reflects academic distinction.
• Demonstrate high fluency in dealing with quantitative data, including via Excel in particular
• Be at ease using formulae such as INDEX, MATCH, VLOOKUP, RANK, and PERCENTRANK; you should also be able to join these with conditional statements IF, OR, AND, IFERROR, etc.
• This does not necessarily mean a high fluency in maths or statistics, but rather a more general numeracy and comfort with large tabular datasets.
• Be enthusiastic to contribute to all of the following tasks in a typical day:
• Research locations around the world (from desk research or business IP) and share relevant data & facts with the research team (2 hrs),
• Attend an internal meeting, take detailed notes, and share action items with the team (1 hr),
• Dive into unfamiliar data sources to answer a question with a ‘have a go’ attitude (1 hr),
• Keep the project team and stakeholders routinely updated about progress toward a shared goal (1.5 hrs).
• Be tech savvy: you teach yourself how you learn the hotkeys, and you read the documentation.
• Be interested and curious about the world of cities, economies, and investment, and supportive of our team’s work agenda

What We Offer:
• A flexible working arrangement (hours & location) which could vary between 60% and 100% full-time-equivalent (FTE), accommodating of e.g. long work breaks or unusual working routines
• Opportunity to become very familiar with many different cities, their economies, governance, strategies and prospects, and the different ways that cities and corporations are adapting to the 21st century
• Personalised career development and feedback possible within a small and nurturing environment
• Opportunities to become an expert at a niche interface between cities, policy, and data
• Occasional opportunities to travel internationally
• Potential to benefit from longer-term business growth
• Competitive compensation & flexible annual leave allocation

Benefits of Working at The Business of Cities:
Working at The Business of Cities is not like working on a Grad Scheme or for a large organization. It is closer to a small start-up environment (fast-paced, iterative, constantly evolving). This means that:
• What you produce, compile, and write will be read by organizations around the world.
• You will have direct exposure to the Managing Director and global associates who will provide mentoring and support, but there is no formalized training program.
• There will be scope from early on to identify new opportunities and ideas that can be applied in the real world
• Deadlines typically come in time spans of hours and days rather than weeks or months.

Important Information
The role will suit someone who:
• Instinctively seeks to communicate multiple times per day.
• Is comfortable signing off on data or research that will be read and used by senior decision-makers.
• Is motivated by exposure and learning – ready to ask lots of questions and avoids unspoken assumptions.
• Relishes the opportunity to learn what matters to senior leaders in cities and corporations.
• Can shift from project to project seamlessly, often on the same working day.
• Has an appetite to take responsibility for their development.
• Shares works-in-progress and seeks guidance proactively.
• Has an appetite for and/or experience in getting involved in several parts of the business over time
Salary range
The salary range will depend on skills, experience, and location. Includes opportunities for regular pay rises, annual profit shares, and, longer-term, opportunities for ownership/directorship. Locations
Location
Our team is increasingly distributed and used to working primarily virtually via Google Meets, WhatsApp, etc. This role will potentially suit any of the following:
1. someone based primarily outside the UK who is flexible to participate in team dialogues at certain points in 08.00-20.00 UK hours on weekdays.
2. someone based for the foreseeable future in Oxford who is available for in-person teamwork 1-2 days per week.
3. someone based in London or within a 1-hour commute who could join our small core team 1 day a week in our central London office.

Application Process
Before you apply, please review these slides link (https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1aRG-PrPFR5TC4eAlaHPL7N6tDNb2cllUTxuO5XAchMs/edit#slide=id.gcb75d653ff_0_2001) to get an idea of the kinds of workflows you’ll be expected to quickly master, and which will comprise 80%-90% of your working hours for likely the first 12-18 months.
To apply, record a max. 60-second video or audio clip in which you succinctly introduce yourself, why specifically this role interests you and what you will bring to it, and if possible describe a previous experience managing a research project and communicating to a wider audience.
Don’t stress, we will not consider the production value of your clip. This exercise is simply an opportunity to speak authentically to our team and a chance to give a conversational answer to a ‘first interview question’. Please do not edit, add titles, filters, etc. (rest assured – we will process and securely dispose of this content by data protection standards)
Send an email with your CV and your video/audio to timmoonen@thebusinessofcities.com. There is no need for a cover letter.
A small number of advancing candidates (between 5 and 10) will be asked to complete additional steps, including a 2-3 hour technical exercise, and interview.

Noted Our roles typically receive well over 100 strong applications from around the world – we do our best but cannot promise to respond to every application. If you have not received an affirmative response from our team within 7 days of submission, we have decided not to proceed with your application.
Thank you for your interest in The Business of Cities!