The Analyst Programme 2026

The programme is three years in duration and includes opportunities to work across a variety of impact areas/​projects, experiencing different ways of working and differing roles within projects, allowing you to develop a broad skillset. Training, both on the job and in group settings, coaching and mentorship opportunities are used to equip you with the skills and experience required to build your career.

This programme is designed for those who do not have a degree but have up to three years’ work experience or those who have just completed their degree and are looking for their first role.

We are looking for individuals who are:

• Passionate about making a difference
• Intellectually curious
• Innovative thinkers, willing to challenge the status quo
• Self-motivated, adaptable, and confident to work independently
• Team players who can build good working relationships with a variety of internal and external partners

We work at the intersection of public services, user data, digital tools, and philanthropic and private investment, and ask questions like:

• Where should governments, donors and philanthropy focus their efforts to improve society?
• How do you design public services that can respond to changing user needs and stay focused on meaningful outcomes?
• How can data and digital tools be used to support better decision-making?
• How do you align financial success with social impact?
• How do you avoid introducing ethical, social, or cultural bias into solutions and services?

As an Analyst, you will work on various types of projects, supported by a more senior member of staff and project team. Social Finance aims to create social change in partnership with like-minded organisations, and we use various avenues to do this.

Systems thinking and design: Developing innovative and long-lasting ways of solving social issues, ranging from new funding models to policy approaches, to service re-design solutions. For example, we have brought together several front-line charities to design a new programme of behaviour change to reduce domestic violence that is being scaled with support from the Home Office.

Data analysis and research: From carrying out detailed data analysis to understand complex social issues, to helping government use their data effectively to make better decisions. For example, we draw together multiple data sets to identify which groups of young people are most at risk of poor long-term outcomes, such as unemployment, and use our conclusions to influence policy.

Advisory work: Assisting social sector and development organisations, and governments, to create new approaches to services and innovative funding mechanisms to underpin them. For example, we work with local authorities to design contracts based on the achievement of social outcomes to prevent young people going into care.

Fund design: From working with charities and foundations to design new ways for them to deploy their funds for social impact, to working with government to design new funding vehicles. For example, Social Finance in partnership with Macmillan, the NHS and a range of service providers and funders is pioneering a non-profit model of social investment through Neighbourhood Transformation Funds.

Partnership building and relationship management: From working with frontline delivery partners, to coordinating with a range of local authority partners, to bringing together diverse sets of funders and investors. For example Social Finance was one of three organisations (together with Respect and SafeLives) that jointly developed and deliver The Drive Partnership, a new model of working with high-harm and high-risk perpetrators of domestic abuse.

You will need to show potential and interest in the following areas, which will be developed over the course of your time on the programme. You are not expected to arrive with a full skillset, as this programme is designed to support you to learn:

Data and analytical skills: You have an aptitude for numerical information and analysis, including the ability to collect, gather and analyse information. You show attention to detail and can quality control your own work to produce accurate and reliable outputs in PowerPoint, Excel, and Word. During the programme, you will learn how to create the financial and operational models that support our work, drawing from comparable models in the business, social and development sectors.

Problem solving: You are able to look at a problem creatively and suggest alternative, viable and Impactful solutions.

Project management: You can document and organise your work, are able to prioritise and plan your own work streams, communicate project progress effectively, and invest your time appropriately to create high- quality products and meet deadlines reliably.

Communication & relationship building: You have excellent writing, listening and inter-personal skills, can summarise and share information effectively. You are able to develop insightful presentations of findings and conclusions. During your time on the programme, you will learn how to establish, support, and build strong relationships within and outside Social Finance.

Teamwork: You work well in teams and independently, are receptive to feedback and use it to continually improve.

User research & design thinking: You can design, coordinate, and implement research plans to understand service users and their needs. You can synthesise research data to build clear pictures of potential service users to feed into project/​product design.

We actively encourage applications from under-represented and minoritised groups, including those with lived experience of the social issues we are working to address. We are an equal opportunities employer.

We support a range of flexible working options and we can also accommodate secondments and part-time working.

We work on some projects where our clients may require different levels of DBS checking for our employees. Candidates deemed suitable for a role after interview will be asked to declare any unspent convictions to ensure that we are able to resource them to projects appropriately.