Job Scope and Purpose
The Royal Society's mission is to promote excellence in science and the application of science for the benefit of humanity. A diverse and inclusive scientific workforce is central to the achievement of the Society's mission - bringing together the widest range of talents, backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences to maximise scientific innovation and creativity. The Royal Society recognises the importance of diversity and inclusion in driving scientific excellence, innovation and societal impact. Our EDI strategy is designed to ensure that all individuals regardless of their background, identity or circumstances have equitable opportunities to thrive.
The Diversity & Inclusion Team supports the Royal Society to embed Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) into all its activities, produce data and insight to understand impact and progress on DEI and engage with internal and external stakeholders to promote awareness and understanding of DEI in STEM. The team works closely with the Royal Society Diversity and Inclusion Committee, which oversees a programme of activities designed to achieve these objectives. The Diversity team also works in partnership with other learned societies and academies.
This role has been created to ensure that the Society does all it can to ensure that we support our staff in their knowledge, understanding and engagement with DEI. The role has an internal focus and plays a crucial role in creating and maintaining a diverse and inclusive workplace culture that promotes equal opportunity for all enhancing our brand and reputation as an employer of choice.
The main purpose of the role is to:
- Work closely with the Society's HR colleagues to support our ambition to be a truly inclusive employer.
- Work closely with the Society's Learning & Development Manager to improve knowledge, awareness and understanding of DEI across the Royal Society.
- Support our staff networks to thrive so that we can listen to, and learn from, the experiences of staff from diverse backgrounds.
- Work closely with the Society's Comms teams to promote DEI internally and externally, to embed the use of diverse imagery and inclusive language and to promote the Society's DEI work.
The role requires a thorough understanding of current issues relating to equality, diversity and inclusion for employers, a proven ability to build and maintain strong relationships with colleagues and teams and providing organisational development and learning on DEI.
Please note that we are unable to offer sponsorship for this role.
Reports to: Senior Inclusion Officer (Research Leadership)
Line manages: No direct line management
Pay band: C
Salary: £33,000 to £38,000 per annum
Contract type: Permanent
Hours: 35 hours per week
Location: Carlton House Terrace, London, SW1Y 5AG plus the option for some hybrid remote working
Closing date for applications: 17 April 2026 at 23:59pm
Interviews will be held: 29 April 2026
Key Responsibilities And Tasks
- Support the development of tools, policies, guidance, and frameworks that will implement inclusive practices across individual teams and organisation-wide.
- Develop general and bespoke DEI resources, including Equality Act resources, provide learning and development and commission inclusion training based on identified learning needs across the organisation and teams, working closely with the L&D manager to ensure prioritisation and effective dissemination.
- Work closely with our HR colleagues and staff networks to design and deliver learning experiences, communications, and engagement plans, ensuring our staff have the development they need to support organisational adoption of new inclusive practices.
- Work with the Inclusion Officer (Practices) to co-create DEI resources, learning and training to ensure that the necessary knowledge and skills are in place to successfully embed DEI change.
- Evaluate the impact of resources, development and training to ensure the organisation continues to develop knowledge, awareness and understanding of DEI.
- Working with HR, support the Society to commit to DEI accreditation schemes and develop and deliver actions with HR and other internal colleagues to meet the requirements of these.
- Support our three staff networks to thrive by ensuring they are well led, have agreed delivery plans and run effective events and celebrations that have an impact on the organisation. Support other staff networks to develop as appropriate and agreed.
- Work closely with the Royal Society Communications teams to raise awareness of DEI across the Society and to develop our approach to embedding inclusive language and imagery throughout all that we do.
- Support the Society to celebrate Awareness Days and other events, working closely with the staff networks, HR, L&D and other teams as appropriate.
- Stay up to date with best practice and wider research and ensure that this knowledge is shared and applied to maximum effect within the organisation.
- Support the administration of the D&I team more generally as and when required, including organising team meetings and activities and maintaining our intranet pages.
Education/Qualifications/Knowledge
Key Knowledge and Skills Required
A good standard of education - Essential
Evidence of continuing professional development in DEI - Essential
Understanding of the Equality Act and how it applies in different contexts - Essential
An enthusiastic team player, with experience of collaborative working and co-creating solutions to embed DEI knowledge, awareness and understanding - Essential
Strong project management and organisational skills, with the ability to juggle multiple deadlines to time - Essential
Excellent communication and influencing skills with internal stakeholders at all levels of seniority - Essential
Experience
Developing DEI resources and learning and development initiatives to a range of stakeholders and diverse groups - Essential
Supporting the development and implementation of organisational policies that support staff from different and diverse groups - Essential
Building trusted relationships to support engagement with DEI initiatives and networks to enable long-term buy-in and culture change - Essential
Developing inclusive comms to promote awareness and understanding of DEI across an organisation - Essential
Supporting and developing staff networks - Desirable
Experience of working on DEI initiatives within the STEM academic, education, employment or research sectors - Desirable
Circumstances
Able to be flexible about working hours, including working evenings and weekends, and to travel on occasion - Desirable
Competencies
At Band C you will hold a more specialist role and will have increased responsibilty for your area of work and output. Pay Band C roles are described in the following dimensions:
Decision-making - Your work is varied, and you have a range of administrative or technical tasks. You take decisions in line with specific routines, guidelines, or procedures. You plan your own work and coordinate with others on how their work fits into the broader plan of activities. Supervision is available for issues that fall outside of existing operating guidelines or your realm of knowledge
Thinking challenges - The solutions to issues or problems are not always obvious and investigation is needed before choosing a way forward. Your initiative is required to help find ways to improve working practices and procedures in your area of work, in sorting out problems that occur in day-to-day work or improvements to work processes.
Communicating - You maintain relationships which involve liaison or coordinating with a range of internal and/or external contacts on mainly transactional issues and a range of levels
Developing people - You may be responsible for allocating work to, or checking the work of less experienced colleagues, or the supervision of temporary staff.
Managing Resources - You may perform activities such as reconciling information/data or analyses of expenditure or income, adhering to agreed procedures.
Applying knowledge & expertise - You require proficiency in, and keep up to date with, skills required for your area of work or technical skills acquired through relevant work experience and/or vocational qualification.
The competency levels for a pay Band C role are described below.
Self-management
Works unsupervised and can motivate self
Produces results under pressure
Can manage in stressful situations
Pushes for the best results
Can be innovative and offer solutions and suggestions when not initially obvious
Keen to be involved in organisational and corporate working groups informally or formally
Can represent section on some duties
Works within the Royal Society Values at all times
Working With Others
Contributes ideas and identifies opportunities to work with others both within the team and across the organisation
Willing to provide and accept feedback to and from sectional colleagues when requested
Produces succinct presentations and papers for senior colleagues, is a capable presenter and can explain topics and projects to a range of audiences
Understands when to seek senior advice on a wide range of matters and act upon it.
Resource management
Makes the best of internal/external resources and coordinates well with external partners to best meet the needs of the Society
Builds contingency into projects taking into account possible outside factors
Sets and monitors performance against quality and results orientated targets.
Focuses on both short and long-term goals
Critical thinking
Determines and clarifies the exact requirements of any situation
Checks information for accuracy and raises concerns if information is inaccurate
Extracts the key points succinctly, clearly and accurately
Puts forward suggestions for improvement concerning current processes or systems
Tries different ways of doing things to get the best results
Adaptability
Overcomes obstacles and is not deterred by setbacks; checks assumptions and first principles and works out alternative approaches
Reacts proactively to new challenges and works in a flexible manner to produce solutions
Provides feedback and participates in discussions surrounding new ideas approaches or projects
Managing people and relationships
Can delegates effectively if needed setting clear expectations and authority
May line manage or supervise others
Monitors results and feedback to own team on a regular basis constructively
Recognises others' contributions and acknowledges their strengths and limitations
Helps others to identify ways to improve their performance and encourages learning from others in the team
Prioritises supervisory responsibilities and carries them out in line with organisational policies
Understands and can identify client/stakeholder/staff needs and looks for opportunities to improve their experiences
