We are recruiting for a Creative Technologist / Creative Full-Stack Developer

About the Innovation Growth Lab

The Innovation Growth Lab (IGL) is a global initiative based at Nesta that aims to make innovation and growth policy more impactful through new ideas, increased experimentation and better evidence. We work at the intersection of research and policy, working in partnership with governments, practitioners, foundations and researchers to test different approaches to accelerate innovation, entrepreneurship and growth.

IGL’s Data and Technology Unit uses data science, AI and technology in a number of ways to support this mission: we generate original research to understand the problems and options for policymakers; we also develop solutions that better enable policymakers to make decisions and design policies; we support governments in the uptake of new data, methods and tools. Through our network of governments and public agencies, we test our ideas in real-world projects and experiments with a focus on impact.

How will a Creative Technologist contribute to Innovation Growth Lab’s success?

As a Creative Data Technologist you will prototype and build digital tools in the service of IGL’s goals. The things you will help build will range from full-stack web applications; functional prototypes for user testing; and beyond. The Data and Technology Unit focuses on supporting governments, public bodies, funders, universities, and other actors in the innovation system to make decisions through the use of data and AI technologies, so you will be building applications with a heavy focus on these areas.

Projects might include building a tool to help assessors determine how to allocate funding for maximum impact and alignment with the strategic direction of an organisation. Or they might include building systems for regional governments to proactively reach out to innovators with support packages.

This role will suit someone with real-world experience of working in small multidisciplinary teams to (often individually) rapidly build and maintain prototypes or early stage digital products/MVP’s across the full-stack, often using established frameworks (like Ruby on Rails or Django/Python) and existing tech where it makes sense. The ideal candidate would be highly collaborative, outcome-focused and self-driven with the ability to take an idea or brief and simply and quickly turn it into a functional prototype or product alongside non-technical colleagues. It’s also very possible you will have skills beyond software engineering (e.g. arts, design, product, etc). You are more interested in quickly and simply delivering valuable digital products than tackling the most challenging and novel engineering problems.

The role

• Build software in service of our mission to improve science, innovation and business policy, and work closely with our multidisciplinary team (including data scientists) to identify and develop (through building prototype/MVPs and/or commissioning work externally) data and AI driven technological solutions with high policymaking impact.
• Make regular hands-on software development contributions independently or as part of a multidisciplinary team to rapidly build digital tools and products that meet users and stakeholder needs; releasing the smallest and simplest working software quickly and often, in order to learn, deliver value and continually improve/iterate.
• Simply and quickly turn ambiguous concepts or ideas into tangible functional or semi-functional software prototypes or products to demonstrate their potential and help us learn.
• Deploy and maintain the digital products and tools you help build including finding ways to make improvements and resolving faults quickly so they don’t happen again.
• Write clean, secure and well-tested code, following best practice guidelines.
• Work with non-technical colleagues/partners from other disciplines to scope opportunities for software solutions, understand what needs to be built, and adapt plans and tasks in response to new learning or requirements.
• Contribute to the activities of multidisciplinary teams you are part of beyond programming, including but not limited to participating in user research and testing; co-designing solutions; as well as defining requirements and project planning.
• Regularly pick up and explore tools and technologies that are new to you, as well as being pragmatic about when to use the simplest option (e.g. no/low code tools; reuse existing tech or services; etc) to deliver value to users and stakeholders quickly.
• Work with IGL’s experimental experts to test new products in real-world environments and generate evidence about their use in the science, innovation and business policy environment.

The person

Essential

• Programming and build (software engineering). You have experience of working in small teams or individually to rapidly build and release full-stack digital products using multiple languages and frameworks, including full-stack web application frameworks like Ruby on Rails or Django for Python, and are comfortable with core web technologies like HTML, CSS and JavaScript. You can quickly learn new languages and frameworks when needed and focus on using the best and simplest tool for the job, including no/low code tools where it makes sense. You are comfortable with Git and Github, and able to test, deploy and monitor software you build. As well as technical knowhow to make things that work you are familiar with good design and able to follow guidelines and specifications to build things that are usable and appealing to look at.
• Prototyping and product development. You have experience of rapidly developing and releasing (e.g. in a matter of days/weeks) early stage digital products and prototypes; then working iteratively with stakeholders and users to improve them. You can approach prototyping as a team activity, actively soliciting prototypes and testing with others. You can use a variety of prototyping methods and choose the most appropriate and are comfortable quickly putting together functional or semi-functional prototypes using tools and technologies that are new to you in order to learn, deliver value and continually improve/iterate.
• Service support. You can identify, locate and fix faults. And you can manage service components to ensure they meet business needs and performance targets.
• Information security. You can understand information security. You can design solutions and services with security controls embedded, specifically engineered with mitigation of security threats as a core feature.
• Systems design. You have a track record of designing and delivering the simplest working solution, keeping the architecture and technology choices of systems you design simple and proportionate to the maturity of the product and brief. You focus on ensuring a low complexity stack to enable small teams to rapidly release and maintain software iteratively. In collaboration with stakeholders you can select appropriate design standards, methods and tools, and ensure they are applied effectively. You can review the systems designs of others to ensure the selection of appropriate technology, efficient use of resources and integration of multiple systems and technology.
• Systems integration. You can integrate different technologies, balancing an appropriate mix of tried-and-tested with cutting-edge, to quickly deliver scrappy proofs of concepts or robust products; and you can establish and maintain appropriate levels of automated software testing to support this.
• User focus. You have a track record of building software that meets the needs of users and stakeholders. You can collaborate with other disciplines and can represent users internally. You can explain the difference between user needs and the desires of the user. You can champion user research to focus on all users. You can prioritise and define approaches to understand the user story, guiding others in doing so.
• Communication and collaboration. You have experience presenting technical concepts and effectively collaborating to deliver valuable software products in a non-technical environment. You are highly collaborative, outcome-focussed and self-driven with the ability to take an idea and make it real simply and quickly. You can act as a bridge between design and product mindsets, technical knowhow and non-technical colleagues.

Desirable

• You’ve successfully developed your own digital products (ideally with a social impact purpose) and/or have a product-mindset.
• Experience of building data products and systems that have AI features.
• Experience of commissioning and overseeing tech-related work.

What we offer

Salary: circa £57,000 or €57,000 plus array of benefits, including private medical insurance, dental insurance, the ability to buy and sell annual leave, eyecare vouchers and more

Location: Blackfriars, Central London or Barcelona - hybrid working arrangement, with a minimum of two days working from the office. Please note that for appointments made in the UK, employment will be with Nesta, while for appointments made in Spain, employment will be with the Barcelona School of Economics.

Term: Permanent

Hours: This is a full-time role but we offer a range of flexible working arrangements and encourage our people to take advantage of them. Many do.

Reports to: Head of Data Science and Technology

Making an application

To apply for this role, please submit your application before 8.00am on 17th April 2026

Interviews will take place w/c 27th April 2026.

At Nesta, we believe that a diverse workforce leads to an organisation that is more innovative, more creative and gets better results.

We want our workforce to represent the diversity of the people and communities we serve. We also want our workplace to be one where different experiences, expertise and perspectives are valued, and where everyone is encouraged to grow and develop.

This means that when we are recruiting, we actively seek to reach a diverse pool of candidates. It also means that we are happy to consider any reasonable adjustments that potential employees may need to in order to be successful.

We recognise the importance of a good balance between work and home life, so we do everything we can to accommodate flexible working, including working from home, compressed or part-time hours, job shares and other arrangements.

Please just let us know in your application or at any stage throughout the process (and beyond) if these are options you’d like to explore.