Analyst - Government Cyber Unit

Job summary

DSIT

At DSIT we’re all about improving people’s lives by maximising the potential of science & technology.

We accelerate innovation, investment and productivity through world-class science, research and development.

We use technology for good by ensuring new and existing technologies are safely developed and deployed across the UK, with the benefits more widely shared.

We are driving forward a modern digital government which gives citizens a more satisfying experience and their time back.

We do all this to enable the Government’s 5 national missions: kickstarting economic growth, making Britain a clean energy superpower, taking back our streets, breaking down barriers to opportunity and building an NHS fit for the future.

Above all, we focus on improving people’s lives. Whether it’s researching new treatments for disease, developing better batteries, reducing burdens through better public services, keeping children safe online, and much more, outcomes for citizens are at the heart of what we do.

Our Inclusive Environment

We offer flexible working benefits, employee well-being support and a great pension. We are enormously proud to be a Disability Confident Leader employer. We support candidates with adjustments throughout our recruitment process. Information about disability confidence and just some examples of the adjustments that you can request can be found in the reasonable adjustment section below.

Please note

Former DSIT recruitment campaigns are continuing as usual, but candidates should be aware that following the Government’s announcement on the changes to some civil service departments, roles will be subject to the machinery of government moves and will ultimately be in one of the new departments. We will provide more information if you are selected for a role. This work remains of high importance to the civil service, and we thank you for your continued interest.

Job description

This is an opportunity to join the Government Cyber Unit (GCU), where we are working to create the conditions that will strengthen cyber security and digital resilience across public services. The GCU was created as part of the Government Cyber Action Plan (GCAP) which was launched in January 2026, setting out the government’s response to critically high cyber and digital resilience risks faced by government as a result of an escalating threat environment and low levels of resilience across departments and the wider public sector. Cyber incidents and risks pose unacceptable costs to UK citizens, including compromised personal data, loss of access to public services and threats to national security.

The role will be a unique opportunity to shape and embed an in-house approach to benefit realisation. Benefit realisation is the process of translating what is known about the value and impacts of a programme into timely, practical insight on delivery performance, enabling informed decisions to optimise outcomes while programmes are live, and ahead of formal evaluation evidence. The successful candidate will work closely with the GCU Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) team who will manage the programme M&E, as well as the GCU Data and Insights function. There is also an evolving evidence base which is currently underdeveloped and needs to be built up. Scoping the gaps and avenues for potential exploration and future analysis will be a core part of the role.

The analytical role will oversee development and delivery of the appraisal of multiple business cases over this Spending Review period. The immediate priority is developing the Business Cases for the cyber uplift service and the response function, which represent the central investment for delivery of the £260m GCAP. These will enable DSIT to hold government to account for managing cyber and digital resilience risks, set much stronger central direction on minimum standards and priorities for the transformation and investments in scalable digital services and operational capability to better enable risk mitigation.

Delivering these capabilities once and well will provide levers to address severe and complex risks, improve responsiveness to fast-moving events, and rapidly increase government-wide resilience through high-quality central services and support.

If you are someone who is inquisitive, enjoy problem-solving and excited to work across diverse projects, we would love to hear from you.

Person specification

Key Responsibilities

Priorities include:
• Work closely with the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) team to assist with analytical delivery of the Government Cyber Action Plan benefits management, including refining benefit definitions, updating benefit metrics, and ensuring alignment with indicators and milestones. Make sure benefits work is well-structured, productive and continues to improve as delivery, data and evidence evolve.
• Support the preparation of benefits-related inputs for dashboards, business cases, strategic reviews and evaluation deep dives. This may also include assisting policy teams to develop theories of change at a project level.
• Aid the development of the full suite of business cases from the £260m Government Cyber Unit Programme Business case, including the cyber uplift service and response function, providing analysis across the Five Case Model. Assist with the Economic Cases of these business cases, assuring quality and advising policy decisions on value for money and prioritisation.
• Provide analytical quality assurance across MEL products that include economic related content.
• Help to shape the evidence base for government wide cyber resilience, updating modelling of the benefits of risk reduction and avoided harms, as well as creating a framework for departments to assess the costs to them of cyber incidents.
• Provide economic insight to options analysis for the different policy areas in the GCU, including advice on costing these options, drawing on a range of evidence sources.
• Promote analytical standards within GCU, shape shared assumptions and translate complex analysis into clear strategic recommendations.

Essential Criteria

• Strong analytical experience, demonstrated through applied work using quantitative, qualitative or mixed methods to address complex policy or delivery questions.
• Experience working with imperfect, evolving or incomplete data and evidence.
• Ability to synthesise evidence from multiple sources (programme data, modelling outputs, research, external statistics) into clear, decision focussed insight.
• Experience communicating analysis to a range of audiences, in written and verbal formats.
• Ability to analyse and handle qualitative and quantitative data for the purposes of producing evidence to advise decision makers and influence policy choices.

The role is reserved for these badged Government analytical professions: Government Economic Service (GES), Government Social Research Service (GSR).

For candidates who are not badged under the GES or GSR framework, additional tests may be required before interview or additional technical competencies may need to be assessed at interview for badging. You will be contacted prior to your interview with further details.

Desirable Criteria
• Proficient in coding languages such as R, SQL or Python (training can be provided). Comfortable using Excel.
• Experience related to benefits management, value for money, appraisal or evaluation in government or large programmes.
• Experience working collaboratively with policy, delivery, commercial or strategy colleagues in a complex organisational environment.
• Familiarity with Green Book and Magenta Book.

Desirable skills will not be scored unless in a tie-break scenario.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Making Effective Decisions
• Working Together

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Competency: Analysis of Data (GES), Technical Skills (GSR).
• Competency: Effective Communication (GES), Leading, communicating and championing social research (GSR).

We only ask for evidence of these technical skills on your application form:

• Competency: Analysis of Data (GES), Technical Skills (GSR).

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £45,740, Department for Science, Innovation & Technology contributes £13,250 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology offers a competitive mix of benefits including:

• A culture of flexible working, such as job sharing, homeworking and compressed hours.
• Automatic enrolment into the Civil Service Pension Scheme, with an employer contribution of 28.97%.
• A minimum of 25 days of paid annual leave, increasing by 1 day per year up to a maximum of 30.
• An extensive range of learning & professional development opportunities, which all staff are actively encouraged to pursue.
• Access to a range of retail, travel and lifestyle employee discounts.

Office attendance

The Department operates a discretionary hybrid working policy, which provides for a combination of working hours from your place of work and from your home in the UK. The current expectation for staff is to attend the office or non-home based location for 40-60% of the time over the accounting period.

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

As part of the application process you will be asked to complete a CV and any technical skills required. Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.

In the event of a large number of applicants, applications will be sifted on the CV only.

Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift, or progressed straight to assessment/interview.

Link to the technical/professional competency framework that candidates will be assessed against, for their reference:

• Government Social Research Service - https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-government-social-research-competency-framework

• Government Economic Service - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ges-technical-framework-2022

The interview will consist of behaviour and technical questions.

Interviewees will be asked to deliver a presentation; further details will be provided nearer the time.

Sift and interview dates to be confirmed.

Further Information

Former DSIT recruitment campaigns are continuing as usual, but candidates should be aware that following the Government’s announcement on the changes to some civil service departments, roles will be subject to the machinery of government moves and will ultimately be in one of the new departments. We will provide more information if you are selected for a role. This work remains of high importance to the civil service, and we thank you for your continued interest.

Reasonable Adjustment

We are proud to be a disability confident leader and we welcome applications from disabled candidates and candidates with long-term conditions.

Information about the Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) and some examples of adjustments that we offer to disabled candidates and candidates with long-term health conditions during our recruitment process can be found in our DSIT Candidate Guidance. A DSIT Plain Text Version of the guidance is also available.

We encourage candidates to discuss their adjustment needs by emailing the job contact which can be found under the contact point for applicants section.

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.

If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out.

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.

A location based reserve list of successful candidates will be kept for 12 months. Should another role become available within that period you may be offered this position.

Candidates who meet the minimum benchmark may be placed on a Reserve List for consideration for similar roles, including those at a lower grade. Candidates who narrowly miss the benchmark and are not placed on the Reserve List may still be considered for an offer in a similar role at a lower grade.

Please note terms and conditions are attached. Please take time to read the document to determine how these may affect you.

Any move to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare; for further information visit the Childcare Choices website.

DSIT does not normally offer full home working (i.e. working at home); but we do offer a variety of flexible working options (including occasionally working from home).

DSIT cannot offer Visa sponsorship to candidates through this campaign. DSIT holds a Visa sponsorship licence but this can only be used for certain roles and this campaign does not qualify.

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service/Disclosure Scotland on your behalf.

However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-EmploymentChecks.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.

For further information on the Disclosure Scotland confidential checking service telephone: the Disclosure Scotland Helpline on 0870 609 6006 and ask to speak to the operations manager in confidence, or email Info@disclosurescotland.co.uk

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment.

A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5 year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.

Feedback

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a basic (or equivalent) criminal record check.People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : Aabia Afzal
• Email : aabia.afzal2@dsit.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : dsitresourcing.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Further information

Appointment to the Civil Service is governed by the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles. If you feel that your application has not been treated in accordance with the recruitment principles, and wish to make a complaint, then you should contact in the first instance DSITrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk . If you are not satisfied with the response that you receive, then you can contact the Civil Service Commission. For further information on bringing a complaint to the Civil Service Commission please visit their web pages: Click here to visit Civil Service Commission/Complaints.

Attachments

DSIT T&Cs v1.2 Opens in new window (docx, 179kB)