Head of Analysis

Job summary

Lead an analysis team within one of the AIEI’s research pillars, delivering high-quality, policy-relevant research and analysis on the economic impacts of AI. The distinctive purpose of this role is to ensure the pillar’s work programme is directed by clear policy demand signals and that complex, uncertain evidence is translated into insight that shapes decisions across government.

We are recruiting for up to 2 roles under this advert: 1 to lead the Modelling & Scenarios work programme; 1 to lead the Data work programme (noting, the Empirical Research part of the team already has a Head of Analysis). Please make clear which role you are most interested in.

Job description

The AI Economics Institute (AIEI) is a joint research organisation of HM Treasury and the Office for the Prime Minister and Cabinet (OPMC). The AIEI has been established to build and maintain the analytical capability needed to put the UK government at the forefront of understanding AI’s economic impacts. Announced by the Chancellor in the March 2026 Mais Lecture and launched in June 2026, it is the first government-backed institute of its kind in the world.

AI has the potential to substantially reshape the structure of firms, sectors, and labour markets. The opportunities are extraordinary. AI could drive productivity gains and unlock new sources of growth. At the same time, the transition also carries risks depending on the pace of technological development and how the economy adapts. The AIEI exists to build the data infrastructure, research capability and external relationships needed to assess these impacts rigorously and at pace, and to ensure the resulting evidence informs policy makers. The Institute will assess both opportunities and risks under a range of scenarios, examining how AI affects productivity, labour markets, firms, growth and the income distribution, with particular attention to how the gains are shared across regions, income groups, sectors and generations.

The AIEI is not a policy-setting body. UK government departments remain responsible for policy decisions in response to AI. The Institute’s role is to improve the quality and timeliness of the evidence and analysis on which those decisions rest. It focuses on priorities where it has a comparative advantage as a research institute at the heart of government, avoiding duplication of work that can happen equally well elsewhere, and engaging widely with academia, business and civil society to inform its work and contribute to public understanding.

The AIEI is modelled on the AI Security Institute, particularly in its research focus, its approach to bringing in external talent, and its access to advanced tools. It is a small, high-calibre organisation, planning to grow to around 35 FTE by the end of its first year. It will bring together talented civil servants with Research Economists who have hands-on experience of delivering frontier economic research. It is chaired by Nobel Prize winning economist and former Chief Economist of the IMF, Simon Johnson. A world-first ambition is to link private sector data, including AI usage data, to government administrative data, providing a unique and rich data ecosystem for empirical research. The Institute’s ambitions for developing world leading macroeconomic modelling capability are similarly high.

The two research pillars

The AIEI’s research function is organised around two complementary pillars set out in the published prospectus. All four role types in this campaign are being recruited into one of these two pillars, depending on the specialism of the candidate:

• Data & Empirical Research - developing the data infrastructure, measurement frameworks and empirical research needed to establish an evidence-based picture of AI’s economic effects as they develop, including causal analysis of AI’s impacts on productivity, labour markets, firms and workers.
• Modelling & Scenarios - connecting potential pathways for AI’s development and adoption to economy-wide outcomes, building cutting edge economic models and plausible but stretching scenarios, testing assumptions, and ensuring policy conclusions are robust to the uncertainty that remains.

Analysts and Research Economists

Each research pillar brings together two complementary types of role. In this recruitment campaign, we are hiring for both role types, at G6 and G7:

• Research Economists lead the most technical primary research projects, including methodologically demanding, causal empirical studies, and development of novel, robust economic modelling tools. This work will ensure the Institute’s evidence base is of the highest quality and at the frontier of understanding. These roles require deep, specialist technical skills, typically including a PhD and/or a track record of producing high-quality research.
• Analysts (this advert) bridge the gap between technical research and policy, carrying out a mix of their own primary research and analysis that synthesises internal and external evidence to answer policy-facing research questions. They are strong analysts in their own right, and their distinctive contribution is helping to answer the questions that matter most in government, drawing out the clear, policy-relevant insight to inform decisions. These roles demand the judgement and influence to drive research impact at the centre of government. Analyst teams will be interdisciplinary, covering the four Government analytical professions (economics, social research, statistics, operational research).

Both role types are essential, work side by side within each pillar, and carry equal standing in the Institute. The distinction is one of emphasis, not calibre: Research Economists lead frontier research; analysts deliver research and analysis that is policy-relevant, well-directed and lands with impact. Project teams may combine both roles, with responsibilities agreed according to the technical and policy-facing needs of each project. Whichever route you come in through, you will be working on the same critical questions – how AI impacts productivity, work, firms and growth - with unique access to data and modelling capability and proximity to policy decisions. The roles will also work together as a coherent research function, all contributing to the same research agenda, with strong collaboration across team boundaries.

Person specification

Key responsibilities - common to both pillars

• Create a positive and inclusive team culture and working environment, prioritising team wellbeing, mentoring team members, promoting development opportunities, and ensuring the team is well represented, visible, and their work is championed both internally and externally.
• Shape the research strategy for the team, ensuring the work programme is aligned with AIEI research priorities, policy demand signals and wider government objectives.
• Work closely with Research Economist teams so that both teams have a coherent and complementary work plan, with the Analyst team building policy-relevance on top of foundational Research Economist projects, as well as conducting its own programme of research into more policy-facing research questions.
• Work closely with AIEI policy and engagement colleagues to ensure research outputs inform the development of government policies.
• Lead the translation of complex and uncertain evidence into papers and publications that can inform advice for ministers, senior officials, OPMC, HMT and cross-government partners.
• Build and maintain relationships with external experts, industry stakeholders, data providers and analytical counterparts across government.

Pillar-specific responsibilities

• Data: oversee work to access, understand, and link new datasets, continuously exploring the data landscape for opportunities for AIEI to ingest relevant new sources of data, ensuring data engineers build infrastructure that meets AIEI’s wider needs, and building internal government and external partnerships with data owners and research teams doing similar work.
• Empirical: oversee empirical studies, monitoring frameworks and dashboards, evidence synthesis reports, and policy-facing briefings that draw out what the evidence means for policy (NB this role is already taken but included here for completeness).
• Modelling & Scenarios: oversee the policy-facing aspects of the team’s modelling and scenario work – particularly scenario development, ensuring assumptions are transparent, results are presented clearly and interpreted robustly under uncertainty, and scenarios are framed around the questions policy makers face.

Essential criteria - common to both pillars

• Proven leadership in building happy, high-performing, diverse teams and developing a positive culture and working environment.
• Significant experience in managing research and analysis teams and delivering strategic analysis in complex policy areas. This includes the ability to create the conditions for high-quality analysis, such as managing analytical risk and ensuring quality assurance.
• Strong working knowledge of quantitative research and analytical methods – sufficient to engage critically with the Research Economist team's work and explain it to others - including data (data pillar) and/or scenario and economic modelling (modelling pillar). This role calls for breadth and judgement across methods rather than frontier specialism in any one of them.
• A strong track record of translating research into actionable policy advice and influencing strategic decisions — the ability to identify the policy-relevant question and draw out the “so what” from complex analysis.
• Ability to tailor a team’s work programme to evolving departmental and wider government priorities.
• Ability to communicate complex findings clearly to senior stakeholders and non-technical audiences.
• Sound judgement and decision-making in situations involving ambiguity, uncertainty or competing priorities.
• Strong stakeholder engagement and influencing skills, including with external experts and cross-government partners.
• Creativity and a willingness to challenge conventional wisdom, question assumptions in others’ and one’s own work, tolerate ambiguity, and change direction as new evidence arrives.

Technical competency frameworks

You will be assessed against the framework for the profession you belong to, or are applying to join:

• GES Technical Framework
• GSR Competency Framework
• GSG Competency Framework
• GORS Technical Framework

More information on the Civil Service Behaviours: Success Profiles: Civil Service

Additional information

Cabinet Office policy is that a minimum 60% of your working time should be spent at your principal workplace. For some roles, due to their nature and the business need, this may be up to 100%. Requirements to attend other locations for official business will also count towards this level of attendance.

Qualifications

You must hold a 2:1 or higher numerate degree (economics, social research, mathematics, econometrics, statistics, operational research, etc), or a 2:2 with relevant work experience (which may consist of working in government, research agency, market research agency, or specialist research team), or other postgraduate qualifications.

Memberships

To be eligible for this role, you must either: (1) be a full member of one of the government analytical professions: Government Economic Service (GES), Government Social Research (GSR), Government Statistician Group (GSG) or Government Operational Research Service (GORS); or (2) be able to show that you (a) meet the eligibility criteria and (b) have the competence, at the required grade, for one of these professions.

If you are already a badged analyst, say which profession you belong to in your personal statement. If you are not, say which profession you would like to join, and make sure your CV shows the qualifications and experience relevant to that profession.

Behaviours

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

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Leadership
• Delivering at Pace
• Working Together

Technical skills

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

• Relevant analytical profession technical framework (linked above)

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £71,734, Cabinet Office contributes £20,781 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).

• Learning and development tailored to your role.
• An environment with flexible working options.
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity.
• A Civil Service Pension which provides an attractive pension, benefits for dependants and employer contributions of 28.97%.
• A minimum of 25 days of paid annual leave, increasing by one day per year up to a maximum of 30.

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.

Application process

You will be asked to provide:

• A CV
• A personal statement of no more than 500 words, explaining how your skills and experience meet the essential criteria. Please use specific examples and say which research pillar you'd prefer: Data, or Modelling & Scenarios.

Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.

Should a large number of applications be received, an initial sift may be undertaken using the personal statement.

Selection process

• Take-home technical exercise (offline test): a short written exercise based on a realistic problem the role would face. It should take around three hours, and you'll have one working week to complete it.
• Interview 1: a conversation about your experience and motivation for the role. It's also a chance for you to find out more about the AIEI.
• Interview 2: a technical and behavioural interview, including a discussion of your take-home exercise. We'll assess the Behaviours Seeing the Big Picture, Leadership, Delivering at Pace and Working Together, alongside technical competencies from your analytical profession's framework.
• Conversation with a senior leader: an informal conversation with a member of the AIEI senior leadership team about the role, the Institute's ambitions and your motivations.

For Behaviours, use the link here to understand the expectations at the grade of role you are applying for: Grade 6. For the Technical Competencies, please refer to the GSR Technical Framework,GES Technical Framework,GORS Technical Framework or the GSG Technical Framework.

We highly recommend learning about Success Profiles and using the Situation, Task, Action, Result and Reflection (STARR) framework when structuring your answers. In your examples you should include evidence on ‘how’ you demonstrated the requirements and the impact of your work, as well as ‘what’ you did

Expected timeline (subject to change)

• Expected sift date – w/c 30 November 2026
• Expected interview date/s – w/c 7 December 2026 to w/c 14 December 2026
• Interview location – Video interview via Microsoft Teams

Information session

An online information session will be held on Thursday 12th November at 13.00. To register for the session please email AIEI@dsit.gov.uk with subject "Research recruitment information session". Attendance will be anonymous.

Reasonable adjustments

If a person with disabilities is put at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:

• Contact Government Recruitment Service via cabinetofficerecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.
• Complete the "Assistance required" section in the "Additional requirements" page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you're deaf, a Language Service Professional.

Further information

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

Please note that this role requires CTC clearance, which would normally need 3 years’ UK residency in the past 3 years. This is not an absolute requirement, but supplementary checks may be needed where individuals have not lived in the UK for that period. This may mean your security clearance (and therefore your appointment) will take longer or, in some cases, not be possible.

Please be aware the levels of national security clearance are changing which may impact on the level needed for this role by the time of appointment. All efforts will be made to keep candidates informed of any changes and what that will mean in terms of vetting criteria. For more information please See our vetting charter

For further information on National Security Vetting please visit the Demystifying Vetting website.

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

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

Any move to Cabinet Office 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. Determine your eligibility at: https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk.

A reserve list will be held for a period of 12 months, from which further appointments can be made.

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

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

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.Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is counter-terrorist check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).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.The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).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 : Jack Snape
• Email : AIEI@dsit.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : cabinetofficerecruitment.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 in the first instance you should contact Government Recruitment Service by email at : cabinetofficerecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk
If you are not satisfied with the response you receive, then you can contact the Civil Service Commission at info@csc.gov.uk. For further information on the Recruitment Principles and bringing a complaint to the Civil Service Commission, please visit their website at: https://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/.

Attachments

Cabinet Office Employee Offer Opens in new window (pdf, 302kB)Cabinet Office Terms and Conditions - External 2025-02-20 Opens in new window (docx, 83kB)