Operations Support Officer

Job summary

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is the UK’s largest producer of official statistics, covering a range of key economic, social and demographic topics. These include measuring changes in the value of the UK economy, estimating the size, geographic distribution, and characteristics of the population, and providing indicators of price inflation, employment, earnings, crime, and migration.

The primary purpose of Social Surveys Directorate (SSD) is to provide high quality data that underpins core National Statistics and the wider UK statistical system. While much of ONS is reliant on us for their outputs and statistical bulletins, the data we generate supports research, policy development and decision making across the wider public and private sectors, academia, and the general public. Social Surveys Directorate is also responsible for the overarching ONS Survey Strategy and for an ambitious portfolio including data collection, transformation and continuous improvement to better meet user needs through improvements in data quality, timeliness, efficiency and capability.

SSD is the largest Directorate in ONS, comprising approximately 2,000 colleagues, including the field communities, and split across six divisions.

• Social Surveys Field Collection (SSFC)
• Social Surveys Telephone and Ports Collection (SSTPC)
• Social Surveys Research and Production (SSRP)
• Social Surveys Strategy, Research and Innovation (SSRI)
• Social Surveys Transformation (SST)
• Social Surveys Central Division (SSCD)

Together we are responsible for many of the largest Social Surveys run in the United Kingdom.

The Operational Delivery Profession (ODP) is the largest profession in the Civil Service. ODP’s 200,000+ members work in a wide range of operational delivery roles across government, providing essential services that support and protect UK citizens at home and overseas. They help to make ONS a great place to work.

As a member, ODP supports you by providing learning and development opportunities, career pathways, tools and resources to help develop your skills and progress your career. This is an exciting opportunity to join a modern, innovative and inclusive Civil Service profession that sits at the heart of public service delivery.

Job description

The Operational Support role can have a wide range of responsibilities and requires the ability to support team leads and wider teams in day-to-day activities. You be responsible for administrative tasks, operational coordination, process improvement, and ensuring the effective running of operational services and delivery.

The role sits within the SSFC and SSTPC supporting functions, working closely with engagement and learning teams to provide operational support.

The postholder will support the smooth delivery of training courses, briefings, engagement sessions, and related administrative activities, ensuring these are well-coordinated and effectively delivered.

Typical Assignments

• Coordination of engagement activities – making room bookings, taking notes etc.
• Maintaining action logs
• Coordinating exit interviews
• Coordinating training feedback
• Producing management information from feedback, exit interviews and other sources to support area leads
• Supporting SOLD and Learning Partner teams with admin/booking of training and briefing sessions
• Oversight of shared inboxes

Key Responsibilities

• Using software and resources as a management tool to support production of MI and informing key stakeholders.
• Responsible for agenda coordination, meeting schedules and distribution of notes & actions, ensuring the key actions are followed up and monitored through agreed systems.
• Build and maintain good working relationships across forums to provide support.
• Coordination of team shared mailboxes and organising the associated SharePoint sites as a site owner.
• Managing and editing user access for systems and sharepoint.
• Cross checking data and information to ensure work is accurate, query resolution where required.
• Assist with implementation and transition to new systems.
• Taking notes and prepare documentation for ad hoc meetings as required.

Person specification

Essential Criteria:

• Effective communication & stakeholder engagement
  Builds strong working relationships across teams, manages shared inboxes, coordinates meetings/engagement activities, and ensures clear, timely communication (e.g. notes, actions, briefings).
• Operational coordination & organisational skills
  Manages schedules, training events, inboxes, action logs, and administrative processes to ensure smooth day‑to‑day delivery across engagement and learning teams.
• Data handling, accuracy & MI production
  Gathers, validates, and analyses data (e.g. feedback, exit interviews), producing accurate management information to support decision-making and inform stakeholders.
• Continuous improvement & problem solving
  Uses feedback and insight to identify process improvements, supports system changes, and helps enhance service delivery and operational efficiency.
• Collaboration, adaptability & workload management
  Works effectively with others, responds flexibly to changing priorities, manages competing demands, and supports multiple teams at pace.
• Decision-making & initiative
  Makes timely, well-informed decisions, escalates or recommends actions appropriately, and takes ownership of tasks and follow-through.

Behaviours

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

• Communicating and Influencing
• Changing and Improving
• Managing a Quality Service
• Delivering at Pace

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £28,138, Office for National Statistics contributes £8,151 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

The Office for National Statistics is part of the Civil Service, and as such we share a number of key benefits with other departments, whilst also having our own unique offerings to support our valued colleagues across the organisation.

Whether you are hearing about us for the first time or already know a bit about our organisation, we hope that our careers site will give you a great insight into the benefits and facilities available to our colleagues, and our fantastic working culture.

Inclusion & Accessibility

At ONS we are always looking to attract the very best people from the widest possible talent pool, and we are proud to be an inclusive, equal opportunities employer. As a Disability Confident Leader we’re committed to ensuring that all candidates are treated fairly throughout the recruitment process.

As part of our application process, you will be prompted to provide details of any reasonable adjustments to our recruitment process that you need. If you would like to discuss any reasonable adjustments before applying, please contact the recruitment team in the first instance.

If you would like an accessible version of any of the attachments or recruitment documents below or linked to in this advert, please contact the recruitment team who will be happy to assist.

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, Ability and Experience.

Visa Sponsorship:

ONS are unable to offer visa sponsorship for this role. Applicants are expected to hold a valid right to work in the UK when employment commences. If you are applying on a time-limited visa, this will need to be valid for at least 18 months.

To work at the ONS, candidates must meet both UK right to work and security clearance requirements (where applicable).

If you are unsure whether you meet the appropriate right to work or security clearance eligibility criteria, please refer to the guidance on Gov.uk or contact the recruitment email provided in the advert before applying. Failure to meet these requirements will result in your application being rejected and employment offers being

Security Clearance

For ONS the requirement for SC clearance is to have been present in the UK for 3 consecutive years immediately prior to applying and the department will consider eligibility by exception on a case-by-case basis. You will be asked to provide information regarding your UK residency during your application, and failure to provide this will result in your application being rejected.

At the point of SC application, you will need to provide or give access to the following evidence:

• Departmental or company records (personnel files, staff reports, sick leave reports and security records)
• UK criminal records covering both spent and unspent criminal records
• Your credit and financial history with a credit reference agency
• Security Services records

Application Process

Number of Stages: 2 stage process

Stage 1: Part 1 - Application & Civil Service online test. Part 2 - Completion of Application

Stage 2: Interview

Stage 1 – Application

Civil Service Online Tests

Upon submission of Part 1 your application form you will be sent an invitation to complete a situational judgement online test.There will be full instructions on how to complete each test including an opportunity to practice before undertaking the actual test. These tests are not time limited.

If you pass a test, you will then receive a further invite to complete each subsequent test if there is more than one for this vacancy. If you fail a test your application will not proceed to the next stage.

If you pass all tests for this vacancy, you will be invited to complete the final stage of your application, this is where you will provide information such as your work history. Skills and experience and Personal Statement.

The assessment process at the full application stage will be based on your work history, skills, experience, and personal statement. It is important that your application is tailored to highlight the skills, knowledge, and experience relevant to the role.

The personal statement required at application stage, has a maximum wordcount allowed of 1000, which should not be exceeded. You should provide evidence for each essential skill criterion listed in the person specification. As these criteria are scored, it is advisable to give clear examples for each one, including the impact of your actions, ideally utilising the STAR technique (Situation, Task, Action, Result).

Please note that Success Profiles Behaviour examples are not required at this stage of the application process.

When a high volume of applications are received, the sift pass mark may be adjusted. Candidates will be invited to interview based on their merit order, with those achieving the highest scores being prioritised. Applicants who score below the adjusted pass mark but still pass will be placed on hold and may be invited to interview at a later date.

Stage 2 – Interview

If invited to interview, you will be assessed using techniques aligned with the Civil Service Success Profiles framework, covering all behaviours listed in the job advert and any required technical skills.

Interviews may be in person or via Microsoft Teams.

Our main locations are Newport (South Wales), Titchfield.

A reserve list may be held for a period up to 12 months from which further appointments may be made.

Important Dates:

The Sift will be conducted from w/c25/06/2026

Interviews will be conducted from w/c 13/07/2026

Dates are subject to change.

For the full terms and conditions of the post, please see attachment.

Please note that all campaigns may be subject to withdrawal at any stage if the internal resource position changes.

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security 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.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 : Recruitment Operations Team
• Email : Recruitmentoperations@ons.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : recruitmentoperations@ons.gov.uk

Online test instructions

There is no time limit to tests, please ensure you read thoroughly. Also please try the sample tests also. Please ensure you allow enough time to complete the tests before the deadline - to complete the full application. There is a 2nd part application to complete should you successfully pass the tests. The 2nd part applicaitons is to complete your skills, experience, together with a personal statement of up to 1000 words ensuring you cover all the essential criteria of the role.

Further information

If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint, in the first instance, you should contact recruitment.complaints@ons.gov.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission

Attachments

2721 Advert 1B Permanent - ONS National v1-00 1 Opens in new window (pdf, 83kB)