Senior Data Scientist - Technical Innovation Lead - EXT

Job summary

Are you a Data Scientist eager to make a real difference in the UK?

We're looking for a Senior Data Scientist to join us at the forefront of transforming the statistical landscape. This is your chance to apply your skills to solve complex challenges, leverage diverse data sources, and deliver insights that shape policy, enhance statistics, and drive innovation.

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.

This campaign is for external candidates who wish to be based at either our Newport or Tichfield site. Therefore this campaign has been linked with the internal advert 468042 Senior Data Scientist - Technical Innovation Lead. If you are an internal candidate to ONS please apply via the other campaign.The selection and interview process will be combined, so you do not need to apply to both campaigns.

Job description

Data science is a broad and fast-moving field spanning maths, statistics, software engineering and communications. Data scientists will often work as part of a multidisciplinary team, using data and analytics to inform and achieve organisational goals.

In these roles, you will lead teams that will:

• Be inquisitive
• Explore and visualise data
• Make recommendations to address complex problems and to inform strategic and operational decision making
• Use data ethically and appropriately
• Be innovative and adaptable
• Explore existing and new data using a range of statistical tools and techniques, such as machine learning, AI, and predictive analytics
• Find patterns in data and transform them into organisational insight
• Deliver analysis that is fit for purpose and appropriately assured

A senior data scientist is a leader of data science, quite often with responsibility for managing and developing teams.

Responsibilities

At this role level, you will:

• Have a broad knowledge of data science techniques, use cases and potential impact, as well as the tools and technologies
• Have extensive experience in scoping, designing, assuring and delivering fit for purpose data science outputs and products that meet user needs.
• Work collaboratively with a range of experts in support of organisational objectives
• Communicate effectively and challenge delivery plans and priorities
• Navigate ethical and data challenges
• Challenge delivery plans and priorities
• Communicate and present effectively to a wide range of audiences

Person specification

Essential Criteria:

Community Collaboration: Practitioner - You can demonstrate all the skills at Awareness and Working level, plus you can:

• Actively support and contribute to the community (for example, leading the development and implementation of community events, supporting cross-community work, community working group involvement)

• Advocate for and role model participation in the community, exemplifying the value of community collaboration

• Advocate for and role model the sharing of knowledge and experience through mentoring, shadowing and coaching opportunities

Applied maths, statistics, and scientific practices:Expert - You can demonstrate all the skills at Awareness, Working and Practitioner level, plus you can:

• Identify opportunities to develop statistical insight, reports and fit for purpose models to support organisational objectives, while collaborating across the organisation effectively
• Critique and evaluate statistical analyses
• Understand a broad range of statistical tools, particularly those deployed within the organisation, use these appropriately and help others to use them effectively
• Use a variety of data analytics techniques (such as data mining and prescriptive and predictive analytics) for complex data analysis through the whole data life cycle
• Use model outputs to produce evidence and help design services and policies

Data engineering: Expert - You can demonstrate all the skills at Awareness, Working and Practitioner level, plus you can:

• Help to identify the data engineering requirements for any data science product, while working with data engineers and data scientists to design and deliver those products into the organisation effectively
• Understand the need to cleanse and prepare data before including it in data science products and can put reusable processes and checks in place
• Understand a broad range of architectures (including cloud and on-premise) and data manipulation and transformation tools deployed within the organisation, and can use these tools appropriately and help others use them

Data Ethics and Privacy:Practitioner - You can demonstrate all the skills at Awareness and Working level, plus you can:

• Work with stakeholders to identify and address ethical and privacy concerns
• Demonstrate and communicate how data ethical issues fit into the wider organisational context
• Research developments in data ethics and privacy to improve compliance and processes

Please see role profile attached.

Behaviours

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

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Leadership
• Managing a Quality Service
• Communicating and Influencing

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £56,861, Office for National Statistics contributes £16,472 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 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.

This role is part of the cross-government Government Digital and Data (formerly DDaT) profession framework. As a role within Government Digital and Data (formerly DDaT) at the ONS, we also offer benefits such as:

• Protected Learning Time to spend on your personal development and side-projects.

• A supportive and active Community of Practice which you will be expected to contribute to, helping ensure you and your colleagues get the training, development and opportunities you need to progress your careers.

We are committed to supporting our people’s wellbeing by offering flexible ways of working that support a healthy work life balance. We are happy to explore opportunities with you about working flexibly in line with our hybrid working policies.

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 and Experience.

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.

If you are unsure that you meet the eligibility above, please read the information available on Gov.uk this link,or contact the recruitment email on the advert before applying to discuss, as failure to meet the residency requirements will result in your security clearance application being rejected and any offer of employment being withdrawn.

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: Application

Stage 2: Interview

Stage 1 – Application

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

A personal statement is required at application stage, the maximum word count allowed is 1250, 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.

A presentation will be required at interview. This will be against "Seeing the Big Picture".

Interviews may be in person or via Microsoft Teams.

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

The Sift will be conducted from 16/07/2026

Interviews will be conducted from 28/07/2026

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

Near Misses

We often have similar roles available at different grades. If a candidate is suitable for a similar role or a lower grade than they have applied for, we may offer the candidate that role without the need to go through a further selection process providing the role has the same behaviours and essential skills.

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 : Government-Digital-and-Data-Recruitment@ons.gov.uk
• Email : Government-Digital-and-Data-Recruitment@ons.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : Government-Digital-and-Data-Recruitment@ons.gov.uk

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 Opens in new window (pdf, 83kB)Data Scientist Opens in new window (docx, 102kB)