Senior Performance Analyst (AI Chat)

Job summary

The Government Digital Service (GDS) is the digital centre of government — we are responsible for setting, leading and delivering the vision for a modern digital government.

Our priorities are to drive a modern digital government, by:

1. joining up public sector services
2. harnessing the power of AI for the public good
3. strengthening and extending our digital and data public infrastructure
4. elevating leadership and investing in talent
5. funding for outcomes and procuring for growth and innovation
6. committing to transparency and driving accountability

We are home to the Incubator for Artificial Intelligence (I.AI), the world-leading GOV.UK and at the forefront of coordinating the UK’s geospatial strategy and activity. We lead the Government Digital and Data function and champion the work of digital teams across government.

We’re part of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and employ more than 1,000 people all over the UK, with hubs in Manchester, London and Bristol.

The Government Digital Service is where talent translates into impact. From your first day, you’ll be working with some of the world’s most highly-skilled digital professionals, all contributing their knowledge to make change on a national scale.

Join us for rewarding work that makes a difference across the UK. You'll solve some of the nation’s highest-priority digital challenges, helping millions of people access services they need.

Job description

As a Senior Performance Analyst in GDS, you’ll be a leading voice for data and analysis within a multidisciplinary agile product team. You'll be responsible for analysing how users interact with government digital services and AI-enabled products, including LLM-powered chatbots and agentic workflows. You'll focus on digital (web and app) analytics but also work with data from other sources such as system telemetry and user feedback to understand both what users are trying to achieve and how AI systems are performing in helping them succeed. Your insights will drive prioritisation, helping product owners to focus on features that work best for users, increase task success and trust.

As a Senior Performance Analyst you’ll:

• provide leadership to product and service managers to identify what needs to be measured, develop hypotheses and test what success looks like
• own the management and development of analytical instrumentation and be responsible for accurate data collection implementation, to influence evidence-based decisions, support business cases and strategic prioritisation
• own and manage strategic work - e.g. community building and training; or analytics implementation policies for GOV.UK products; benchmarking and agreeing common performance indicators
• be proactive in working with other disciplines and datasets to enrich stories, for example
  • working closely with user researchers to combine the ‘what’ and ‘why’ of user behaviour.
  • influencing product managers, designers and developers, in the team and across departments, by developing strategies and recommendations for product improvements, based on the analysis of user data
  • work with data scientists and engineers to combine behavioural analytics, system telemetry, and qualitative feedback to understand both user behaviour (e.g. what users do and why) and system performance (e.g. hallucination risk, retrieval quality issues, incomplete task execution)
• lead the production of accurate, engaging and actionable analysis, reports and dashboards using judgement to tell engaging stories with data, relevant to the appropriate audience (from ministers to junior colleagues)

Support the Analysis Community

• help provide leadership to the analysis community of practice, both within GDS and across government. Develop best practice and knowledge transfer of digital analysis principles and techniques to wider audiences and expand your own and others’ data analysis skills. Forge links with other analysis disciplines
• line manage colleagues within a matrix structure
• create and share examples of best practice in digital performance management across government

Person specification

We’re interested in people who:

• strong proficiency with digital analytics platforms, such as Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager working with high volumes of data and using appropriate tools such as Google BigQuery, Dataform and APIs
• experience of working in an agile, project-based environment, focused on delivering user needs
• deep understanding of business objectives with the ability to translate these into clear, actionable performance metrics that drive results
• demonstrable success in developing implementation strategy, roadmaps, new processes, measurement frameworks, instrumentation, quality assurance, administration and analysis
• detailed understanding and practical experience of using different data tools to transform and analyse different data sets. An understanding of, and practical experience with data analysis and visualisation tools, e.g. Data Studio, Power BI or Tableau or experience in either python or R
• curiosity and willingness to develop understanding of AI systems, including LLMs, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and agent-based workflows, and how to evaluate their performance in production environments
• experience of gathering and understanding technical requirements and working with developers to build suitable technical solutions
• strong data storytelling skills - discovering and sharing analytical insight with stakeholders with various levels of analytical expertise and at all levels of seniority
• proven capability to inspire, coach, and mentor team members, fostering a culture of insightful analysis and creative problem-solving.
• ability to upskill non-technical team members—helping them to better understand data and analytics, and ensuring they can contribute effectively to the broader goals of the team.
• strong grasp and experience of statistical methods and AB/MV testing

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £56,850, Government Digital Service contributes £16,469 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).

There are many benefits of working at GDS, including:

• flexible hybrid working with flexi-time and the option to work part-time or condensed hours
• a Civil Service Pension with an average employer contribution of 28.97%
• 25 days of annual leave, increasing by a day each year up to a maximum of 30 days
• an extra day off for the King’s birthday
• an in-year bonus scheme to recognise high performance
• career progression and coaching, including a training budget for personal development
• a focus on wellbeing with access to an employee assistance programme
• job satisfaction from making government services easier to use and more inclusive for people across the UK
• advances on pay, including for travel season tickets
• death in service benefits
• cycle to work scheme and facilities
• access to an employee discounts scheme
• 10 learning days per year
• volunteering opportunities (5 special leave days per year)
• access to a suite of learning activities through Civil Service learning

Any move to Government Digital Service 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

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.
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).

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

The standard selection process for roles at GDS consists of:

• a simple application screening process - We only ask for a CV and two role-specific questions related to your experience, and one security question.
• Stage 1: Initial video screening for 20 minutes.
• Stage 2: 60-minute interview, including a 10-minute presentation, conducted via video conferencing. Details about the presentation will be shared in advance

Depending on how many applications we get, there might also be an extra stage before the video interview, for example a phone interview or a technical exercise.

While we value the use of AI technology to enhance our daily work, we also value the personal touch and urge applicants to write cover letters without the use of AI to emphasise their own unique experiences.

In the event we receive a high volume of applications, we will conduct the initial sift against the lead criteria which is:

• strong proficiency with digital analytics platforms, such as Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager working with high volumes of data and using appropriate tools such as Google BigQuery, Dataform and APIs

In the Civil Service, we use Success Profiles to evaluate your skills and ability. This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job, increases performance and improves diversity and inclusivity. We’ll be assessing your technical abilities, skills, experience and behaviours that are relevant to this role.

For this role we’ll be assessing you against the following Civil Service Behaviours:

• changing and improving
• making effective decisions
• communicating and influencing
• managing a quality service
• delivering at pace

We’ll also be assessing your experience and specialist technical skills against the following skills defined in the Government Digital and Data Capability Framework for the Senior Performance Analyst role

• Performance measurement
• Analysis and insight
• Communicating analysis and insight
• Technical understanding (performance analyst)

Want to know more about who Government Digital and Data are? Click Here

Recruitment Timeline

Sift completion: 10th July

Phone screening stage: W/C 20th July

Panel interviews: W/C 27th July

Candidates that do not pass the interview but have demonstrated an acceptable standard may be considered for similar roles at a lower grade.

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

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service D&I Strategy.

Sponsorship

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.

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a 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.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 : gdsrecruitment@dsit.gov.uk
• Email : gdsrecruitment@dsit.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : gdsrecruitment@dsit.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, you should contact gds-complaints@dsit.gov.uk in the first instance.

If you are not satisfied with the response you receive you can contact the Civil Service Commission by email: info@csc.gov.uk Or in writing: Civil Service Commission, Room G/8 1 Horse Guards Road, London, SW1A 2HQ.