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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.

Data Engineers are responsible for data products and services in ONS, primarily to support the ease-of-use and consistency of our data across our data platforms, enabling ONS statistical areas, researchers and wider external data users.

Curious about an exciting opportunity to develop your career as a Data Engineer?

Join us at our recruitment event on 24th July at 13:00 to learn more about the role, the profession, and the opportunities available. You'll hear directly from the Head of Profession and our current Data Engineers, who will share their experiences, career journeys, and insights into working within the profession. A recruitment representative will also be on hand to explain the recruitment process and answer any questions you may have.

Job description

We’re looking for someone with technical skills but also a great attitude, who is proactive, takes pride in the quality of their work and has an eagerness to develop their technical skills to the next level. We welcome applications from varied technical backgrounds including but not limited to: data science, infrastructure engineering, software engineering or related technical disciplines.

Day to day, our focus is on building and operating cloud-native services and pipelines on Google Cloud Platform (GCP) platforms, using native GCP services such as BigQuery, Cloud Functions, Pub/Sub, and Apache Airflow to ingest, process, orchestrate, and deliver data at scale as needed to support the growing work of a changing organisation. Your work will include data cleansing, validation, and enhancement processes to refine the quality and integrity of the data and prepare this for onward linkage.

We encourage training and development so that we can stay on top of changing technology. We have and continue to invest in the development of our staff with internal and external training opportunities.

As a Data Engineer in ONS you may:

Work across the lifecycle of ETL/ELT (extract, transform, load / extract, load, transform) pipelines that facilitate the movement and transformation of data across our systems.
Conduct data profiling and analysis to assess data quality, identify anomalies, and uncover insights that inform data pipeline design and business decision-making.
Develop and maintain internal software packages for Data Engineering.
Use tools across our tech-stacks, such as Python, PySpark, Cloudera Data Platform, Google Cloud Platform.
Optimise the performance of our queries and data pipelines.
Collaborate with various technical and business stakeholders to develop and deliver on requirements, to ensure our data and processes meet business needs.
Set, follow and ensure adherence to standard ways of working and good practice in Data Engineering.
Ensure governance and compliance of our data and processes in line with ONS policies and wider legal requirements.
Contribute to the evaluation and adoption of new tools, frameworks, and technologies that enhance the data engineering ecosystem.
Champion the role of Data Engineers within ONS and participate in ONS and Civil Service Data Engineering communities.
Take an active role in building the capability of Data Engineers within ONS

Responsibilities

Lead the design, build, operation and maintenance of a portfolio of repeatable pipelines to prepare and load data into strategic ONS data platforms.
Oversee the rollout of improvements to data engineering processes across a portfolio of repeatable pipelines.
Identify opportunities for innovation in our Data Engineering workflows and processes. Work as part of a team to deliver prioritised change projects to deliver efficiencies and improvements.

Person specification

Essential Criteria:

Programming and build (data engineering) - Practitioner - Use agreed standards and tools to design, code, test, correct and document moderate-to-complex programs and scripts from agreed specifications and subsequent iterations. Develop and review specifications where appropriate
Communicating between the technical and non-technical - Working - Communicate effectively with technical and non-technical stakeholders. Support and host discussions within a multidisciplinary team, with potentially difficult dynamics. Be an advocate for the team externally. Manage differing stakeholder perspectives
Problem management - Practitioner - Ensure that the right actions are taken to investigate, resolve and anticipate problems. Co-ordinate the team to investigate problems, implement solutions and take preventive measures.
Experience and familiarity with using the Google Cloud Platform estate.

Behaviours

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

Changing and Improving
Working Together
Making Effective Decisions

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £41,985, Office for National Statistics contributes £12,163 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 on 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

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 at point of application.

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 withdrawn.

For full guidance in relation to the use of AI through the recruitment process, please read A candidate’s guide to artificial intelligence (AI) in recruitment

Application Process

Number of Stages: 2 stage process

Stage 1: Application

Stage 2: Interview

Stage 1 – Application

Application stage will be based on your CV and your answers to the two technical questions. Your CV should be tailored to demonstrate any skills, knowledge and experience that are relevant to the technologies stated in the person specification, and the essential criteria. Instead of a statement, we have posed two technical questions to answer in 500 words per question that we would like you to answer with practical examples of your technical skills and experience, in relation to the specific question topic. These will appear after you start your application.

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

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 will be in person from either Newport or Titchfield.

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

A Sift will be conducted from the 06/08/2026

Interviews will be conducted from the 24/08/2026. Candidates will receive 5 working days' notice for interviews.

Dates are subject to change based upon availability.

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 :

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)Role1_Standard_Requirements Opens in new window (pdf, 76kB)

Salary range

£41,985 per year