About the job

Job summary

About Government Internal Audit Agency

We are an executive agency of His Majesty’s Treasury (HM Treasury), established in April 2015 to improve the quality of internal audit provided to central government.

Most of the Agency’s people are professionally qualified internal auditors, accountants or investigators.

Many are also specialists in areas including counter fraud, project management, digital and commercial audit.

We lead both the Government Internal Audit Profession and the Government Internal Audit Function.

Our workforce brings with it a unique depth of experience gained in a wide range of government departments, related bodies and other sectors.

This enables us to offer a high-quality service based on cross-government insight and a strong understanding of our customers’ business.

In GIAA, we aim to be a great place to work and to ensure that we have the capability and capacity to make even more of a significant contribution to achieving A Brilliant Civil Service over the coming years.

Our initial focus was on becoming “a single audit practice”. We are now focused on taking GIAA to the next level so we can provide better insights and better outcomes for government.

Job description

GIAA is a leader in the use of data analytics in internal audit and counter fraud and investigation. We have built award-winning tools that are used both within the agency and more widely across government (see GIAA blogs on GOV.UK for more information). These tools use generative Artificial Intelligence and other advanced analytical methods. 

This role is to be a specialist in the application of data analytics in our Data Analytics team. You will develop scripts and applications using R and Python to prepare data, run advanced data analytics and report findings to auditors and investigators using impactful visualisations. 

You will provide training and support to increase data analytics capabilities across the organisation. You will also engage with data teams across government and in the private sector, and support research and development activities to learn the latest innovative techniques in data analytics. As you apply these to GIAA activities, you will improve the efficiency of our organisation.

Data Analytics Specialist responsibilities:

• Develop scripts and applications using R and Python to carry out advanced data analytics to support internal audit and counter fraud and investigation (CF&I) activities. 

• Produce and present reports detailing analysis outputs and visualisations for GIAA colleagues and customers. 

• Document, maintain and collaborate on code using tools such as DevOps and git. 

• Suggest and implement improvements to our current scripts, packages, data pipelines, applications and quality assurance processes, to incorporate coding best practices and quality standards. 

• Lead activities to upskill members of the GIAA data analytics network, and promote the benefits and use of data analytics across the agency. 

• Engage with data teams across government and the private sector to investigate new data analytics approaches suitable for internal audit and CF&I activities.

Person specification

You will be required to write a statement of suitability of up to 750 words setting out how your skills and experience meet the following criteria: 

Essential: 

• Experience in conducting advanced data analytics using R or Python to deliver services to customer’s expectations
• Communicate clearly and effectively the results of complex analysis to colleagues and customers who are not experts in data analytics
• Demonstrate an aptitude for spotting opportunities to connect business problems to analytical solutions, and interpret customer needs
• Experience managing stakeholders and customers and building strong relationships

Desirable: 

• Experience of one or more of the following areas: software development; maintaining Shiny or Django apps; natural language processing; data management; data visualisation; model review; prompt engineering for Artificial Intelligence
• Strong organisational skills and experience managing multiple ongoing projects at pace
• Have an innovative mindset and enjoy researching and horizon scanning to identify new methods and opportunities, and proactively working with others to implement them

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £53,661, Government Internal Audit Agency contributes £14,488 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths, Experience and Technical skills.

As part of our pre-employment security checks, if you are invited to interview and are not a current GIAA member of staff, you will need to bring: 

• Proof of identity, e.g. your passport or driver’s licence. Documents must be in date and valid.
• Proof of address, e.g. a utility bill or bank statement issued within the past 3 months
• Proof of your National Insurance (NI) number, e.g. letter from DWP confirming your NI number, or P60
• If you do not bring a UK or EU passport, you will need to bring other documentation of your right to work in the UK, e.g. your visa, biometric residence permit or birth certificate.

Further details regarding acceptable documents will be provided in the invitation to interview.

Please let us know if your contact details change at any time during the selection process.

Eligibility Statement

Individuals appointed to the Treasury Group will be subject to National Security Vetting. To allow for meaningful checks to be carried out applicants will normally need to have lived in the UK for at least 3 out of the past 5 years. A lack of UK residency in itself is not always a bar to security clearance but the Department will need to consider eligibility on a case by case basis using all information that can be obtained following a successful application.

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

Security

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.