About the job

Job summary

We recognise the challenges that people with protected characteristics may experience on the job market and in their career progression. We are fully committed to being an inclusive employer and ensuring equal opportunities. We are keen to make our workforce as diverse as possible, and we hope to attract applications from underrepresented groups, including ethnic minorities, people with a disability, and people with gender diverse identities.

Have you got experience of coding and using visualisation tools?

Do you enjoy working with others to achieve common goals?

Are you interested in developing the evidence base underpinning transport transformation at local level across the country?

If so, we have an exciting opportunity for a Senior Statistical Officer to take on this brand new role with work which is of high political interest, and would love to hear from you!

Job description

This is an exciting time for the Local Transport Portfolio, as the government has recently made an extra £36b available for transport and infrastructure.  Much of this is the flagship ‘Network North’ initiative.  DfT funds are distributed through Local Authorities and go to a wide range of local transport programmes, ranging from highways maintenance such as potholes to larger schemes such as extensions of light rail in Manchester. 

This work is of high political interest as it overlaps with the government’s focus on levelling up.  In particular, the Transport Mission for levelling up aims to bring local public transport across the country significantly closer to the standards of London by 2030, with improved services, simpler fares and integrated ticketing.  This post will enable the Transport Mission to be delivered and monitored.

Whilst this post is located in the Local Transport Portfolio Analysis team, this role will also provide support to the Local Transport Statistics team in delivering key outputs and helping to enable associated projects related to Network North and data collection more widely across transport statistics. The two teams will work closely to ensure appropriate join up across different areas of local transport data and data collection.

Responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Using your data and coding skills to design, populate and maintain a database containing expenditure and project delivery information for each fund in the Local Transport Portfolio.
• Deploying a code-led approach to create new outputs and visualisations of data for your customers and improve processes, ensuring departmental and analytical best practices are followed. In particular, current team projects use R; it is expected that future tools used by the team will include SQL, BigQuery, and GitHub.
• Developing strong relationships with policy and project management customers to establish their data needs in terms of monitoring and evaluating project delivery, and provide service outputs accordingly. 
• Supporting the Head of Local Transport Statistics to progress priority projects related to local transport data collection and statistics, helping to consider and enable improvements to how we collect local transport data and aiding Official Statistics production where required.
• Developing effective ways to communicate analytical findings to non-technical audiences, including using dashboards and other tools.
• Managing a range of requests for analysis of statistical, expenditure and funding data, some at extremely short notice, from ministers, government departments, and other senior stakeholders – whether on the Local Transport Portfolio, Network North, levelling up, or any other areas covered by the team.

For further information, please see the attached Role Profile.

Person specification

About you

To be successful, you will need to be experienced at working with data in spreadsheets and databases, including being able to use a coding language such as SQL or R.

We are looking for someone who has a track record of applying data visualisation skills to large datasets, ideally using dashboarding tools such as PowerBI.

You will have good interpersonal skills and the ability to build constructive relationships with a range of stakeholders, whether analysts or non-analysts, both across the Department and externally. You will have the ability to translate technical information to non-technical colleagues, and to adapt your communication style to suit your audience.

Candidates must either be a member of the Government Statistical Service or meet the requirements for membership of the Government Statistical Service (see ‘Qualifications’ below). 

If you are not a current member of the Government Statistical Service and are successful in this recruitment campaign, you will be provided with an opportunity to become a member once in post and therefore need to be eligible to join.

Additional Information

A minimum of 60% of your working time should be spent at your principal workplace, although requirements to attend other locations for official business, or carry out detached duty in another DfT workplace, will also count towards this level of attendance.

This role will require occasional travel to other DfTc offices for team events.

Benefits

Being part of our brilliant Civil Service means you will have access to a wide range of fantastic benefits. We offer generous annual leave, attractive pension options, flexible working, inclusive working environments and much more to support a healthy work/life balance.

Find out more about what it's like working at the Department for Transport.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

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

How to Apply

As part of the application process, you will be asked to provide a CV and Personal Statement (750 words). Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.

Please tailor your CV to suit the role. For your Personal Statement, please provide detailed evidence of the following:

• Experiencing working with data in spreadsheets & databases, and including a coding language such as SQL or R.
• Experience of data visualisation of large datasets, for example using dashboarding tools such as PowerBI.
• Good interpersonal skills and the ability to build constructive relationships with a range of stakeholders, whether analysts or non-analysts.
• Ability to translate technical information to non-technical colleagues, and adapt communication style to suit the audience.

The sift is due to take place 18th & 19th March 2024.

Interviews/assessments are likely to be 4th & 5th April 2024.

We will try to meet the dates set out in the advert. There may be occasions when these dates will change. You will be provided with sufficient notice of the confirmed dates.

The selection process will be designed specifically for the role. As a result, your assessment will include:

• An interview and presentation.

This interview could be conducted online via Teams or face to face at one of our offices. Further details will be provided to you should you be selected for interview.

You’re encouraged to become familiar with the role profile, as you may be assessed against any of the criteria recorded within.

The Department for Transport alongside other Government Departments recruit using Success Profiles. This means for each role we consider what you will need to demonstrate in order to be successful. This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job, drives up performance and improves diversity and inclusivity.

For further information on Success Profiles visit our Careers website.

Reasonable Adjustments

As a Disability Confident Leader employer, we are committed to ensuring that the recruitment process is fair, accessible and allows all candidates to perform at their best. If a person with a visible or non-visible disability is substantially disadvantaged, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.

Complete the “Assistance required” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need during the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at an interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.

If you need a reasonable adjustment so that you can complete your application, you should contact Government Recruitment Service via dftrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.

Document Accessibility

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.

This job advert contains links to the DfT Careers website. Our website provides useful guidance and information that can support you during the application process. If you cannot access the information on our website for any reason, please email DRGComms@dft.gov.uk for assistance.

Further Information

For more information about how we hire, and for useful tips on submitting your application for this role, visit the How We Hire page of our DfT Careers website. You can find detailed information about the recruitment process and what to expect when applying for a role.

Pre-employment Checking

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment. 

A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5-year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.

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.