42609 - Senior Data Scientist / Data Analyst, Data & Analytical Services Directorate

We welcome and encourage applications from everyone, including groups currently underrepresented in our workforce and pride ourselves as being an employer of choice. To find out more about how we champion diversity and inclusion in the workplace, visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice/about/equality-and-diversity

Overview

We have one permanent role in our Offender Insight team in the Data Science Hub within the MoJ Data & Analytical Services Directorate at Grade Bb, subject to qualifying conditions being met.

The successful candidate will have the option to be based in London (10 South Colonnade) or Leeds (5 Wellington Place) with flexible working arrangements available.

The salary will be negotiable within the Grade Bb pay range depending on your skills and expertise as assessed in the selection process.

The Ministry of Justice

The Ministry of Justice is a major government department, at the heart of the justice system. We work to protect and advance the principles of justice. Our vision is to deliver a world-class justice system that works for everyone in society. A key priority is to become strongly data and evidence driven by ensuring it is used to improve our business performance and the justice system for our citizens.

The Data Science Hub

The Data Science Hub sits at the heart of MoJ’s push to use data to bear on some of the Ministry’s thorniest problems. We are a multi-disciplinary team of 40+ people from a range of professional and backgrounds.

We have delivered high impact data products that have been productionised and widely used across the business and adhoc insight that directly influences corporate, operational and policy decisions. These span the data science spectrum including automation, advanced visualisation, machine learning, natural language processing and optimisation. We are now collaborating with MoJ Digital with the aim of getting live data pipelines as new services are being built, with the plan to deliver data science products through these services.

You can find more examples of our work and ways of working in the appendix section at the end of this document.

What you’ll do

You will work as part of a multi-disciplinary team consisting of data scientists and data engineers as well as interacting with digital roles (product managers, user researchers, software developers etc.).

This post sits within our Risk and Offender Insight team, working with HM Prison and Probation Service to develop and maintain a set of actuarial risk assessment instruments, used to identify the reoffending risks of prisoners and people on probation. These identified risks influence the way that an offender is managed and their access to a range of services during their sentence. While our existing instruments have demonstrated good predictive properties, there is scope for further statistical development, collaboration with MoJ Digital to embed risk predictors as data science products in new services and with HMPPS to integrate prediction science into the way our staff work with individual offenders and the organisation’s development of new processes and policies. In this role, you would play a major role as we develop a new generation of instruments and ensure that they enhance HMPPS’s ability to reduce reoffending and protect the public.

You will also have the opportunity to contribute to:

• The vision for data infrastructure, data science, and analytics, recommending ways to improve the quality of our outputs;
• Influencing operational decisions through data exploitation and working with operational staff;
• A strong collaborative working environment within the team, and interacting positively with a variety of stakeholders to build community, capability and credibility;
• Building best practices such as version control, unit testing, code review, and well documented applications;
• The team’s awareness of the wider data science and data analysis landscape and emerging technologies.

Who you are

We are interested in people who have:

• experience of applying statistical predictive methods and techniques (such as survival analysis and multilevel modelling) to large complex datasets, and communicating risks to end users of these models;
• experience in writing clear and concise code, specifically in R, and using modern analytical and programming practice including quality assurance and version control;
• strategic thinking and problem solving aligned with organisational goals, with ability to identify opportunities for data innovation and to promote the adoption and learning of new tools and techniques;
• experience of working with diverse stakeholder groups to deliver data science and analytical products and explaining data concepts and practices to technical and non-technical stakeholders;
• a keen interest and, ideally, experience in criminology, psychology and/or related disciplines.

How to apply

You’ll need to submit an anonymised CV and Statement of Suitability as part of your application. You will not be considered if you do not provide both.

Your CV should be no more than 2 pages long and should show us your work history and previous experience. It should be well structured, succinct and written in clear language. Try to avoid just listing technological and methodological keywords; we are interested in how you have used different tools to solve problems.

Your Statement of Suitability should be no more than 750 words and should give us examples of how your skills and experience match those needed for this role. Consider giving an example for each bullet point, in the skills requirements ‘Who you are’ section and use work you have completed to demonstrate how you meet each one.

All these requirements are important for the job, however we do not expect candidates to be expert in all of them. Just give as much evidence as you can for each and make sure you cover ‘how’ you demonstrated the requirements and the impact of your work, as well as ‘what’ you did. Again, if you are interested in applying but are not sure you have all the skills listed, please do apply and give us the opportunity to consider you as a candidate.

Selection process

There will be an initial sift of applicants through comparing submitted evidence against the ‘Who you are’ bullets. This usually takes two weeks, depending on the number of applications.

Those who make it through the initial sift will be invited to a Civil Service Success Profile interview. In the Civil Service we use Success Profiles to help us find the right person for the job. We will be using a mixture of methods to assess your abilities, strengths, experience, technical skills and behaviours. We highly recommend learning about Success Profiles and using the Context, Action, Result (CAR) framework when structuring your answers.

The highest scoring candidates that pass the interview will be offered the roles. The whole process can take a month. Other candidates that pass the interview will be kept on a merit list for 12 months.

Presentation

At the interview we will be asked to give a five-minute presentation on a data science or data analysis project you have delivered. Details of this will be sent to candidates before the interview.

Behaviours

The following behaviours will be tested:

• Communicating and Influencing
• Managing a Quality Service
• Changing and Improving

In your examples you should include evidence on ‘how’ you demonstrated the requirements and the impact of your work, as well as ‘what’ you did.

Technical – Data science skills

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

• data analysis expertise
• working practices
• programming and coding skills

Technical – Analytical Competency

We'll assess you against the analytical competencies depending on these two options:

1. Existing analysts from all professions (GORS/GSS/GSR/GES) will be asked for evidence of how you meet the requirements of the relevant professional competency framework, with particular focus on communicating analysis and achieving impact.
2. Non-analysts who would like to join GORS, GSG or GSR will be assessed on achieving impact with analysis. Additionally, non-analysts looking to join GSG or GSR would need to be badged within 12 months and would need to ensure they meet the minimum criteria.

Please refer to the analytical profession frameworks in the appendix section for more information.

For Further Information

If you have any queries about the role or application process, or wish to discuss, please contact Philip Howard Philip.Howard@justice.gov.uk

Appendix

Examples of our work and ways of working:

• https://mojdigital.blog.gov.uk/2018/04/05/pushing-the-boundaries-of-data-science-with-the-moj-analytical-platform/
• https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2058802X.2020.1726654
• https://towardsdatascience.com/fuzzy-matching-and-deduplicating-hundreds-of-millions-of-records-using-apache-spark-93d0f095001f
• https://dataingovernment.blog.gov.uk/2019/11/06/fostering-a-data-science-innovation-culture/
• https://dataingovernment.blog.gov.uk/2019/10/30/engineering-the-data-of-the-future/
• https://github.com/moj-analytical-services

Civil Service Success Profiles used for selection process:

• https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/success-profiles

Analytical profession frameworks used for assessing the technical analytical competency at interview:

• Government Operational Research Service (GORS): https://tinyurl.com/y9q3akcg
• Government Statistician Group (GSG): https://tinyurl.com/y52hcsh7
• Government Social Research Service (GSR): https://tinyurl.com/y9gwny96
• Government Economic Service (GES): https://tinyurl.com/ybh95rm5

If you have any queries about the role or application process, or wish to discuss, please contact Philip Howard Philip.Howard@justice.gov.uk

If you require any assistance please call 0845 241 5359 (Monday to Friday 8am - 6pm) or e mail Moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@gov.sscl.com Please quote the job reference - 42609.