Head of Operational Research Hub
| Posting date: | 26 July 2024 |
|---|---|
| Salary: | £62,605 to £75,965 per year |
| Additional salary information: | National: £62,605 - £70,319, London: £67,640 - £75,965. For details of our pay on appointment policy, please see below under the heading ‘Salary’. |
| Hours: | Full time |
| Closing date: | 05 August 2024 |
| Location: | York |
| Company: | Government Recruitment Service |
| Job type: | Permanent |
| Job reference: | 363336/4 |
Summary
The Analysis and Insight Division (AID) sits in the centre of Defra. As a central team – we cover a wide remit of issues that span the breadth of Defra’s responsibilities working with policy teams and analysts across Defra, and coming within the line management chain of the Director of Analysis. We are responsible for leading on cross cutting and strategic analysis, including most recently on economic growth, and AI; providing specialist expert advice on areas such as behavioural insights, operational research, and evaluation; and providing analytical assurance in particular, to support spending investment, better regulation and fiscal events.
This is a new role which will lead our Operational Research Hub (OR Hub) in AID. You will be taking the opportunity to raise the profile and influence of operational research in Defra by joining the AID senior leadership team and identifying and taking forward strategic, cross-cutting and innovative OR projects. The scope of these projects extends to all the policy areas of Defra so you will be able to focus on the most impactful work of the Department.
This post is an excellent opportunity to lead a team that showcases the wide and varied range of operational research approaches, and to champion the role of operational research within analysis and policy making. Recent examples of our work have ranged from the development of a multi-purpose geo-spatial analytical tool to high-profile urgent modelling of domestic water bills, visualisations of complex processes and good flows to the mapping of complex regulatory environments.
In this post you will:
Set the direction, lead, manage and develop a team of a small team of operational researchers to deliver against priority areas of work, supporting them to deliver quality analysis and advice.
Form part of a wider leadership team, alongside a G6 social researcher, two G6 economists and the DD for analysis and insight to help ensure AID is a thriving, inclusive and great place to work. You will also have a leadership role within the OR community helping the head of profession for operational research to promote OR and more widely as an analytical leader championing the use of data to drive decision making.
Take ownership and successfully deliver a broad portfolio of analytical projects.
The OR Hub sits alongside teams of economists and social researchers who, together, make up around 45 analysts providing the central strategic analytical resource for Defra. We help enable the analysts and policy teams which are spread out across the Department, and the strategy teams in the centre of the Department, to deliver Defra’s key priorities. This ranges from providing a consultancy service for discrete projects derived from individual work areas, to identifying and owning emerging work areas with no established lead, or strategic projects which cut across multiple areas of Defra policy.
The work that the team takes on is varied, interesting and fast-paced, spanning the full range of OR from soft decision-making techniques through to data science in response to acute, strategic, and cross-cutting demands from across the department. Previous projects include rapid analyses for crisis response, multi-criteria decision analyses, land use modelling for Net Zero, process mapping of complex policy interventions, analysis, and visualisation of the characteristics of the Defra workforce, establishing data pipelines and dashboards for tracking the outputs of Defra Arms-Length Bodies. We draw on a range of skills, tools and techniques ranging from Vis Network in R, R Shiny and Python to Excel and softer skills.
The OR Hub is made up of a team of five talented operational researchers, with a supportive team identity. You will engage with senior stakeholders to set strategic direction and priorities for the team and agree impactful and timely analytical projects to take forward. These projects will provide the opportunity to advance your leadership skills and develop your creativity in finding solutions to novel analytical challenges.
As head of the OR Hub, you will also be available to support teams and colleagues across Defra with your Operational Research expertise. In the past this has involved teaching, sitting on steering boards, support for analytical quality assurance, and supporting the OR community. You will be instrumental in establishing, testing, and steering Defra’s technical data science infrastructure. You will have the opportunity to be an advocate for new functionality and support the integration of new tools into the Defra analytical community.