Performance Analyst
| Posting date: | 02 April 2026 |
|---|---|
| Salary: | £42,665 to £50,495 per year |
| Additional salary information: | National: £42,665 - £46,765 London: £46,060 - £50,495 For details of our pay on appointment policy, please see below under the heading ‘Salary’. |
| Hours: | Full time |
| Closing date: | 17 April 2026 |
| Location: | York |
| Company: | Government Recruitment Service |
| Job type: | Permanent |
| Job reference: | 455831/4 |
Summary
We sit within the Director General-lead Delivery Group and Group Corporate Services and work across departmental and group boundaries. We work collaboratively and across boundaries; from improving performance systems between Defra and its Arms Length Bodies to risk management at departmental and group levels, we are at the heart of Defra Group’s strategic delivery capability. And from the £5.2B floods defences investment programme to a National Biosecurity Centre for UK to reforms to move towards a circular economy, we are at the centre of some of the most exciting and impactful work in government.
Come join us to help put data and analysis at the heart of all we do!
The strategic performance team sits at the heart of Defra's delivery group and plays a key role in establishing how the department assesses performance and makes effective decisions about delivery. The team collates and analyses both quantitative and qualitative data and presents their findings to senior leaders and governance forums in engaging ways. We focus on drawing out insight that helps the department understand how to adapt its plans to maximise delivery. The team also leads conversations with counterparts in Treasury and Cabinet Office to agree the right metrics that support the department’s Outcome Delivery Plan.
Alongside performance monitoring, the performance team drives culture change to embed a robust performance system. We help to articulate the role and function of senior level performance conversations, identify the right range of data that is needed to support those conversations and put in place mechanisms that will draw out insight in a suitable and structured way.
The team is recruiting for a performance analyst who will:
- Refine how to monitor performance effectively by looking to improve data and metrics that with enable evidence-based decision making on how to adapt our delivery and overcome challenges to achieve our goals.
- Establish strong working relationships across Defra group to understand the most effective outcome metrics, leading indicators, and wider indicators necessary for robust performance monitoring.
- Collaborate and influence effectively to remove barriers to accessing data; and obtain agreement to present improved performance data to key audiences including our senior leaders, Permanent Secretaries, our Executive Committee and cross government audiences including HM Treasury and Cabinet Office.
- Analyse key performance information and advise on the insights and areas to highlight in key conversations to help support departmental performance.
- Work with others to understand the needs of key audiences in what they require for effective performance monitoring from Senior Responsible Officers of our Outcomes to the Executive through improving interactive dashboards and curating data visualisations using the consolidated data we collect.
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