Grade 7 - Lead Data Scientist

Cabinet Office supports the Prime Minister and ensures the smooth running of government - from developing policy, to modernising public services. We welcome talented people from all backgrounds with the skills and the commitment to build a career in the Civil Service.

The Cabinet Office Purpose is:

• to maintain the integrity of the Union, coordinate the security of the realm and sustain a flourishing democracy;
• to support the design and implementation of HM Government’s policies and the Prime Minister’s priorities; and
• to ensure the delivery of the finest public services by attracting and developing the best public servants and improving the efficiency of government.

The work Cabinet Office delivers is vast and therefore presents opportunities to develop your skills and experience in a variety of critical government agendas.

An organisation of approximately 7,000 employees, the Cabinet Office is a vibrant, modern and exciting place to work, attracting a diverse workforce which represents the people we serve. Our main offices are in London, but we have staff based around the UK.

At the heart of this are our Cabinet Office values. To deliver our Purpose and help make Cabinet Office a great place to work, we all commit to:-

• treating everyone with Respect
• actively Collaborate, and
• build Trust

We have an aspiration to become the most inclusive employer across the Civil Service. We have a number of staff benefits, including flexible working, and access to a number of staff support networks to ensure we meet this.

Business unit information

The way HM Government handles security is changing to ensure that we provide world-class protection and security in an ever-evolving threat environment. The Government Security Group (GSG) in the Cabinet Office is the centre of the Government Security Function (GSF). These are led by the Government Chief Security Officer to improve and transform security practices, standards and professionals across government.

GSG is responsible for the oversight and coordination of protective security across central government departments, their agencies and arms-length bodies. The Group sets the strategy, policy and standards for Government security across people, physical, technical and information/cyber security, drawing upon expert advice from the National Technical Authorities and the Agencies. GSG supports Ministers, the Cabinet Secretary and Chief Executive of the Civil Service by monitoring departmental security performance and managing serious or pan-government security risks and incidents. It also supports the delivery of key security services to departments, including National Security Vetting, Cluster security services and capabilities.

The mission of Government security assurance within GSG is to understand the effectiveness of Government's security controls to enable Government to make well-informed security decisions. Our insights drive activity right across Government - providing better understanding and management of risk; informing changes to security policy, investment, the delivery of services, and advice from technical experts; and the development of security skills and capabilities.

In practice, we do this by making detailed assessments against security standards, simulating attacks from hostile parties to learn lessons, and collecting and analysing independent data points. In doing so, we work closely with a diverse range of stakeholders - Departments across Government, Arms Length Bodies, the intelligence community, law enforcement and military experts, the National Technical Authorities (the Centre for the Protection of the National Infrastructure, the National Cyber Security Centre, and the UK National Authority for Counter-Eavesdropping), private sector providers, international partners and other Government functions.

The team encourages innovation, critical thinking and multi-disciplinary working.

As the Grade 7 data scientist in the Assurance team, you will work within a fast paced environment that delivers robust insights and innovative solutions for government security assurance. Your work will focus on driving the team’s analytics and data science activities and delivering high-value projects that improve audience insights. You will lead on solutions in line with organisational needs that practically demonstrate the benefits of using advanced analytics and data science techniques.

Using your experience and expertise you will have the opportunity to shape and provide technical leadership across the whole data pipeline, from data integrity and reproducibility through to data science applications. You will do this in collaboration with other product, data and development professionals within and across teams. You will provide leadership in rapidly prototyping high-quality applications that meet user needs. You will persuasively advocate the value of these advanced analytics and data science approaches to varying audiences of both technical and non-technical people.

This role is free of line management
requirements at this stage and will be suited to applicants who are keen on carrying out analysis themselves. The job holder will be working with a multi-disciplinary team of security leads and analysts and will be the sole data scientist in the team. However, the Government Security Group has an active community of data analysts and developers who jointly tackle problems and come together to share expertise.

The role:

Responsibilities

• Spearhead data science and analytics within the Government Security Assurance team, providing best-practice leadership and development of data science and analytical approaches, balancing strategy with fast-paced impact.

• Develop and deploying robust automation, analytics and data science solutions into the business that meet user, stakeholder, and organisational needs, using a range of data sources, IT environments, and analytical and data science tools and techniques.

• Present data, analysis and visualisations in clear ways using narrative storytelling to communicate complex messages for instant insights, to a wide range of non-technical senior stakeholders.

• Create dashboards that draw in multiple data sources to help analysts identify potential security risks.

• Work with the team to understand the requirements of the annual Departmental Security Health Check (DSHC) reports, which detail departmental security compliance with the Minimum Security Standards. Propose better ways of visualising security compliance in insightful ways. Write and maintain the programme for automating report generation. Do so by linking in with Security Compliance Liaison Officers to understand how different scores should be presented in the reports.

• Respond to fairly short notice requests from the team to provide new data visualisations in response to briefing requests from Ministers and other seniors. This requires the ability to manage your work-load and seek clarifications on priorities or raise delivery risks if identified.

• Work with Government Security Group stakeholders to provide support to other priority projects where data scientists are required.

These are likely to include:

• Provide thought leadership, identifying future areas of innovation and showing how it can be applied to the assurance of government’s security

Skills/Experience required

The requirements outlined here link into the new Government Analysis Career Framework.

• Programming and build (data science). Strong programming experience using a range of coding practices to build scalable data products for a range of users within a technology context (e.g. Big data, unstructured cloud). Uses Agile/Waterfall techniques and is able to work as part of a delivery team. (Relevant skill level: expert) - Essential

• Data science innovation: Identifies efficient and effective ways to use data science to tackle business and organisational challenges, applying innovative techniques. (Relevant skill level: expert) - Essential

• Delivering business impact: Applies data science techniques to present, communicate and disseminate data science products to achieve and measure impact whilst maintaining user focus. (Relevant skill level: practitioner to expert) - Essential

• Ethics and Privacy: Understands the ethical considerations of potential data science approaches, and the legislation applicable in this area, i.e. GDPR, DPA etc. Awareness of existing Government and other frameworks. (Relevant skill level: practitioner) - Essential

• Data engineering and manipulation: Use data engineering and manipulation techniques to produce/ improve data product performance by selecting the most appropriate tools and technologies. (Relevant skill level: practitioner) -

Desirable

Specific experience required:

• Practical experience in programming for data analysis, including descriptive statistics, data visualisation, and reproducible analytical reports;

• Keen enthusiasm for using data science techniques such as, and not limited to, reproducible analytical pipelines and natural language processing.

• Proven ability to work independently with no technical direction provided.

• Track record of maintaining awareness of industry good practice and proposing new approaches

• Experienced programmer who can automate report generation.

Qualifications

Essential

• Mathematical knowledge, equivalent to a numerate degree.

Desirable

• An industry recognised qualification in Computer Science;

Applications

We will use the Civil Service Success Profiles to assess candidates, looking at experience set out in the Government Analysis Career Framework,
Behaviours, and Strengths.

Applicants should submit a CV and provide examples of occasions they have used the behaviours of Communicating and influencing, working Together, and Managing a Quality Service. Applications will be sifted based on experience and behaviours.

Candidates should use the CV to describe how they have applied skills in the Government Analysis Career Framework (such as data programming, data ethics and privacy, data science innovation, data engineering and manipulation) through their employment history and what that enabled them to achieve, as well as describe their education and qualification.

At interview, candidates will be asked to complete a technical exercise, and be asked to give examples of when they have exhibited key strengths. Details will be provided on the technical exercise in advance of the interview.

Please note that this role requires SC clearance, which would normally require 5 years’ UK residency in the past 5 years. This is not an absolute requirement but supplementary checks may be required where individuals have not lived in the UK for the required period. This may mean that your security clearance (and therefore your appointment) will take longer or, in some cases, not be possible.

Responsibilities

Please refer to Job Description