Are you looking for a new challenge? The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is the UK’s largest producer of official statistics, covering a range of key economic, social and demographic topics. These include measuring changes in the value of the UK economy, estimating the size, geographic distribution and characteristics of the population, and providing indicators of price inflation, employment, earnings, crime and migration.
Surveys and Economic Statistics (SES) sits at the heart of the UK’s economic system, providing the information which informs decisions by government, business, and individuals, both nationally and locally. We produce a wide range of research, data and analysis to support understanding of the UK economy. SES produces essential economic statistics, such as gross domestic product, inflation, public sector finances, trade, and labour market statistics.
These roles work collaboratively across the organisation and engage with key stakeholders and user communities to produce and transform economic statistics.
Job overview
Technical Leads in the Development Delivery and Support (DDS) division will be responsible for providing expert leadership and support to development teams within SES. The development teams are at the forefront of delivering methods, sources and systems to improve the UK’s economic statistics.
In general, Technical Leads will lead a multi-disciplined team to deliver and support new or improved systems, data, methods or business processes in line with ONS’s strategic objectives. The role is focused on improving the statistical production methods of Economic Statistics by providing expert advice on concepts, systems or programming languages, depending on post location, to support the relevant development and production teams.
These improvements could be in relation to existing compilation methods, data sources or processes or through the development of entirely new methods, processes and/or data sources.
Person specification
- The ability to provide leadership, support and technical expertise to enable the delivery of transformative requirements in accordance with any Change Governance or Frameworks
- Management of individuals within a multi-skilled team of approx. 3 to 15 people.
- The ability to provide support and guidance to ensure that individuals have the capability to deliver in their respective roles.
- The ability to plan and monitor progress using appropriate reporting and monitoring techniques, and maintain delivery momentum.
- Management of relationships with internal and external stakeholders to support the delivery of agreed priorities • Provide priority support to business areas in the maintenance and development of SES live production systems.
- The ability to ensure that technical and analytical skills are kept up-to-date and to participate in and promote a culture of continuous improvement.
Essential Criteria
- Leadership - Strong leadership and management skills to create a motivated, high-performing team to produce statistics and analysis, with an emphasis on quality, pace and building capability to address key challenges
- Stakeholder management - A proven track record of working closely and collaboratively with others, to ensure that customer requirements are met, and their own work area is fully aligned with the wider organisational strategies and practices.
- Instigating and maintaining delivery momentum – The ability to solve issues and unblock problems, including successful conflict resolution, by keeping in touch with teams and stepping in when necessary.
- Building capability and innovation - Effective in creating a culture of personal development to increase capability by acting as a role model and by prominently allocating time for development activities within team plans
- Analytical and technical skills - Excellent quantitative analytical skills, a sound understanding of economic principles and the ability to easily understand methodological and industry specific technical concepts and explain complex issues to technical peers and non-technical audiences.
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Leadership
- Making Effective Decisions
- Developing Self and Others
- Seeing the Big Picture
Benefits
Alongside your salary of £56,861, Office for National Statistics contributes £16,472 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.
The Office for National Statistics is part of the Civil Service, and as such we share a number of key benefits with other departments, whilst also having our own unique offerings to support our valued colleagues across the organisation.
Whether you are hearing about us for the first time or already know a bit about our organisation, we hope that our careers site will give you a great insight into the benefits and facilities available to our colleagues, and our fantastic working culture.
Inclusion & Accessibility
At ONS we are always looking to attract the very best people from the widest possible talent pool, and we are proud to be an inclusive, equal opportunities employer. As a Disability Confident Leader we’re committed to ensuring that all candidates are treated fairly throughout the recruitment process.
As part of our application process, you will be prompted to provide details of any reasonable adjustments to our recruitment process that you need. If you would like to discuss any reasonable adjustments before applying, please contact the recruitment team in the first instance.
If you would like an accessible version of any of the attachments or recruitment documents below or linked to in this advert, please contact the recruitment team who will be happy to assist.
ONS are committed to flexible ways of working that support a healthy work-life balance. ONS has already considered how this job could be right sized for applicants working flexibly and we are happy to explore options with you about working part time, in a job share or flexibly, in line with our hybrid working policies.
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience.
Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action.
Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.
Selection process details
This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.
Security Clearance
For ONS the requirement for SC clearance is to have been present in the UK for 3 consecutive years immediately prior to applying and the department will consider eligibility by exception on a case-by-case basis. You will be asked to provide information regarding your UK residency during your application, and failure to provide this will result in your application being rejected.
At the point of SC application, you will need to provide or give access to the following evidence:
- Departmental or company records (personnel files, staff reports, sick leave reports and security records)
- UK criminal records covering both spent and unspent criminal records
- Your credit and financial history with a credit reference agency
- Security Services records
Visa Sponsorship
ONS are unable to offer visa sponsorship for this role. Applicants are expected to hold a valid right to work in the UK when employment commences. If you are applying on a time-limited visa, this will need to be valid for at least 18 months at point of application.
To work at the ONS, candidates must meet both UK right to work and security clearance requirements (where applicable).
If you are unsure whether you meet the appropriate right to work or security clearance eligibility criteria, please refer to the guidance on Gov.uk or contact the recruitment email provided in the advert before applying.
Failure to meet these requirements will result in your application being rejected and employment offers being withdrawn.
Application Process
Number of Stages: 2 stage process
- Stage 1: Application
- Stage 2: Interview
Stage 1 – Application
The assessment process at the application stage will be based on your work history, CV, skills, experience, and personal statement. It is important that your application is tailored to highlight the skills, knowledge, and experience relevant to the role.
A personal statement is required at application stage, the maximum wordcount allowed is 1250, which should not be exceeded. You should provide evidence for each essential skill criterion listed in the person specification.
As these criteria are scored, it is advisable to give clear examples for each one, including the impact of your actions, ideally utilising the STAR technique (Situation, Task, Action, Result).
Please note that Success Profiles Behaviour examples are not required at this stage of the application process.In instances where a high number of applications are received, the sift pass mark may be adjusted, and candidates will be invited to interview based on merit order, i.e., those with the highest scores.
Stage 2 – Interview
If invited to interview, you will be assessed using techniques aligned with the Civil Service Success Profiles framework, covering all behaviours listed in the job advert and any required technical skills.
You will be required to provide a 5 minute presentation at interview. The presentation topic will be emailed to candidates who have passed the initial online application stage, 1 week prior to interview. This presentation will assess candidates against the Success Profiles Behaviour 'Leadership'
Interviews will be conducted via Microsoft Teams.
A reserve list may be held for a period up to 12 months from which further appointments may be made.
Important Dates
- The Sift will be conducted from wc 22/06/2026
- Interviews will be conducted from wc 06/07/2026
Dates are subject to change.
For the full terms and conditions of the post, please see attachment.
Please note that all campaigns may be subject to withdrawal at any stage if the internal resource position changes.
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
Security
Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.
Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window). See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).
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.
Diversity and Inclusion
The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).
Apply and further information
This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.
Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.
Contact point for applicants
Job contact
Recruitment team
Further information
If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint, in the first instance, you should contact [email protected].
If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission.
Attachments
2721 Advert 1B Permanent - ONS National v1-00 - Opens in new window (pdf, 83kB)
