We encourage applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that represents the wider society that we serve. We pride ourselves on being an employer of choice. We champion diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued and a sense of belonging. To find out more about how we do this visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice/about/equality-and-diversity.
Overview
We have a permanent Head of Data Science role in our Data Science Hub within Data & Analysis at Grade 6, subject to qualifying conditions being met.
This is nationally based role, so the successful candidate will be appointed to a MoJ office location, which may include their nearest Justice Collaboration Centre or Justice Satellite Office.
The MoJ offers Hybrid Working arrangements where business need allows. This is an informal, non-contractual form of flexible working that blends working from your base location, different MoJ sites and / or from home (please be aware that this role can only be worked in the UK and not overseas). Some roles will not be suitable for Hybrid Working. Similarly, Hybrid Working will not suit everyone’s circumstances. Arrangements will be discussed and agreed with the successful candidate(s) and subject to regular review.
The salary will be flexible within the Grade 6 pay range depending on your skills and expertise, in line with the DDaT pay framework.
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 50+ people from a range of professional backgrounds. We most commonly use Python, R and Spark in our AWS Analytical Platform through our Macbooks, with data from the business that is extracted, transformed and loaded by our data engineering teams.
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 and have started getting live data pipelines, as new services are being built, and begin delivering 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
This is an exciting time to be taking on the Prison Data Science portfolio. We have a track record of delivering digital services to front line staff using wide ranging data science techniques, including the award-winning safety diagnostic tool, which helps our staff tackle violence in prisons.
Your role will be to build on these successes and expand the range of services we deliver to operational and policy teams; and especially to work closely with digital and data strategy colleagues to influence the wider prison digital and data transformation programme and ensure data and data science are at the heart of decision making for the next decade.
The role will include managing 3-4 lead data scientists, each with a small team, and working within Prison policy and operational colleagues; alongside data strategy and digital teams to deliver the exciting agenda outlined above.
Your key responsibilities will be to:
- Ensure that the team is aligned and navigating in the right direction. You will need to have technical expertise in cutting edge techniques and the business knowledge to define the vision across the probation portfolio in line with departmental objectives, timescales and budgets.
- Link the team well within the environment we are operating in. You will communicate with senior stakeholders and convince them of the strategic value of applying data science and work together to remove blockers so that the team can deliver efficiently.
- Develop team capability, act as a coach, mentor and role model and champion the adoption of best practice in data science from across government and beyond. You will look for opportunities to bring the latest research to bear on MoJ problems, whether through strategic partnerships with external academic institutions (e.g. Alan Turing Institute) or by developing these skills in-house.
- Provide strategic direction to SCS across the department on all things data science. You will work closely with the other data people to transform the way the department thinks about and uses data, ensuring that future major funding bids (including Spending Review) incorporate data science at their heart.
- Play an active role in making the Data Science Hub and Data & Analysis an inclusive and vibrant place to work.
Who you are
We’re interested in people who have:
- Strong knowledge of data science (e.g. machine learning and natural language processing) and a track record of leading teams to deliver data science products into production in an agile way.
- Strong strategic thinking and problem solving aligned with organisational goals, with ability to identify opportunities for data innovation and promoting adoption and learning of new tools and techniques where appropriate.
- Proven ability to develop capability of a team to tackle real-world business problems using a broad range of advanced analytical techniques.
- A track record of developing strong quality assurance and automated testing culture into analytical work, including producing robust and reproducible analysis using modern version control software.
- Ability to tell the story to technical and non-technical stakeholders, and have success working with diverse stakeholder groups to deliver data science products.
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 technology 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 one week, depending on the number of applications.
Those who make it through the next stage will be invited to a Civil Service Success Profile interview in August 2022, which will consist of a presentation and questions to gather evidence on the behaviours and technical skills outlined below. 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 Situation, Task, Action, Result and Reflection (STARR) framework when structuring your answers.
The highest scoring candidates that pass the interview will be offered the role. The whole process can take a month but we are hoping for a quick turnaround given the urgency of the role. 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, the details of which will be sent to candidates before the interview.
Behaviours
The following behaviours will be tested:
- Leadership
- Working Together
- 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 science expertise and technical leadership
- working practices
- programming and coding skills
Technical – Analytical Competency
We'll assess you against the analytical competencies depending on these two options:
- 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.
- Non-analysts who would like to join GORS will be assessed on achieving impact with analysis (see GORS Achieving impact with analysis competency). They must also possess a numerate degree (minimum 2:1, or a 2:2 with relevant work experience or a postgraduate qualification) to qualify for this profession.
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 Jonathan Roberts (Chief Data Scientist) at Jonathan.Roberts1@justice.gov.uk
Appendix
Examples of our work and ways of working:
Civil Service Success Profiles used for selection process:
Analytical profession frameworks used for assessing the technical analytical competency at interview:
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