Senior Data Scientist

Job overview

Data science is a broad and fast-moving field spanning maths, statistics, software engineering and communications. Data scientists will often work as part of a multidisciplinary team, using data and analytics to inform and achieveorganisational goals.

In this role, you will:

• be inquisitive
• explore and visualise data
• make recommendations to address complex problems and to inform strategic and operational decision making
• use data ethically and appropriately
• be innovative and adaptable
• explore existing and new data using a range of statistical tools and techniques, such as machine learning and predictive analytics
• find patterns in data and transform them into organisational insight

The Health Protection Information, Systems and Data team exists to enable high-quality, reliable, and accessible epidemiology and health protection data to support operational decision-making and analytical insight across the agency, with a focus on regional health protection and field services. This is achieved through managing and curating core health protection data assets, developing and maintaining operational data processes and services, and leading cross-agency transformation programmes. The team plays a critical role in bridging operational delivery, data engineering, and analytical capability within Health Protection, ensuring that data and systems effectively support frontline services and organisational priorities.

Main duties of the job

A senior data scientist will work independently and have a good understanding of a range of topics, including data science techniques, delivery methods and stages (such as minimal viable products), tools and technologies. At this role level, you will:

• develop complex solutions using a range of data science techniques, whilst understanding any ethical considerations
• understand the role and benefits of data science within the organisation
• support capability building within the organisation
• collaborate with others to develop data science solutions and outputs supporting the organisation
• prepare and manipulate data, and perform complex analytics
• present and communicate effectively

In this team, you will:

• build reproducible analytical pipelines / applications that support epidemiological analysis and operational delivery of health protection activities
• deploy and monitor applications and pipelines using OpenShift and Airflow
• write documentation which supports collaborative working
• engage with stakeholders across the agency to develop project requirements and ensure products meet user needs

About the broader GDD profession

The GDD Profession consists of people who work in a digital, data or technology specialist role. They design, build and run government digital services. They are responsible for the way we find, access and use data and for the technology infrastructure which support those services. There are currently about 18,000 people working in the Profession. The Profession consists of people working within specialist communities of practice. There is a full list of roles on GOV.UK:

Home - Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Applied maths, statistics and scientific practices.

You can apply analytical methods including exploratory data analysis, visualisation and statistical testing to reach accurate conclusions. You can use analytical approaches to interpret data confidently. You can summarise and describe data to support decision making.

Data engineering and manipulation

You can select and use the most appropriate tools and techniques to manipulate and transform the data for data science products. You can collaborate with data engineers.

Data science innovation

You can apply data science innovation in your approach to new questions, opportunities, data and techniques by using an inquisitive mind. You can improve methods and maximise insights. You can apply your data science innovation to produce creative solutions to data science problems.

Delivering Business Impact

You can understand processes, data and strategic priorities. You can apply data science techniques to produce and present data science products. You can design solutions that meet user needs, allowing for design and ethics standards. You can work towards the successful delivery of products and establish maintenance requirements.

Developing data science capability

You can work with data scientists and developers to share skills. You can ensure that your team can access the right technologies to create products. You can develop your data science skills. You can routinely engage with and update your continuous professional development (CPD).

Ethics and privacy (data science)

You can understand and comply with frameworks, standards and laws, including General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Data Protection Act (DPA) and the Equalities Act. You can work with legal, policy and public colleagues, government departments and ministers to clearly communicate ethical issues and ideas. You can store and treat data appropriately.

Programming and build (data science)

You can use programming tools to undertake analysis and create scalable data products. You can identify and reuse common approaches and code. You can document and test code to ensure its quality. You can understand the organisation's tech stack and get code into production by working with developers and architects.

Understanding product delivery

You can use different product delivery methods (such as Agile) and phases to make decisions. You can work collaboratively with other professionals. You can use knowledge of product management to deploy data science products into the organisation. You can show data science is used effectively to support products and services.

For a more detailed and comprehensive description please see:

Data scientist - Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework

Public health specific features of this role include:

• Work closely with epidemiologists to develop scalable, innovative approaches to extract, manage, and analyse epidemiological surveillance and outbreak data, and other datasets relevant to public health and developing an understanding of the strengths, limitations and caveats of various public health and epidemiological data assets to inform your analysis and interpretation.

Technical Expectations

• Act as a technical subject matter expert on data science applications across UKHSA where you are recognised as having specialist knowledge in that area.
• Support the implementation of Reproducible Analytical Pipelines (RAP), promoting reproducible analysis (i.e. analysis with a clear audit trail that explains how and why it was carried out) and the use of the software methods used to make analysis reproducible.
• Act as an ambassador on data science within UKHSA and across the health sector through presentations at various conferences, speaking engagements, and contribute to ministerial submissions, briefings and whitepapers as required.

Professional Development

• You should pursue a programme of continuous professional development in accordance with any relevant professional registration or statutory requirements, while maintaining appropriate awareness of service provider requirements.
• Identify, discuss and action own professional performance and training / development needs with your line manager through appraisal / individual development plan. Attending internal / external training events.
• To participate in all mandatory training as required, i.e. fire safety, information governance and all other mandatory training.

Other Duties

• The above is only an outline of the tasks, responsibilities and outcomes required of the role. You will carry out any other duties as may reasonably be required.
• The job description and person specification may be reviewed on an ongoing basis in accordance with the changing needs of the organisation.

Essential criteria:

• Strong proficiency applying analytical and statistical techniques across real-world codebases; practitioner level in SQL and in Python and/or R with fluency in Git-based workflows (branching, code review) testing and reproducible environments.
• Experience in wrangling, cleaning and preprocessing data in readiness for analysis, including working efficiently with large/complex datasets.
• Applied understanding of machine learning approaches (regression, classification, clustering), selecting suitable validation strategies (train/validation/test, cross-validation) and evaluating performance using appropriate metrics (e.g. precision, recall, F1, ROC-AUC) while addressing issues such as imbalance and leakage.
• Working independently and in collaboration with others to deliver multiple concurrent projects, managing scope, risks and dependencies and contributing to team practices (e.g. agile, code reviews, documentation).
• Highly proficient organisational skills with the ability to prioritise, schedule and re-plan to meet tight deadlines. Produces clear technical and non-technical documentation and keep accurate project records.
• Ability to construct and effectively communicate persuasive data stories using fit-for-purpose visualisation with clear narrative, communicating uncertainty, assumptions, caveats and limitations of the data.
• Solid understanding of quality assurance, data validity, reliability and confidentiality issues and statutory information governance requirements.
• Well-developed problem-solving skills and a flexible approach to developing solutions including stages between user requirements to product delivery.
• Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to influence, communicate, present and capture requirements from technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Make sound, evidence-based decisions within remit; escalates appropriately with well-reasoned options and recommendations.
• A first- or second-class honours degree in a numerate discipline, computer science or IT equivalent which demonstrates core statistical skills.
• OR have worked in a statistical/data science field and are able to demonstrate continuous professional development in statistics/data science at the same level as a foundation degree/HND (Level 5)

Desirable criteria:

• Understanding of techniques and applications of public health and healthcare intelligence.
• Experience in using a range of data sources, including clinical, epidemiological, environmental and socio-economic data to support efficient management of public health incident response and for research purposes including engaging with data owners and querying and linking data.
• Experience of producing analytical products (e.g., software packages, reports, dynamic visualisations/dashboards) for decision making.
• Experience of automating report production, deploying dashboards and/or APIs to a server.
• Knowledge of testing code and code refactoring to reduce computational timing/required resources.
• Knowledge of Kubernetes concepts and/or similar container orchestration platforms
• Experience of both R and Python
• Familiarity with AI concepts and tools.

Selection Process Details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles and will assess your Behaviours Experience &Technical skills.

Success Profiles - GOV.UK

Stage 1: Application & Sift

You will be required to complete an application form. You will be assessed on the listed 12 essential criteria, and this will be in the form of a:

• Application form (Employer/ Activity history’ section on the application)
• 1000 word supporting statement.

This should outline how you consider your skills, experience and knowledge provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with reference to the essential criteria. You will receive a joint score for your application form and statement. (The application form is the kind of information you would put into your C.V –please be advised you will not be able to upload your CV. Please complete the application form in as much detail as possible). Please do not email us your CV.

Healthjobs UK has a word limit of 1500, but your supporting statement must be no more than 1000 words. We will not consider any words over 1000 words.

Longlisting: In the event of a large number of applications, we will longlist into 3 piles of:

• Meets all essential criteria
• Meets some essential criteria
• Meets no essential criteria

If used, the pile(s) ‘Meets all essential criteria’ will proceed to shortlisting.

Shortlisting: In the event of a large number of applications we may conduct an initial sift, on the lead criteria of:

• Strong proficiency applying analytical and statistical techniques across real-world codebases; practitioner level in SQL and in Python and/or R with fluency in Git-based workflows (branching, code review) testing and reproducible environments.

Desirable criteria may be used in the event of a large number of applications/large amount of successful candidates.

If you are successful at this stage, you will progress to interview & assessment.

Feedback will not be provided at this stage.

Stage 2: Interview

Success profiles

You will be invited to a single remote interview.

Behaviours, Experience & Technical skills will be tested at interview

There will be a Technical Test.

Candidates will be provided with a representative data science task and data set. They will then have to construct a code-based solution.

The Behaviours tested during the interview stage will be:

• Changing and Improving (Lead)
• Working Together
• Delivering at Pace

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Location

This role is being offered as hybrid working based at any of our Core HQs. We offer great flexible working opportunities at UKHSA and operate using a hybrid working model where business needs allow. This provides us with greater flexibility about how and where we work, to get the best from our workforce. As a hybrid worker, you will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of your contractual working hours (approximately 3 days a week pro rata, averaged over a month) working at one of UKHSA's core HQs (Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, and London). Our core HQ offices are modern and newly refurbished with excellent city centre transport links and benefit from co-location with other government departments such as the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC).

Security Clearance Level Requirement

Successful candidates must pass a basic disclosure and barring security check before they can be appointed.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is Basic Personnel Security Standard (BPSS).

Eligibility Criteria

External : Open to all external applicants (anyone) from outside the Civil Service (including internal applicants).

Please note: The Digital and Data Directorate, where this role sits, is reviewing its Target Operating Model. While the process is still in the planning stage, some roles may be affected by future changes. We are committed to keeping candidates informed and will share updates as they become available.

Salary Information

If you are successful at interview, and are moving from another government department, NHS, or Local Authority, the relevant starting salary principles for level transfers or promotions will apply. Otherwise, roles are offered at the pay scale minimum for the grade, but in exceptional circumstances there may be flexibility if you are able to demonstrate you are already in receipt of an existing, higher salary. Pay increases are through the relevant annual pay award for the role and terms.

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