Lead Digital Evaluator - Office for National Statistics - G7

Location

This role is aligned to ONS hybrid working principles, which are based on attending the office with purpose. The post holder will be expected to contribute to the organisation’s overall 40% office attendance, in line with business and role requirements.

The locations for this role are Newport and Titchfield (Fareham).

The induction process for the role will be conducted in person.

About the job

Job summary

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.

ONS is growing its exciting new Digital Strategy and Evaluation team within Digital Services, and we are looking for a Lead Digital Evaluator to take on a new role helping to shape how we understand, evidence and improve the impact of digital products, services and programmes. This is a new and influential role, offering the opportunity to build digital evaluation capability from the ground up and help ensure our digital work delivers measurable value for the public and for ONS.

Are you experienced in digital evaluation, Theory of Change, logic models or benefits-led approaches? Are you excited by the opportunity to lead change, set up new ways of working and bring your expertise into a growing team?

Digital Services is an exciting place to work, supporting the delivery of modern digital products, services and platforms at a time when technology, data and AI are rapidly changing how organisations operate. This role offers the chance to help shape how ONS evaluates digital impact, builds evidence of what works, and makes better decisions about future digital investment.

Job description

As a Lead Digital Evaluator assesses the design, implementation and outcomes of a digital product or service and whether it delivers value for the public and society. They may also be a member of a government analytical profession where evaluation is a core skill. 

In this role you will: 

• Work closely with delivery and policy teams.
• Develop ‘theories of change’ for products and services that explain links between activities, outputs, intended outcomes and unintended effects.
• Follow established monitoring and evaluation methods and government guidance.
• Produce evaluation plans.
• Design quantitative and qualitative research.
• Collect and analyse data.
• Communicate findings, including by publishing reports. 

Responsibilities

• Evaluation: Define an evaluation framework for quality assurance within evaluation and establish and evaluate the success and effectiveness of digital initiatives and report on progress to senior management.
• Ethics: Ensure data ethics is applied appropriately when formulating, implementing and evaluating digital products, programmes and services.
• Delivery: Evaluate digital services using appropriate techniques including process evaluation, impact evaluation, ‘theory of change’, experimentation and economic evaluation.
• Data analysis: Collect both quantitative and qualitative data and analyse that data using a wide range of analytical approaches.
• Stakeholder engagement: collaborate with stakeholders, external partners and other government departments to drive engagement of digital evaluation across the Digital Services Directorate and the wider ONS.
• Teamwork: Work with other Agile delivery disciplines throughout the product life cycle. 

This campaign is for external candidates who wish to be based at either our Newport or Titchfield site. If you are an internal candidate to ONS please apply via the internal campaign. Therefore this campaign has been linked with the internal advert 469866 .The selection and interview process will be combined, so you do not need to apply for both campaigns.

Person specification

Essential Criteria:

• Quality assurance of data and analysis (Expert) - Set up tools and systems for effectively assuring data and analysis across multiple teams. Use appropriate approaches for verifying and validating data and analysis. Influence senior stakeholders over data and analysis approaches. Coach and mentor others in assuring data and analysis.
• Monitoring and evaluation across the product life cycle (Practitioner) - Apply monitoring and evaluation techniques in multiple parts of the product life cycle. Recommend when to move forward and when to stop. Work with other Agile delivery disciplines throughout the product life cycle. Plan and proactively engage with stakeholders at the appropriate stage of the project.
• Evaluation planning and strategy (Practitioner) - Influence stakeholders to secure resources for an evaluation project. Identify evaluation and evidence needs. Ensure plans for monitoring and evaluation of products and services are appropriate and proportionate. Consider wider policy and practical constraints that affect evaluation strategy. Agree the evaluation approach with diverse stakeholders
• Communicating analysis and insight (Expert) - Communicate relevant, compelling stories using the most appropriate medium. Make complex recommendations at a tactical and strategic level.
• Evaluation delivery (Practitioner) - Evaluate digital services using some appropriate techniques including process evaluation, impact evaluation, ‘theory of change’, experimentation and economic evaluation. Collect quantitative and qualitative data. Analyse and interpret data you have collected and data from other sources. Use a wide range of analytical approaches, including descriptive and inferential analysis. 

Qualifications

Candidate to have an undergraduate or post graduate degree with substantial social research methods, including quantitative research methods (e.g. Economics, Psychology, Statistics). You will be rejected from the campaign if you do not have these degrees.