The ONS operates a flexible hybrid working model across the UK, with colleagues linked to one of our contractual locations working between office and remote throughout the week. The locations for this role are Newport & Titchfield (Fareham).
All colleagues are required to work from their contractually allocated site for at least 40% of their working time.
The induction process for the role will be conducted in person.
Job Summary
Are you a strategic and inspirational leader ready to drive real impact across a national organisation, by putting users at the core of our statistics.
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.
This post will oversee the development and management of the Population Census & Social Statistics Group User Needs Service. It will involve oversight of Topic Expert Groups; management of small teams and divisional management, including, direction setting, maintenance of an inclusive & supportive culture, and the development and rollout of best practice.
Available as a job share of 24 to 30 hours per week (up to 0.8 FTE) with a requirement for availability to work on Mondays and Fridays. Operational arrangements can be discussed with the hiring manager and post holder.
The role sits in Population users, Research and Engagement (PURE) division, based within the wider Social, Local and Census Statistics (SLCS) Directorate. Population user needs, research and engagement (PURE) division is largely focused around understanding our user needs. It is leading some cross-ONS work to establish a more consistent approach to using that information to inform better decisions. A part of understanding our user needs includes leading the Census Topic Consultation and the household socioeconomic and local (HSL) part of the transformed labour force statistics (TLFS). The latter is exploring what our users need from the TLFS and the quality of the transformed non-labour market statistics as they develop.
The Operational Delivery Profession (ODP) is the largest profession in the Civil Service. ODP’s 200,000+ members work in a wide range of operational delivery roles across government, providing essential services that support and protect UK citizens at home and overseas. They help to make ONS a great place to work.
As a member, ODP supports you by providing learning and development opportunities, career pathways, tools and resources to help develop your skills and progress your career. This is an exciting opportunity to join a modern, innovative and inclusive Civil Service profession that sits at the heart of public service delivery.
Job Description
The User Insight team (15 staff) is responsible for capturing, managing and sharing user needs across Population and Social Statistics (PCSS) group, and co-leading strategic work across the ONS output portfolio to ensure holistic prioritisation and maximise value to the UK.
In this role you are responsible for shaping and planning the efficient and effective operational teams and services. You are also responsible for effective budget, resource and risk management to ensure the delivery of quality data and services in line with requirements. You will oversee the cross-cutting functions and will promote effective performance management, ensure achieving of strategic goals, embed organisational values and behaviours, and ensure decision making happens at the right level not allowing unnecessary bureaucracy to hinder delivery.
Alongside delivery responsibilities you will play a key role in setting or delivering against strategic direction for the Directorate or organisation.
You will help shape roadmaps for improvement that aligns with the long-term strategic direction being shaped through directorate strategy.
You will be accountable to continue to grow and develop the leadership capability to achieve the effective change and delivery management to enable delivery of the strategic objectives. A critical focus being to sustain ongoing business delivery alongside the implementation of the new delivery model and leadership structure.
Responsibilities:
- Leading the implementation of operating models and leadership structure, ensuring alignment with strategic goals and stakeholder needs.
- Overseeing a large, complex business area, managing resources, budgets, risks, and performance to deliver high-quality outputs efficiently.
- Fostering a culture of innovation, adaptability, and continuous improvement, embedding system and process changes effectively.
- Providing strong people leadership, promoting diversity, inclusion, and a supportive work environment while addressing challenges proactively.
- Developing collaborative relationships with stakeholders to ensure effective planning, communication, and service delivery.
- Driving data-driven decision-making and empowering teams to take ownership of delivery and support long-term development.
- Championing learning and development strategies to build capability, addressing skill gaps, and supporting career growth.
- Strengthening leadership capabilities to handle complex employee issues and drive problem-solving.
- Contributing to broader strategic leadership and representing the division in key forums.
The User Insight team (15 staff) is responsible for capturing, managing and sharing user needs across Population and Social Statistics (PCSS) group, and co-leading strategic work across the ONS output portfolio to ensure holistic prioritisation and maximise value to the UK.
In this role you are responsible for shaping and planning the efficient and effective operational teams and services. You are also responsible for effective budget, resource and risk management to ensure the delivery of quality data and services in line with requirements. You will oversee the cross-cutting functions and will promote effective performance management, ensure achieving of strategic goals, embed organisational values and behaviours, and ensure decision making happens at the right level not allowing unnecessary bureaucracy to hinder delivery.
Alongside delivery responsibilities you will play a key role in setting or delivering against strategic direction for the Directorate or organisation.
You will help shape roadmaps for improvement that aligns with the long-term strategic direction being shaped through directorate strategy.
You will be accountable to continue to grow and develop the leadership capability to achieve the effective change and delivery management to enable delivery of the strategic objectives. A critical focus being to sustain ongoing business delivery alongside the implementation of the new delivery model and leadership structure.
Responsibilities:
- Leading the implementation of operating models and leadership structure, ensuring alignment with strategic goals and stakeholder needs.
- Overseeing a large, complex business area, managing resources, budgets, risks, and performance to deliver high-quality outputs efficiently.
- Fostering a culture of innovation, adaptability, and continuous improvement, embedding system and process changes effectively.
- Providing strong people leadership, promoting diversity, inclusion, and a supportive work environment while addressing challenges proactively.
- Developing collaborative relationships with stakeholders to ensure effective planning, communication, and service delivery.
- Driving data-driven decision-making and empowering teams to take ownership of delivery and support long-term development.
- Championing learning and development strategies to build capability, addressing skill gaps, and supporting career growth.
- Strengthening leadership capabilities to handle complex employee issues and drive problem-solving.
- Contributing to broader strategic leadership and representing the division in key forums.
Person specification
Essential Skills Criteria:
This role aligns to the ODP Cross Government Operations Manager role profile - Job Families and Role Clusters - Operational Delivery Profession
- Strategic thinking and planning – Able to take a whole system view, anticipate future challenges and align operational delivery to long term goals.
- Leadership and people development – Strong coaching and leadership capability, with a clear focus on growing leadership capacity and succession.
- Decision making – Confident, evidence based decision maker, comfortable operating with ambiguity and complex trade offs.
- Communication and influence – Able to communicate strategic intent clearly and persuasively to senior leaders, teams and partners.
- Change leadership – Skilled at leading through uncertainty and transition, maintaining clarity, momentum and trust.
- Problem solving and judgement – Able to diagnose issues quickly, weigh risks and benefits, and take proportionate action.
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Communicating and Influencing
- Leadership
- Seeing the Big Picture
- Making Effective Decisions
Alongside your salary of £68,199, Office for National Statistics contributes £19,757 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.
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.
If you are unsure that you meet the eligibility above, please read the information available on Gov.uk on this link, or contact the recruitment email on the advert before applying to discuss, as failure to meet the residency requirements will result in your security clearance application being rejected and any offer of employment being withdrawn.
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 can offer visa sponsorship as part of this recruitment campaign. However, applicants must still hold valid right to work in the UK at the point employment commences.
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, 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.
When a high volume of applications are received, the sift pass mark may be adjusted. Candidates will be invited to interview based on their merit order, with those achieving the highest scores being prioritised. Applicants who score below the adjusted pass mark but still pass will be placed on hold and may be invited to interview at a later date.
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.
Interviews will be carried out via Microsoft Teams.
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, when sift results are issued to candidates. This presentation will assess candidates against the Success Profiles Behaviour Communicating and Influencing.
Our main locations are Newport (South Wales) and Titchfield.
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
30/06/2026
Interviews will be conducted from
14/07/2026
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.
This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.
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.
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.
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).
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