Ministry of Justice

Job title    Senior Analytics Engineer
Directorate    Business Intelligence and Insights
Grade    SEO/Band B 
Role Type:    Analytical
Salary band    National:  £41,861 London:   £48,115 
Responsible to    Head of Statistics and Analysis
Base/location    National or London
YJB is National by Default.
YJB Roles are contractually based at the nearest MoJ Collaboration or Satellite Centre to the region they are allocated, but YJB staff work flexibly, including from their homes.
FTE/hours     Full time/: 37 hours per week 
Job type (i.e. fixed term/permanent/loan/secondment)    Permanent
Duration of appointment – months. (for fixed term, secondment, loan etc)    N/A
Security Clearance Required    Baseline (BPSS)

Who are we? 

The YJB is the public body which advises Ministers, including the Secretary of State for Justice on the youth justice system. Our ambition is to see a Child First youth justice system. A system which looks to children’s’ strengths and supports children to become the best version of themselves. In line with the Child First evidence base this will lead to reduced offending, safer communities and fewer victims. To this effect we engage with a wide variety of organisations, partners and parties with an interest in youth justice, we share good practice, champion improvement and issue grants.

Our recruitment is based on merit, we welcome applications from all who can commit to our vision and values, we offer considerable flexibility in how you work and expect commitment and flexibility in return. We continue to strive for equity, diversity and inclusion in our culture and our staff group to this end we encourage applications from those people with traditional protected characteristics. Our staff are public servants, eligible for the Civil Service pension scheme and we are accredited by the Civil Service Commission.  This means applications from across Civil Service Departments, their agencies and Arms-Length Bodies are treated as internal applicants.  We also welcome applications from those who do not work in these bodies.

Our Vision 

Working to ensure a youth justice system that sees children as children, treats them fairly and helps them to build on their strengths so they can make a constructive contribution to society. This will prevent offending and create safer communities with fewer victims.

Aims of the Youth Justice System 

Prevention of offending by children and young people:

• To reduce the number of children in the youth justice system
• To reduce reoffending by children in the youth justice system
• To improve the safety and wellbeing of children in the youth justice system
• To improve outcomes of children in the youth justice system 

Summary 

YJB is the only public body with oversight of the whole youth justice system. Research and evidence are key to our understanding of the youth justice landscape. This supports effective decision making, gives assurance to ministers that our advice has solid evidence base and supports the achievement of our strategic objectives.

This role sits within the Statistics & Analysis Team within the Business Intelligence and Insights Directorate. The Directorate gathers and interprets information from a range of sources (including data, research, and wider intelligence). This information supports: the YJB’s oversight of the Youth Justice System (YJS), helps us to understand how the system is operating and whether it is achieving its aims, and helps to identify future opportunities and challenges for children and the YJS. The directorate leads the organisation in gathering, developing and using data and evidence well.

Job Description

We are seeking an innovative Analytics Engineer with the technical skills to build and maintain data pipelines, understand organisational processes, and translate these into data structures optimised for analysis, work with data users to design and build data models they can use for effective analysis and decision-making, and support data quality improvement. We seek someone with experience and expertise in SQL and linking data from multiple systems. The role requires the skills and ability to explore, analyse and visualise data in a meaningful way to a range of technical and non-technical audiences.

You will:

• Develop and maintain data pipelines for the Statistics & Analysis team to access data.
• Source, access, manipulate and engineer data processes with large volumes of varied data.
• Work collaboratively across the directorate, the organisation and the youth justice sector to understand our evidence and to make sure it is fit-for-purpose.
• Enable a culture of evidence-based decision making and innovation in the sector.
• Promote analytical skills and the understanding of how they can be most effectively applied to solve business problems.

All posts within the YJB operate flexibly to ensure the requirements of the business are met and as such you may be required to undertake other duties in their role or duties in other parts of the business at their grade to meet business priorities.

You will expect to work within a matrix management approach often undertaking regular tasks alongside providing project support to wider programmes; you will be expected to take on corporate responsibilities in addition to your role.

• In carrying out your duties you will respect the YJBs commitment to equality of opportunity and the diversity of the YJB and its stakeholders.
• You will make sure you understand and adhere to your responsibilities in relation to health and safety and data protection.

Main Responsibilities

1    Build and review complex data models and products, ensuring adherence to standards.
2    Ensure data for analysis meets data quality standards and is interoperable with other datasets, enabling reuse.
3    Manage multiple competing priorities, effectively identify, and solve technical challenges as well as strong analytical ability.
4    Develop and deliver dashboards, to present the latest quantitative analysis and qualitative insights relevant to the Youth Justice Landscape.
5    Communicate and disseminate data products and analysis to varying audiences across the Youth Justice System.

Essential Skills

• Experience in creating and/or developing data pipelines.
• Have a demonstrable knowledge and understanding of the role of data integration and data process-flow.
• Proficiency in SQL.
• Experience with visualising various types of data in software such as Tableau.
• Experience in analysing data to draw new insight and present it to stakeholders.
• Strong communication skills – especially being able to explain complex technical requirements and solutions to non-experts.

Desirable Skills

• Agile ways of working.
• Presenting and leading.
• Proficiency in another programming language (e.g. Python) and willingness to learn more as needed.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles and will assess your Technical Skills, Abilities, Behaviours, Strengths and Experience. 

The assessment process will be made up of two parts:

1. Application
2. Interview   

Application

Please provide:

• A statement demonstrating in no more than 250 words the lead behaviour: Working Together.
• A statement, no more than 750 words, which sets out your suitability for the role. This should include how you meet the essential skills above and essential Technical and Ability criteria (outlined below). 

Essential Criteria

Technical:

1. Professional qualification e.g. Computer Science, Data Science, Statistics.
2. Membership of (or willingness to obtain when in post) an analytical profession such as GSG, GORS.
3. Skills as described at the Senior Executive Officer level for the Analytics Engineer in the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework and at the end of this job description.

Ability:

• Proficient in
• Proficient in MS Office suite, including advanced Excel skills.

Interview

The interview will be a blended interview with an assessment and focus on:  

• SQL Assessment
• Civil Service behaviours: Working Together (Lead), Seeing the Big Picture, Communicating & Influencing
• Strengths as described in the Success Profiles (this is a very particular style of interview please make sure you make yourself aware of these in advance). 

Civil Service Behaviours: 

• Working Together (Lead)

Encourage joined up teamwork within own team and across other groups. Establish professional relationships with a range of stakeholders. Collaborate with these to share information, resources and support. Invest time to develop a common focus and genuine positive team spirit where colleagues feel valued and respect one another. Put in place support for the wellbeing of individuals within the team, including consideration of your own needs. Make it clear to all team members that bullying, harassment and discrimination are unacceptable. Actively seek and consider input from people from diverse backgrounds and perspectives.

• Seeing the Big Picture

Develop and maintain an understanding of economic, social, political, environmental and technological developments to ensure activity is relevant. Ensure plans and activities in your area of work reflect wider strategic priorities and communicate effectively with senior leaders to influence future strategies. Adopt a government wide perspective to ensure alignment of activity and policy. Bring together views, perspectives and diverse needs of stakeholders to gain a broader understanding of the issues surrounding policies and activities.

• Communicating and Influencing

Communicate with others in a clear, honest and enthusiastic way in order to build trust. Explain complex issues in a way that is easy to understand. Take into account people’s individual needs. Deliver difficult messages with clarity and sensitivity, being persuasive when required. Consider the impact of the language used. Remain open-minded and impartial in discussions, whilst respecting the diverse interests and opinions of others. Introduce different methods for communication, including making the most of digital resources whilst getting value for money. Monitor the effectiveness of own and team communications and take action to improve where necessary.

Technical skills Summary

Senior Analytics Engineer Key Skills;

• Communicating between the technical and non-technical – Working
• Data analysis and synthesis – Working
• Data innovation – Working
• Data modelling, cleansing and enrichment – Practitioner
• Metadata management – Practitioner
• Problem management – Working
• Programming and build (data engineering) – Practitioner
• Testing – Practitioner
• Turning business problems into data design – Practitioner

Benefits of working for the Youth Justice Board

• Opportunity to work in an organisation that seeks to make a positive difference to the lives of children at risk of entering and within the youth justice system
• Family friendly policies including flexible working opportunities. Many of our staff combine working from our offices in either London or Wales with working from home; compressed hours, part-time working
• Civil Service Pension Scheme, and/or continuous service transfer of Civil Service Pension Scheme as applicable
• Annual leave of 25 days per annum plus public holidays (or for those transferring directly from Civil Service Departments, their Agencies, Arms-Length Bodies (ALBs) and Non-Departmental Public Bodies (NDPB) we will match current annual leave entitlement, up to 30 days)
• As an accredited NDPB we can accept your continuous service from other Civil Service departments their agencies and ALBs/NDBPs
• Special recognition bonus scheme
• Special leave for unplanned emergencies and for voluntary work
• Employee Assistance Programme offering confidential support and advice for personal and work issues and occupational health
• Health and well-being initiatives such as flu-vaccinations
• Free eye tests and eyecare vouchers for VDU workers
• Interest free season ticket loans
• Regular professional development
• Professional HR Case Management support for managers