Senior Statistical Officer

We are seeking a Senior Statistical Officer to join the Farming Directorate Statistics Team.

The team produces official statistics on uptake of agri-environment schemes, including Environmental Stewardship (ES), Countryside Stewardship (CS), and the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI).

This is a hands-on statistical role with a strong focus on working with data and programming in R. You will help produce and improve regular statistical publications, carry out analysis to answer new questions, and ensure statistics are accurate, reproducible, and easy to understand.

Responsibilities:

• Lead statistical projects and publications, taking responsibility for planning the work, making analytical decisions, and coordinating input from others
• Produce official statistics on CS, ES, SFI, and other agri-environment schemes
• Use R to clean, process, analyze, and summarize administrative data
• Develop and maintain clear, reproducible R code, including helping to automate statistical production processes
• Check the quality of data, code, and statistical outputs, and investigate unexpected results where necessary
• Write clear explanations of what statistics show and any important limitations
• Carry out ad-hoc statistical analysis to answer questions about agri-environment scheme uptake
• Work with colleagues who provide and use data to understand requirements and resolve data issues
• Help improve statistical publications and analytical processes, including making outputs accessible and useful to users
• Ensure work is completed accurately and on time
• Work in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics
• Contribute to creating an inclusive and supportive team

Person Specification:

• Confident programming in R, with the ability to use R independently to clean, manipulate, and analyze data
• Good statistical skills and judgment, with the ability to choose appropriate analytical approaches and understand the strengths and limitations of data
• Ability to produce reliable and reproducible analysis, with well-organized code and analytical work
• Effective communication of statistics, with the ability to explain findings, uncertainty, and limitations in plain English
• Ability to work effectively with others, understanding their needs, asking questions, and resolving problems
• Commitment to working inclusively, treating people with respect, and valuing different perspectives
• Badged member of the Government Statistical Service (GSS), or qualifications and experience to become a badged statistician

Benefits:

• Salary: GBP 44,052 - 52,010 per year
• Contribution to Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme: £12,761
• Learning and development opportunities
• Flexible working options
• Inclusive and diverse culture
• Civil Service pension with employer contribution of 28.97%