Senior Psychometric Analyst

This is an exciting time to join our Occupational Psychology Services (OPS) team – part of the Government Recruitment Service in Government People Group (GPG) in the Cabinet Office – as we seek to update and expand our services.

Our Vision

To embed best practice occupational psychology insights and solutions to support the future of the Civil Service.

Our Priorities

• To be at the leading edge of assessment and selection techniques and digital developments.
• To develop our services through evidence-based research and analysis.
• To ensure diversity and inclusion is embedded in all our activities.
• To provide a seamless and flexible customer experience.
• To meet business requirements with efficient, effective and value for money solutions.
• To provide a great and evolving candidate journey.

Acting as an internal consultancy to all of the Civil Service, we collaborate with government departments, functions and professions to develop and deliver high quality, customer-focused assessment products and solutions grounded in occupational psychology and psychometrics. Our services aim to help identify and develop the best people from all backgrounds, including the Civil Service’s prestigious talent programmes. 

We place ourselves at the forefront of assessment innovation, and are actively creating a growing range of evidence-based psychological assessment tools.

You will be joining a high performing multi-disciplinary team of occupational psychologists, psychometricians and digital experts who use evidence-based practice to put the client and user at the heart of what they do.  We are a team that embraces innovation to deliver better results, improved efficiency and added value, with a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion. 

If you are passionate about applying psychology and psychometrics in the workplace to really add value across a wide and varied agenda, then we really want to hear from you!

You’ll play a key role in supporting the running of our existing business offer and contribute to growing the service. Over the last two years we have successfully developed a suite of online recruitment tests assessing verbal ability, numerical ability and job-specific skills. You will be instrumental in monitoring, updating and improving the tests.

The Senior Psychometric Analyst will also work very closely with a multi-disciplinary digital team operating an agile project management approach. The team is split across multiple sites: Leeds, Manchester, London and Bristol. Occasional travel within the UK will be a requirement of the role. You will be expected to contribute to the development of professional practice and work collaboratively with colleagues on a wider portfolio of activities when the need arises.

Key responsibilities include:

Assessment Design, Trialling and Evaluation

• Evaluating and contributing to assessment blueprints to establish the most appropriate psychometric solution;
• Under the direction of the Lead Psychometrician, translating the blueprints into a workable trialling approach (involving trial design, test construction, trialling implementation and data capture);
• Using online assessment platforms to implement and support delivery of assessment solutions; working with digital, data assurance and diversity colleagues to ensure new assessments are psychometrically sound, compliant, fair and meet customer and user needs;
• Arranging for accurate data capture for assessment analyses;
• Data matching and validation;
• Applying Classical Test Theory and Item Response Theory analyses to assessment data;
• Managing multiple assessment projects at all stages of the test development cycle;
• Working with customers to ensure best practice use of assessments to support client decision making including pass-mark setting, moderation processes, and reducing risk of adverse impact;
• Evaluating the effectiveness of assessment solutions by identifying appropriate statistical methods/techniques and interrogation of data to ensure they are robust, fair, reliable and valid (e.g. differential item functioning, predictive validity, adverse impact analysis).
• Line management of at least one staff (EO).

Training and Development

• Keeping up-to-date with the latest innovations in psychometrics and in particular recruitment testing;
• Developing standard tools for psychometric analyses and providing training to the wider team in their use.

Consultancy and Research

• Providing professional psychometric advice and guidance to clients and senior leaders to ensure adherence to industry best practice and the highest data ethical standards;
• Representing the Occupational Psychology Service Team at working groups, committees and other forums, within Government People Group (GPG) and across government to inform policy and operations;
• Collaborating with the Lead Psychometrician to research new and emerging assessment methods/processes; setting up and conducting detailed studies to explore their impact and efficacy.

In order to be successful in this role you will:

• Have in-depth knowledge and practical experience of test development theories (Classical Test Theory and Item Response Theory);
• Have excellent knowledge of SPSS (including writing own syntax) or another statistical programming language such as R;
• Have good knowledge of Excel for data management;
• Have experience working with large datasets and strong data manipulation skills;
• High attention to detail;
• Have strong communication skills (both verbal and written) and be able to explain complex information so others can easily understand;
• Be willing to learn new programming languages and analytical techniques;
• Be able to manage and prioritise workload to meet changing demands and delivery targets;
• Be effective in building and maintaining relationships, both with clients and colleagues;
• Be proactive, taking ownership and accountability for decisions and commitments;
• Be strong in creativity, producing new and original ideas and creating analytical outputs in novel and imaginative ways;
• Demonstrate persistence, achieving success by delivering despite obstacles or difficulties.

You’ll be reporting directly to the Principal Psychometrician (Grade 7).  You will work with a variety of clients, departments and professions across government. You will need to be able to demonstrate flexibility, the ability to deliver at pace and be someone who your team can really rely on.

You’ll need to demonstrate real passion for applying psychometric expertise and evidence based practice. Finally, we are a forward-looking team and so you will need to be too. You’ll embrace change and be eager to learn from it to develop and strengthen your role.

Do you see yourself as a talented individual that can achieve all this, progressing yourself and our team to the next level.

Essential Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Degree educated in a numerate discipline with a strong statistics background;
• Well versed in psychometric methods, modern statistical and psychometric theories, measurement principles, test design, and validation, preferably in an educational or occupational setting;
• Expertise in use of CTT test design and data analysis;
• Some experience of IRT test design and data analysis;
• Experience with managing at scale research and testing programs, either of norm trialling, volume recruitment testing, certification and/or licensure applications is required
• Experience using psychometric statistics in a test development environment (for example, academia, education, pharmaceutical, clinical, workplace);
• In-depth knowledge and expertise to conduct psychometric and statistical analyses using a statistical programming language such as SPSS/R, ideally in support of research projects;
• Ability to run and interpret statistical tests relating to test development;
• High level data manipulation skills.

Desirable Experience and Knowledge

• BPS Test User: Occupational, Ability (Level A) or willing to undertake;
• BPS Test User: Occupational, Personality (Level B) or willing to undertake.
• Experience using data visualisation techniques and tools to explain research/analytical findings

We’ll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Working Together
• Delivering at Pace
• Communicating and Influencing

We’ll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Knowledge, and use of, psychological measurement and statistics methods
• Experience researching and evaluating psychometric instruments

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%

Job contact :

• Name : Aran Randhawa
• Email : aran.randhawa@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : appointablecandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk