Deputy Director – Motoring and Freight Analysis

Birmingham or Leeds. Regular travel to other sites particularly London will be required in order to meet face to face with the team. We currently work on a hybrid basis with 40% of our time working in an office location.

DfT has a strong, and growing analytical community currently numbering around 340 across six professions (economics, operational research, science and engineering, social research, statistics and transport modelling). In addition to the core professions we have disciplinary expertise in evaluation, data science, data analytics, data management and behavioural insights. Analysis is widely respected within DfT, and it has a real influence on strategic, operational and policy-related decisions across the department.
Analysts in DfT work in analytical teams embedded in policy directorates, and in a central analyst team headed by the Chief Analyst. REME is one of the eight analytical divisions embedded within policy directorates.
There is a strong culture of learning and development within the department, and within DfT’s analyst community. All DfT employees are entitled to five days of learning and development each year. This is tailored to your own development needs. In addition to this, government analysts are encouraged to dedicate up to 50 hours a year to analystfocused continuous professional development. There are plenty of opportunities to access workshops, seminars, mentoring schemes and more within and outside DfT.
We invest time in developing our analyst community and the professions within it, to ensure that DfT is a great place for analysts to work now and to develop their career over the longer-term.

Responsibilities

The successful candidate will be a confident senior leader – offering advice and challenge to policy, and Ministers, on what is a feasible analytical Programme, and giving firm advice on what analysis tells us about policy initiatives. You will manage a team of around 15 in two Grade 6 led sub teams of economics and social research professionals and be a key part of the Motoring & Freight (M&F) Senior Management Team. Whilst the team have been supporting M&F policy, this will be the first time they are embedded in the Directorate. They will be confident supporting and developing analysts from a range of backgrounds, and come with, or be willing to develop, an understanding of the different professional responsibilities and frameworks. They will also work closely with the Deputy Director for Logistics and Borders analysis who leads on cross modal freight evidence. 

Responsibilities include:

• Provide senior leadership to a mixture of analytical professions including social researchers, statistician and economists, in supporting the policy teams with a
mixture of rapid, and more strategic, work to help deliver the Motoring & Freight agenda.
• Work with the policy Director and Division heads, and team analytical leads, to set direction for the analytical programme, to meet policy needs and to identify priorities balancing the need for fast-paced reactive analysis, with more strategic analytical planning.
• Provide oversight and guidance for the work programme, setting analytical standards and ensuring quality assurance of all types of research, evaluation, and economic analysis. Champion the role of analysis, and identify future analytical development needs to deliver capabilities that anticipate policy needs.
• Lead the team in communicating key insights from research and analysis and its limitations, to answer policy and Ministerial questions. Take judgements in how evidence can be applied in different contexts, conveying conclusions and limitations.
• Enable the team to maintain awareness of, and follow best practice in, research and analysis, and foster professional development and connections within DfT and
cross-government.
• Ensure the division is a diverse, inclusive, high-performing team focused on delivering high quality, influential and innovative analytical advice.

This is a highly visible Senior Analyst role in an analyst division embedded in a policy Directorate, that will suit a motivated individual who thrives on leading a team and
delivering high profile analytical programmes in a fast-paced policy environment.

The successful candidate must be able to demonstrate their capabilities and experience in the following areas:

• Experience of providing strategic leadership to identify and shape programmes of analytical work, aligned with and influencing strategic priorities
• Experience of leading through others to progress delivery, and to anticipate and navigate change.
• Experience of leading engagement with multiple policy customers and/or stakeholders inside and/or outside the Dept.
• Experience of leading the balance between larger-scale, longer term programmes, and shorter-term, reactive advice to policy teams.

Technical

This role is open to Economists and Social Researchers

Whatever your role, we take your career and development seriously, and want to enable you to build a really successful career with the Department and wider Civil Service.

It is crucial that our employees have the right skills to develop their careers and meet the challenges ahead, and you’ll benefit from regular performance and development reviews to ensure this development is ongoing. As a Civil Service employee, you’ll be entitled to a large range of benefits.

Equality, Diversity & Inclusion

The Civil Service values and supports all its employees.

We have strong and pro-active staff networks, special leave policies for hospital appointments, reasonable adjustments put in place for those who need them, and diversity talent programmes to help everyone irrespective of background, to achieve their potential.

Pension

Your pension is a valuable part of your total reward package.

A competitive contributory pension scheme that you can enter as soon as you join where we will make a significant contribution to the cost of your pension; where your contributions come out of your salary before any tax is taken; and where your pension will continue to provide valuable benefits for you and your family if you are too ill to continue to work or die before you retire. Visit Civil Service Pension Scheme for more details. 

Generous Annual Leave and Bank Holiday Allowance

25 days annual leave on entry, increasing on a sliding scale to 30 days after 5 years’ service (allowance is pro rata for part-time employees). This is in addition to 8 public holidays.
This will be complimented by one further day paid privilege entitlement to mark the King’s Birthday.

Staff Wellbeing

Flexible working including part-time or time term working and access to Flexible Working Schemes allowing you to vary your working day as long as you work your total hours.
Generous paid maternity and paternity leave which is notably more than the statutory minimum offered by many other employers.
Childcare benefits (policy for new employees as of 5 April 2018): The government has introduced the Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) scheme. Working parents can open an online childcare account and for every £8 they pay in, the government adds £2, up to a maximum of £2000 a year for each child or £4000 for a disabled child. Parents then use the funds to pay for registered childcare. Existing employees may be able to continue to claim childcare vouchers, so please check how the
policy would work for you here. Any move to the DfT from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments.

Onsite facilities Opportunity to use onsite facilities including fitness centres and staff canteens (where applicable).

This role has a minimum assignment duration of 3 years. An assignment duration
is the period of time a Senior Civil Servant is expected to remain in the same post to enable them
to deliver on the agreed key business outcomes. The assignment duration also supports your career through
building your depth of expertise.

As part of accepting this role you will be agreeing to the expected assignment duration set out above.
This will not result in a contractual change to your terms and conditions.
Please note this is an expectation only, it is not something which is written into your terms and
conditions or indeed which the employing organisation or you are bound by. It will depend on your
personal circumstances at a particular time and business needs, for example, would not preclude any
absence like family friendly leave. It is nonetheless an important expectation, which is why we ask you
to confirm you agree to the assignment duration set out above.

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.

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Job contact :

• Name : Gatenby Sanderson
• Email : Toria.Lorman-Connolly@gatenbysanderson.com

Recruitment team

• Email : dftscsresourcing@dft.gov.uk