Senior Operational Researcher – People Analytics in Birmingham

Location: Birmingham, Leeds, Swansea (This role is suitable for hybrid working)

Salary: £47,241 (The salary includes a basic salary of £44,241 and a non-pensionable Recruitment and Retention Allowance of £3,000)

A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

You’ll join the People Data and Analytics team within the Department for Transport’s Analysis Directorate, part of a dedicated People Analytics function supporting colleagues in Human Resources. Working alongside specialists, you’ll deliver insight on workforce trends, culture and transformation using tools like Power BI, R and Python, helping shape evidence‑based decisions and improve employee experience.

The Job holder will lead analytical projects that deepen understanding of workforce dynamics, combining modelling, insight generation and stakeholder engagement to inform strategic HR decisions. They will guide stakeholders to an understanding of problems and then design and deliver innovative data and modelling products, integrate multiple analytical approaches, and contribute to shaping policies and interventions by evaluating their impact across the organisation, ensuring insight is practical, accessible and aligned to business priorities.

Top Responsibilities

• Build networks and relationships and develop a clear understanding of the factors that influence organization transformation, and how current and future work will drive desired change.
• Use soft OR skills like problem structuring methodology to develop this understanding in partnership with the business and create appropriate outputs that communicate insight to stakeholders.
• Build and improve models that allow for workforce prediction and forecasting, or analysis of the impact of changes.
• Regular ad-hoc analysis on topical issues such as return to the office, location of staff, performance and talent.
• Support quality assurance and analytical scrutiny across both the immediate team and in improving rigour across the HR function within the wider DfT group.
• Building out reporting into prescriptive and predictive analytics with insights, and themes and creating repeatable analytical pipelines to bring richness to products created in R, Python or Power BI.
• Bring or develop an understanding of the HR business context and the scope and limitations of available data and how it can best be used; provide insight and suggestions for continuous improvement.
• Develop new ways of working, and more integrated approaches that draw in and model data from across HR, the wider organization, and the Civil Service at large.
• Understand the requirements around handling personal information in line with GDPR and be able to challenge inappropriate use or presentation of data.

Employer pension contribution of 28.97% of your salary.

25 days annual leave, increasing by 1 day each year of service (up to a maximum of 30 days annual leave). 8 Bank Holidays plus an additional Privilege Day to mark the King’s birthday.

Access to the staff discount portal. Excellent career development opportunities and the potential to undertake professional qualifications relevant to your role paid for by the department, such as CIPD, Prince2, apprenticeships, etc.

Joining a diverse and inclusive workforce with a range of staff communities to support all our colleagues. 24-hour Employee Assistance Programme providing free confidential help and advice for staff. Flexible working options where we encourage a great work-life balance.

About You

To be successful in this role you will need to have the following experience:

• Experience in applying both soft and hard Operational Research techniques to define, structure and solve complex organisational or policy problems.
• Experience in developing and applying models and statistical analysis to generate robust, evidence‑based insights.
• Experience in working on complex, large-scale challenges and translating analytical findings into practical, implementable solutions.
• Experience in influencing decision‑making by clearly communicating technical insights to non‑technical stakeholders.

Additional Information

This role is open to badged members of the Government Operational Research Service (GORS) or those eligible to become members with these qualification requirements:

• You need, or expect to receive, a 2:1 or higher, degree apprenticeship in a highly numerate degree subject. Or 2:2 with a highly numerate postgraduate degree (subjects like maths, statistics and physics; for mixed degrees, at least 50% should be in a highly numerate subject).
• You will be required to provide evidence that you hold any essential qualifications/licenses at interview stage. If you cannot provide evidence, your application will be withdrawn.