Field Technical Support Assistant Manager

Job summary

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is the UK’s largest producer of official statistics, covering a range of key economic, social and demographic topics.

These include measuring changes in the value of the UK economy, estimating the size, geographic distribution, and characteristics of the population, and providing indicators of price inflation, employment, earnings, crime, and migration.

The primary purpose of Social Surveys Directorate (SSD) is to provide high quality data that underpins core National Statistics and the wider UK statistical system. While much of ONS is reliant on us for their outputs and statistical bulletins, the data we generate supports research, policy development and decision making across the wider public and private sectors, academia, and the general public. Social Surveys Directorate is also responsible for the overarching ONS Survey Strategy and for an ambitious portfolio including data collection, transformation and continuous improvement to better meet user needs through improvements in data quality, timeliness, efficiency and capability. 

Led by Alex Lambert, SSD is the largest Directorate in ONS, comprising approximately 2,000 colleagues, including the field communities, and split across six divisions.

• Social Surveys Field Collection (SSFC) 

• Social Surveys Telephone and Ports Collection (SSTPC) 

• Social Surveys Research and Production (SSRP) 

• Social Surveys Strategy, Research and Innovation (SSRI)

• Social Surveys Transformation (SST)

• Social Surveys Central Division (SSCD)

 Together we are responsible for many of the largest Social Surveys run in the United Kingdom. 

The Social Survey Field Collection Division is a large and operationally complex area responsible for enabling the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to collect high‑quality survey data from households across the UK.

It is organised into three business areas Face‑to‑Face Field Operations, Audit & Quality, and Strategy & Programmes—which collectively oversee the interviewing community and deliver the enabling functions needed to support a wide‑scale, largely remote workforce.

Together, these business areas provide leadership, frontline delivery, governance, and innovation, ensuring that ONS survey data collection remains robust, efficient, and responsive to changing demands.

This work is guided by the division’s mission statement: “We are a flexible and diverse community of data collection experts, and our mission is to collect and deliver high‑quality, trusted social survey data from the public, utilising robust, sustainable and innovative processes to paint a picture of rapidly changing life in the United Kingdom.

Job description

The Field Technical Support (FTS) team provides first-line technical support to field-based interviewers across Face-to-Face, Telephone Operations and the International Passenger Survey, as well as supporting Interviewer Managers, Site Managers, Field Operations Managers and some HQ staff. The team is also responsible for building, testing and dispatching equipment to both new and existing staff.

As a Field Technical Support Officer, you will diagnose and resolve a range of technical issues for remote interviewers, ensuring they can carry out their roles effectively. You will provide clear technical guidance to support interviewing activities, test new equipment to ensure it is fit for purpose, and work collaboratively with colleagues across the Surveys Directorate and Digital Services to maintain and improve support processes.

Due to the operation requirements of this role, you will be expected to attend the Titchfield (Fareham) office Monday to Friday from approximately 8.30am to 5pm Monday to Friday

Key Responsibilities

• Monitor and respond to Service Desk calls logged by the field staff and Field Enquiry Line.

• Support remote workers with various technical issues.

• Diagnose faults, and research effective resolutions providing advice to quickly resolve.

• Review and up-date instruction manuals to support the wider team with troubleshooting.

• Support, when necessary, with building, testing and dispatching equipment, as well as manage the returns process.

Person specification

Essential Criteria

• Experience in identifying, troubleshooting, and resolving user requests/incidents.

• Excellent communication skills with the ability to instruct and explain information simply to a non-technical audience.

• Experience of working with a range of Microsoft 365 services.

• Ability to work independently and prioritise workload.

• An awareness of data security principles.

Behaviours

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

• Managing a Quality Service

• Working Together

• Delivering at Pace

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £28,138, Office for National Statistics contributes £8,151 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme.

The Office for National Statistics is part of the Civil Service, and as such we share a number of key benefits with other departments, whilst also having our own unique offerings to support our valued colleagues across the organisation.

Whether you are hearing about us for the first time or already know a bit about our organisation, we hope that our careers site will give you a great insight into the benefits and facilities available to our colleagues, and our fantastic working culture.