Service Group Owner – Census 2031 Processing

Are you an experienced operational and delivery leader with a passion for data, collaboration and public service? If so, we'd love to hear from you for this exciting Grade 6 Service Group Owner opportunity within the Census 2031 programme.

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.

Census processing is a vital step in turning the data collected during the operational phase into statistics which achieve our objective of estimating the entire population, once and in the right place. The processed database will be the basis of all census outputs and will be delivered to the highest quality standards require of Accredited National Statistics.

The Operational Delivery Profession (ODP) is the largest profession in the Civil Service. ODP’s 200,000+ members work in a wide range of operational delivery roles across government, providing essential services that support and protect UK citizens at home and overseas. They help to make ONS a great place to work.

As a member, ODP supports you by providing learning and development opportunities, career pathways, tools and resources to help develop your skills and progress your career. This is an exciting opportunity to join a modern, innovative and inclusive Civil Service profession that sits at the heart of public service delivery.

Interviews will take place in person at our Titchfield Office. Please note that travel expenses will not be reimbursed. You will also be required to bring valid photo identification to your interview.

Job description

The Service Group Owner (SGO) is responsible for the holistic performance, strategy and delivery of the portfolio of services in processing 2031 Census data.

This is the pipeline that takes raw collected data and following a number of processing and statistical methodology processes generates robust statistics.

As a SGO you will ensure that services developed across ONS are resourced, tested, integrated and operated effectively, and that they meet the requirements. Set by the Responsible Business Owners (RBO) and programme leadership. You will provide specialist expertise in the service domain and lead multi-disciplinary teams to deliver high-quality, reliable services that contribute to census objectives. As well as co-ordinating a set of services for the Census in England & Wales you will also orchestrate a limited set of services for Scotland and Northern Ireland. 

You will lead the design, delivery and operation of a group of services that support data journeys, ensuring services are resourced, built, and operated effectively. During this operational phase you are responsible for leading an operations team who will have responsibility for managing the processing pipeline. 

You will be able to confidently engage with a variety of digital, data and statistical experts, able to bring people together from different backgrounds to solve technical challenges in the preparation for and implementation of processing services.  

During the design phase of the programme you will be asked to review the learning from the 2021 Census processing operation to determine priorities for designing a 2031 approach. This will involving working with a range of interested parties to determine ‘what good looks like’ and identify discoveries which need to take place to establish a high-level design.

During the operational phase in 2031 you will work closely with service owners and delivery partners to transition data through each stage of the processing pipeline. This will be done to a tight timescale and will need to effectively balance time, cost and quality.

Regular travel between ONS office locations will be required as part of this role.

Responsibilities:

• Ensuring that the service-based delivery approach as set out in the Census Future Operating Model is used as the basis for census processing. 

• Translating strategic requirements from RBOs into actionable service plans and delivery roadmaps.  

• Collaborating with specialist digital professionals (including in Digital Services) to ensure a processing environment is fit for purpose for the design, development and implementation of services with the group.  

• Owning and managing the deliverability of a portfolio of services within the defined processing domain to performance standards including KPIs and SLAs. 

• Putting in place plans to demonstrate learning from 2021 Census and for independent assurance.  

• Co-ordinating the development of a testing and rehearsing strategy which provides programme confidence that the processing pipeline will enable data to move smoothly through the pipeline but which minimises delays resulting from data quality issues. 

• You will have an overall responsibility for running the processing operation, orchestrating all the services and dealing with issues and anomalies that are discovered as the processing progresses. 

• You will lead and develop a team of people and have responsibility for growing capability of this team.

Person specification

Essential Criteria:

• Experience of running a live statistical operation in partnership with a range of stakeholders.

• Experience of working effectively with technical digital and statistical colleagues using innovative methods and technologies.

• Experience of delivering data to meet defined statistical standards.

• Skilled in planning for a delivery operation, managing risks and stakeholders.

Behaviours

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

• Working Together

• Managing a Quality Service

• Delivering at Pace

• Making Effective Decisions

Technical skills

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

• An understanding of complex data processing systems including coding, cleaning and data management.

• An understanding of quality requirements for statistics and how these are measured during the data processing phase.

• An understanding of managing in a project/programme environment including planning, risk management and stakeholder engagement.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £68,199, Office for National Statistics contributes £19,757 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.