Value for Money (VfM) Analyst - London

Main purpose of the role

As a VFM analyst, you will help us deliver our reports to Parliament. You will work as part of a small team with sector or topic specialists and qualified accountants and contribute throughout from planning to drafting our reports. You will also work on good practice guides drawing together insights from across our published work and help your team reply to correspondence from MPs and members of the public.

We offer a broad range of opportunities to support your learning and development including training on Value for Money audits e.g. how to scope and plan our audits, personal effectiveness skills training and secondments to Parliamentary Select Committees. You will have a performance coach to support your development and can take up mentoring opportunities.

You will be able to develop expertise to contribute to more specialist networks across the office. This includes providing analytical insight and support to others outside of your team on your areas of expertise such as analytical techniques and methods, commercial and regulatory issues, digital transformation and data use in the public sector, financial and risk management, major project delivery, and people and operational management.

Virtual Events including Q & A

If you are interested in the role, please attend one of our virtual open events (12:00-13:00 on 5th November 2024 and 17:00-18:00 on 6th November 2024).

If you like what you see and can meet our requirements, then we want to hear from you.

How to apply

• Please click on the apply button in the advert.
• Register by filling out your online profile.
• To submit your application, you will need to complete the following screening stages by the closing date:
• Submit an up-to-date CV.
• Answer four competency-based questions.
• Complete the online verbal and numeracy tests.
• Once you have completed the screening stages, please make sure to press the submit button to confirm your application. You will then receive the written case study exercise to complete within 7 days.
• If you pass our screening stage, you will be invited to attend a final interview.

Timetable:

• Open event – Open event – 12:00-13:00 on 5 November 2024 and 17:00-18:00 on 6 November 2024
• Shortlisting – 20th November 2024
• Case study final deadline – 12:00 on 20th November 2024
• Interviews – from 2nd December 2024

Disability and Reasonable adjustments

Applicants with a disability who wish their application to be considered under the Disability Confident scheme should confirm this when submitting their application. Under this scheme we guarantee an interview to an applicant with a disability who meets the minimum requirements for the role. You should also let our HR team know if you wish us to consider any Reasonable Adjustments at any stage of the process.

Applicants will not be discriminated against on the grounds of any protected characteristic or any other extraneous factor. The main responsibilities include:

• Gathering evidence by applying a variety of methods such as interviews of government officials and other stakeholders, reviewing documents and data sources, and directly collecting data such as through surveys.
• Analysing and interpreting evidence and data (using qualitative and quantitative methods) from many sources on a wide range of public policy topics and sectors.
• Maintaining an evidence trail and providing advice to your team about the quality of evidence we use to develop our findings.
• Presenting findings clearly and succinctly and contributing to planning and drafting value for money reports.
• Providing written and oral briefings to managers and senior staff.
• Gaining insight and knowledge of the bodies we audit and developing and maintaining good relations with them, for example through engaging with analysts in government bodies and with wider external stakeholders.
• Supporting wider assurance work and assisting teams during engagement with Parliament and its select committees, particularly the Public Accounts Committee.
• Providing advice and support to other teams by using your subject matter or analytical expertise and engaging with opportunities to share learning across the NAO.

Skills required

It will be essential that you can demonstrate the ability to:

• Gather, analyse and interpret evidence from a range of sources on time and to a high standard.
• Produce clear, well-structured and succinct written work which can be easily understood by non-technical readers.
• Draw valid and succinct conclusions that are clearly evidence based.
• Present complex and nuanced findings from your analysis in a way which can be easily understood by various audiences.
• Engage confidently and communicate effectively with colleagues and clients at all levels, for example to gather evidence or to support knowledge sharing across teams.
• Work co-operatively and collaboratively as part of a team to deliver our reports.

In addition, we are looking for the candidates with the following attributes:

• Intellectual curiosity, especially about using a range of evidence sources to answer questions.
• Adaptability to make a significant contribution across a range of topics and outputs in a variety of teams.
• Keen interest in the work of the NAO and public policy across a range of sectors.
• Attention to detail in documenting and maintaining a reliable audit trail for your work to support the delivery of high-quality audits.
• Drive and determination to overcome obstacles, resistance or challenges to achieve goals.
• Commitment to personal development and keeping technical skills up to date.
• Interest in influencing people and identifying opportunities to improve public services.

Requirements

• A minimum of a 2:1 degree in a relevant discipline e.g. social science research methods, management science/operations research, economics, statistics, mathematics or data analytics, or a research based postgraduate qualification
• OR relevant experience in research, analysis or performance audit. This may include but is not limited to experience in management or other consultancy experience, internal audit or working as a researcher.