Senior data analyst public sector consulting

Location: Flexible, with UK travel required

Contract type: Permanent, full-time (40 hours per week)

Salary: From £62,500 + benefits

About us

IMPOWER is the country’s largest independent management consultancy, focussed exclusively on helping our public sector clients improve services for their local communities - and getting the best use of the public pound.

We work with clients in local and national government to improve how public services are delivered. From children's and adult's social care, to healthcare and place-based economic development, we help drive transformation of services that drives better outcomes for the public.

We understand that impactful and meaningful change cannot be solved sustainably through traditional, liner project management approaches. Our unique EDGEWORK methodology provides our clients with the skills, techniques and mindset to collaboratively solve the complex problems they face – and we have shown that

IMPOWER’s way of approaching change has provided better outcomes for service users that help deliver our clients’ ambition.

See case studies on our website at impower.co.uk.

Our team of highly skilled consultants and analysts use applied behavioural science, insight, creativity and a talent for building strong relationships to transform public service delivery. If you have a passion for improving public services and the energy to tackle some of our clients’ most difficult challenges, we hope you will be inspired to join our team.

About the team

The Applied Analytics Team represents a critical function of the IMPOWER business, providing exceptional data analytics to deliver meaningful, actionable insights to our clients as an integral part of and informing the delivery of our work with IMPOWER’s clients.

The team, currently 8 people, leverage a wide range of tools, from Excel to AI, but most importantly curiosity and a passion to identify insight that can drive positive change for our clients. We provide a range of support to our wider client teams, for example, demand and capacity modelling in relation to existing or new public services and NLP based sentiment analysis to identify priority areas for change in citizen experiences.

About the role

As a senior data analyst, you will play a crucial role in designing and managing analytical delivery tools to support IMPOWER’s goals. Working collaboratively with our other analysts, consultants and clients, you will model critical data and information essential for decision-making and enhancing both client experiences and clarity of project outcomes. Your responsibilities will encompass how insights from data need to be utilised and understood across organisational stakeholders, projects and value proposition markets. You will also support work across IMPOWER to enhance and standardise the approaches to data and modelling.

Examples of how our analytical work supporting projects include:

• Benchmarking local authority performance in different system areas.
• Producing cost and demand forecasts that help clients understand their current and future drivers of cost and the levers they can consider to maximise use of budgets.
• Deep dives into the drivers of need in service areas, whether through statistical analysis, monitoring pathways or sentiment analysis using NLP.

This is not a data engineering role, some basic data engineering is required as described, but at the heart of the skills for success in this role are curiosity to want to know more about the data and the appetite to dig deeper into the data using a range of tools to find the insightful patterns and stories it can tell us and our clients.

Key Responsibilities

The senior data analyst will oversee the creation and implementation of complex cost, demand and other bespoke analytical models (including benchmarking, pathway/journey analysis and sentiment analysis) which align with specific business Value Propositions and support their use on project delivery. You will:

• Collaborate with internal teams to understand business requirements and user needs and translate them into effective data analysis tools and models.
• Evaluate existing data analysis tools and models to increase accuracy.
• Develop and optimise statistical models, including those that make use of machine learning, that support reporting and analytics and forecast future impact.
• Stay up to date with industry and sector best practice for data analysis and implement this into IMPOWER’s overall data analysis architecture.
• Apply data analysis tools in consulting engagements and make necessary refinements.
• Deliver interim and final results of data analytics work to clients as part of consulting engagements, ensuring clients are clear on the methodologies and data used, and the actionable insights and conclusions drawn from your work.
• Test the reliability and accuracy of data analysis models through rigorous testing with relevant datasets, including validating models which have been customised by delivery teams.
• Facilitate the transfer of model ownership to clients, guiding them in understanding and taking ownership of the model.
• Work within the Applied Analytics Team to develop strategies to implement data requirements across platforms and tools e.g., reporting, visualisation, analytics.
• Create and maintain comprehensive documentation for data analysis models, including diagrams and data dictionaries.
• Be a trusted advisor on analytics and foster a culture of data literacy and engagement throughout IMPOWER.

Skills and experience

• Relevant demonstrable skills and experience in computer science, data science, information technology and/or data modelling to a level that would be expected for a Batchelor’s degree.
• Significant data analysis, modelling, visualisation and reporting experience.
• Prior experience working in a management consultancy or central / local government (note that this role would be equivalent to G7 or 006-007 grades in government entities).
• Ability to use visual aids, such as PowerBI, to communicate data insights to different audiences in a compelling and persuasive manner.
• Excellent presentation and communications skills.
• Ability to understand the ‘bigger picture’ when developing new modelling approaches for project delivery.
• Strong attention to detail.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment and adapt to different complex situations.
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team.
• Ability to support colleagues and help them develop analytical skills.
• Local government or health knowledge (desirable).
• Familiar with data modelling and data architecture software/tools e.g. SQL (desirable).

About our offer

• Competitive salary, with a personal and company-based performance bonus
• 28 days annual leave (+ bank holidays), with buy/sell/rollover scheme
• Pension scheme
• Life assurance and Income Protection
• Medical and Dental Insurance
• Gym Subsidy contribution, including to online fitness subscriptions
• Parent, guardian, and carer friendly policies
• Regular training and development opportunities
• Paid volunteer/CSR days
• Regular team socials and celebrations (even virtual ones!)

About our commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

At IMPOWER, whilst we are committed to being an equal opportunities employer - our commitment to facilitating a safe, inclusive working environment doesn’t just stop at an Equality and Diversity Policy.

We are an organisation that is actively working towards anti-discrimination of any kind against race, gender, gender identity, sexuality, disability, age, religious belief, parental or carer commitments, marital status or civil partnership. We do this through our D&I strategy, constant review of our policies and procedures, via our recruitment processes, and training and development of our staff.

We have signed up to the Disability Confident scheme and we are committed to ensuring our application and interview processes are inclusive for all candidates. Please email [email protected] if you have any questions or require any adjustments.