Senior Analyst - Analytics and Data Science

We're seeking a highly skilled and experienced senior analyst to support the team in advancing our data science initiatives in Essex. The ability to harness data science skills is paramount for this position. Utilising data science methodologies and statistical techniques, we aim to provide invaluable insights to our organisation, facilitating evidence-based decision-making processes. Our mission is to ensure that every decision undertaken by Essex County Council is underpinned by robust evidence. Through the application of data science and statistical methodologies, we confront challenges head-on, unlocking the transformative potential of data to enhance our understanding of the county and drive meaningful change throughout our communities. If you're enthusiastic about joining a dynamic network comprising data scientists, analysts, engineers, designers, and more, then this opportunity is tailor-made for you., Senior Analysts in the Data & Analytics team are expected to work across a range of portfolio areas depending on organisational need, but this role will be primarily supporting the Place Analytics portfolio. Place Analytics is a term used for a broad portfolio, which encompasses both our Climate, Environment and Customer, and our People, Policy, Economy and Public Health functional areas. Recent analytics projects with Place colleagues include: forecasting demand for school transport, partnership working with district councils to create dashboards with open source data on the local economy and demographics, and using historic data to identify areas at potential risk of flooding in Essex. Core Skills We are looking for an enthusiastic, experienced data scientist who can hit the ground running in our dynamic team. It is important to us that senior analysts possess a range of skills, including the ability to:

• Work at pace: Lead on scoping, analysis and creating required deliverables for projects, whilst meeting agreed deadlines;
• Embed quality assurance across own work and that of the team throughout the project life cycle, including supporting junior analysts and analysts;
• Identify optimal range of analytical methods and products to suit business need,
• Transform data to enable the successful delivery of analytics and data science projects,
• Use statistical and data science methods to derive insight from data,
• Create replicable analytical pipelines from source data,
• Communicate effectively and engage customers with insight stories from data analysis,
• Manage relationships with key customers, understanding the needs of their service(s) and supporting managers with portfolio management,
• Represent the team, advocating the use of analytics in decision making,
• Educated to degree level or with equivalent experience in coding and automation (R, Python, SQL)
Recruitment Process As part of the application process, please ensure that you provide a supporting statement when prompted, telling us: 1. What skills you possess that make you suitable for the role, and 2. What experience you have gained that can support our team's mission Following a shortlisting process we will then invite successful candidates to an interview, and set a task we expect you to complete ahead of this. Development We support the development of our staff in their careers. Over the past five years, 75% of team members have earned promotions into new role. We consistently offer opportunities to develop new skills through project working or training and encourage staff to spent 10% of their time on training and development. You can read more about development opportunities in the team in our insight blog, specifically these blogs from Bella, Fran, and Caroline & Louis. Base This role is considered an 'anywhere worker' by Essex County Council and is predominantly a remote position. However, there is an expectation to be in the office in Chelmsford, Essex, around 2-3 days a month, and when required on an-ad hoc basis for different business needs.

Our Essex Pay policy means we look at the job market nationally to offer competitive salary rates for all positions. The current rate for the job for this is £ 49,606 per annum, which is regularly evaluated. Our pay policy means that all people within a role are paid the same rate, except for training and development reasons.