Interviewer Manager - Newcastle

Job summary

This is an exciting opportunity to join the Office for National Statistics as an Interviewer Manager, leading a team at the heart of data collection across the UK.

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.”

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.

Job description

There is a requirement to work a minimum of 30 hours per week across 4 days.

Interviewer Managers manage a team of up to 15 remote working interviewers, engaging with members of the public in their local geographical location. Interviewer Managers are equivalent to the Executive Officer (EO) grade and are employed on homeworking contracts, with Newcastle as their normal place of work. In this role, you will support a team of Field Interviewers based across the Newcastle region.

In this role you will support the successful delivery of high-quality data collection and survey strategies by leading on performance, attendance, and wellbeing, while developing the capabilities of a team of Interviewers. This role is accountable for team level performance and resourcing, ensuring alignment with organisational goals, policies and standards.

The successful candidate will support and monitor interviewer performance against agreed survey and interviewing guidance, being prepared to work extensively with each interviewer in the field to provide support and build capability, spending a minimum of 20% of their time in the field with their team. They will also lead quarterly face to face meetings with their team, and escalate any issues where appropriate to their Field Operations Manager (FOM).

Training:

We offer a blend of in person and virtual training. As part of the successful candidates training, there will be a requirement to attend in person training at our Titchfield office. Travel and subsistence costs will be covered for this in person training.

Responsibilities:

The role will include:

• Supporting and monitoring interviewer performance against agreed survey and interviewing guidance, being prepared to work extensively with each interviewer in the field to provide support and build capability.
• Interpreting, acting on and providing feedback on management information within the team to maximise flexibility, response and quality of the survey outcomes.
• Providing effective communications to the team and to colleagues as required.
• Ensuring conduct, under-performance and attendance matters related to staff in your team are pursued and dealt with in line with ONS policy and procedures, escalating cases where appropriate to the HEO (Field Operations Manager).
• Ensuring effective and efficient use of own and team's time and travel in line with central guidance and the most economic use of travel and subsistence.
• Working closely with the IM team to ensure consistent procedures and practices are aligned to the strategic direction of the Field Community.

Person specification

Essential Criteria:

• The ability to make balanced decisions at pace in line with business objectives and operational change.
• Performance Management through effective feedback and coaching to develop capability.
• Leadership skills ability to influence a remote team to deliver operational goals whilst creating an inclusive environment.
• Highly organised and able to manage conflicting priorities effectively to tight deadlines.

Licences

A car, driving license (full UK or EU full member state equivalent) and internet connection at your residential address are essential requirements for this post. To qualify for the standard mileage rate, the car must carry comprehensive insurance which includes a clause for business use.

Behaviours

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

• Leadership
• Communicating and Influencing
• Working Together

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. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

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.

Inclusion & Accessibility

At ONS we are always looking to attract the very best people from the widest possible talent pool, and we are proud to be an inclusive, equal opportunities employer. As a Disability Confident Leader we’re committed to ensuring that all candidates are treated fairly throughout the recruitment process.

As part of our application process, you will be prompted to provide details of any reasonable adjustments to our recruitment process that you need. If you would like to discuss any reasonable adjustments before applying, please contact the recruitment team in the first instance.

If you would like an accessible version of any of the attachments or recruitment documents below or linked to in this advert, please contact the recruitment team who will be happy to assist.

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artific