Economist and Strategy Lead for Government Economic Service

Job summary

Working at HM Treasury puts you at the heart of government, making a difference to the UK economy and ultimately to people’s lives right across the UK.

Jobs at the Treasury are fast-paced, fun and can offer unparalleled perspective – not least the opportunity to advise Ministers on the decisions which directly determine the UK’s prosperity. Deep in our DNA is a commitment to empowering our people: maximising individual and collective impact, with interesting work no matter your role or seniority.

Day-to-day you could be supporting Ministers to decide the right level of a specific tax or line of government spending; helping maintain the stability of financial markets; analysing the long-term trends impacting the future of the economy; or enabling this work as part of our vital corporate functions.

We are a high-performing department and proud to have outstanding staff from a wide range of backgrounds. We are also a friendly, inclusive and sociable workplace that prides itself on fostering great team spirit. Our two largest offices are 1 Horse Guards Road in London, opposite St James’ Park, and the Darlington Economic Campus, which also contains eight other departments. We work seamlessly across all our sites, including Norwich, Birmingham and Leeds, as one Treasury.

We are both a 1,000-year-old institution and dynamic, forward-looking economics and finance ministry, with a strong direction set by our organisational strategy, the Future Treasury Vision. The 21st century offers huge opportunities and poses new challenges for the UK. Working at the Treasury is your chance to help the country chart the right course.

Job description

Role purpose: We are looking for a proactive economist with leadership skills, analytical experience, and good communication to drive the Government Economic Service profession vision, “to champion economics in government, and to promote the use of high-impact, high-quality economic analysis provided by excellent economists”.

The GES had new leadership in 2026, and we are working to a new and exciting work programme, with opportunities to shape the profession’s work, including leading a new strategy from 2027 onwards.

As role holder you will lead on co-ordinating delivery and reporting against the current GES Strategy, which sets out priorities for a profession with ~3,700 members in 50+ departments. You will use your position to deepen economics capability across the whole Civil Service, and to enhance its impact on public sector delivery and government policy.

You will provide clear and authoritative advice to GES leaders and departments across the Civil Service to ensure that governance, technical assessment, recruitment, professional development and member engagement are effective and aligned with the GES Strategyand the GES Technical Framework

You will be at the very centre of delivering and shaping best practice on behalf of senior leaders. You will build direct working relationships with Departmental Chief Economists, Directors of Analysis and other senior economists across the Civil Service.

This post is a great opportunity for an economist who can see the bigger picture and wants to build experience of working with senior leaders and leading across government.

Key responsibilities

1. Provide authoritative advice on developing the economics profession to GES leaders, including the Joint Heads of the GES. Shape and improve cross-government practice on assessment, capability and standards.
2. Lead professional economist for the GESR team. Lead the design, delivery and improvement of economic technical assessments (tests, exercises, interviews, marking frameworks) across all GES central recruitment schemes – providing expert profession voice and including work with volunteer groups and leaders to ensure excellence and consistency. Work with colleagues in GESR to shape a relevant and attractive learning offer for GES members, drawing on external expertise and peer learning.
3. Lead the technical response to the 2026 external review of GES professional assessment, developing and recommending options for updated economics testing. Coordinate implementation with GES colleagues and departments and learn from good practice outside government. Establish evaluation metrics to monitor effectiveness (e.g., pass rates, candidate experience and diversity impacts).
4. Lead delivery of the GES Strategy and development of the next GES strategy from 2027, coordinating leadership and member working groups to agree priorities, deliver actions to plan and report progress. Ensure broad diversity and inclusion commitments are translated into measurable actions and monitored. Identify delivery risks and mitigations, working with other professions on cross government capability and standards issues, including how the GES profession integrates the effective use of AI into its working, and how the GES profession responds to rapid and ongoing developments at this new frontier. Build all this into the next strategy to shape GES’s work.
5. Line manage and coach the HEO GES Engagement Lead, setting clear objectives, supporting delivery, and prioritising professional development through regular feedback, stretch opportunities and performance management.
6. Oversee the GES secretariat function, supporting key cross-government boards and meetings with senior leads. Ensure high-quality agendas, papers, minutes and action tracking. Use governance forums to drive decisions across the GES profession and maintain clear communication with senior stakeholders.
7. Oversee engagement with the ~3,700 strong GES membership, including delivery of the annual GES Conference and a regular rhythm of member communications and events.Use insight and feedback to shape and improve engagement and GES profession member development across government.

If you would like to speak to the hiring manager informally prior to the closing date, please contact Jo McGowan [email removed].

Candidate Drop-In Session

The hiring manager will be running a candidate drop-in session to give you greater insight about the role and HM Treasury and ask any questions you might have. If you would like to join us, use the link below to join the call at the right time.

• Tuesday 25th August 3pm Link here
• Friday 28th August 9.30amLink here

Visa sponsorship is not available for this role.

Person specification

Application Stage

Requiredqualifications: Qualifications and GES membership

Applicants for the role are required to be either:

1. an existing member of the GES profession or
2. meet the minimum academic requirements for GES membership as set out at: