Data Engineer

Job summary

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is the UK’s largest producer of official statistics, covering a range of key economic, social and demographic topics.

We have exciting data engineering opportunities to work in the following ONS directorates:

• Social Surveys, focussing on the Transformed Labour Force Survey data, that is used to measure employment and economic activity.
• Population Statistics, focussing on the production of outputs on population size and structure, migration flows, and demographic topics.
• Macroecomonic and Environment Statistics and Analysis (MESA), with a focus on the Longitudinal Business Database (LBD) branch.

ONS Data Engineers are responsible for data products and services in ONS, supporting the consistency, accessibility, and usability of data across strategic platforms. They work across the lifecycle of data pipelines and services, enabling statistical teams, researchers, and wider data users to make effective use of data.

Job description

We’re looking for an enthusiastic and collaborative team player who combines technical capability with a proactive, positive approach. You’ll be organised, enjoy working with others and take pride in delivering high-quality work, with the curiosity and ambition to keep developing your skills. We welcome applications from a wide range of backgrounds with transferable Python development skills, including academia, data science, software engineering, statistical production, and other disciplines.

Alongside day-to-day data processing and delivery, you’ll help explore innovative approaches and build reusable, automated data solutions to support a growing and evolving organisation, giving you the opportunity to solve meaningful problems and improve how we deliver data services.

At ONS, we invest in your learning and development through a range of internal and external training opportunities. You’ll be supported to keep pace with emerging technologies, deepen your expertise and grow your career.

What You’ll Do

As a data engineer in the ONS, you will:

• Use tools across our tech-stacks, such as Python, PySpark, SQL, Google Cloud, Cloudera Data Platform.
• Work as part of an agile multidisciplinary team to design, develop and deliver end-to-end data solutions, such as repeatable data pipelines.
• Review and feedback on requirements and design specifications for data solutions.
• Write code to systemise the processing of data based on initial design documents, applying different testing techniques to ensure code and data quality.
• Re-engineer manual data flows to enable scaling and repeatable use.
• Use data engineering standards to refactor & improve existing code.
• Perform code reviews for your colleagues and provide effective feedback.
• Running, monitoring and quality assuring production pipelines and outputs running in ONS data platforms.
• Develop and maintain technical system documentation for processing pipelines, and documentation to support operational delivery and knowledge sharing.
• Collaborate with colleagues to share knowledge, provide mutual support, and brainstorm problems to identify opportunities for innovation, and improve ways of working.
• Depending on the role, there may be opportunities to work with other technologies such as web applications, Flask, Ninja, R, or Shiny.

Person specification

Essential Criteria:

Programming and Build (Data Engineering) – Working

• Use agreed standards and tools to design, code, test, correct and document moderate-to-complex programs and scripts from agreed specifications and subsequent iterations. Develop and review specifications where appropriate.

Problem Management – Working

• You can initiate and monitor actions to investigate patterns and trends to resolve problems. You can effectively consult specialists where required, determine the appropriate resolution, assist with its implementation and determine preventative measures.

Experience in Python, and having skills in SQL or PySpark would be advantageous.

Behaviours

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

• Changing and Improving
• Working Together
• Making Effective Decisions

Technical skills

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

• Programming and Build (Data Engineering) – Working
• Problem Management – Working

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £34,587, Office for National Statistics contributes £10,019 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.

This role is part of the cross-government Government Digital and Data (formerly DDaT) profession framework. As a role within Government Digital and Data (formerly DDaT) at the ONS, we also offer benefits such as:

• Protected Learning Time to spend on your personal development and side-projects.

• A supportive and active Community of Practice which you will be expected to contribute to, helping ensure you and your colleagues get the training, development and opportunities you need to progress your careers.

We are committed to supporting our people’s wellbeing by offering flexible ways of working that support a healthy work life balance. We are happy to explore opportunities with you about working flexibly in line with our hybrid working policies.

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 artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our