The Northern Ireland (NI) Directorate was formed in January 2021 to lead the next phase of Defra’s implementation of The Northern Ireland Protocol - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). The NI Directorate consolidates Defra’s policy, strategy and delivery requirements across the Protocol into one team.

The purpose of this project is to develop a framework to assess regulatory divergence expected to occur between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom. The purpose would be to support orderly divergence and to identify where additional policy responses might be required.

You would lead the development and successful piloting of an analytical framework to assess the likely impact of forthcoming divergence, drawing on business and trade data and stakeholder engagement. This would include proposing a methodology for capturing insights from businesses on supply chain impacts and likely business response, and requirements for generating new data sources.

As an Analysis and Data Lead your main responsibilities would be to:

• Design and develop initial triage criteria to decide which areas of divergence require full assessment.
• Design and develop an analytical framework for assessing GB-NI divergence impacts, including the identification of relevant data sources.
• Create individual reports which use the analytical framework to set out likely business, trade, societal and political impacts of expected divergence in a particular policy area.
• Assess the likely impact of forthcoming divergence, drawing on business and trade data and stakeholder engagement
• As an individual you will work flexibly in support of Northern Ireland Directorate objectives, including a corporate contribution that aligns with your interests and aspirations.
  

You’ll have relevant experience in:

• A strong background in economics or social research with a strong track record of leading teams and projects in your field.
• Experienced economist or social researcher (with quantitative experience) to lead a small team to deliver in short timeframes in a complex environment.
• Extensive experience in your field and be comfortable recommending a methodology or blend of methodologies to solve analytical and policy-related problems, bringing stakeholders on the journey with you.
• Substantial experience developing methodologies to inform complex problems.
• Excellent at communicating, across a wide range of stakeholders, using influencing where necessary to achieve deadlines.
• Substantial experience working with incomplete and ambiguous data, ideally in the context of trade, competition or market analysis.
• Strong communication skills, ideally with experience working with public policymakers.
• Significant experience leading teams and projects.
• Proven ability to deliver to tight deadlines.
  

Desirable:

• Experience in the public sector, specifically national governments, OECD, Competition Commission or other market regulation/competition authority would be advantageous.
• A strong working knowledge of Northern Ireland would be preferred.

If this Analysis and Data Lead (Economist/Social Researcher)role sounds like something that you would be interested in, please click the link to apply and get in touch with karl.robinson@publicsectorresourcing.co.uk

In applying for this role, you acknowledge the following: this role falls in scope of the Off Payroll Working in the Public Sector legislation. Any rates of payment quoted will reflect the gross rate per day for the assignment and will be subject to appropriate taxes and statutory costs. As such the payment to the intermediary and your income resulting from this contract will be different.

Please be aware that this role can only be worked within the UK and not Overseas.