Data Analyst

Project Background

The UK government funds over £1 billion in programming per year through the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF). Operating in over 70 countries, CSSF is central to the UK government’s work overseas. CSSF has contracted Integrity Research and Consultancy, and our partner LTS-Niras, to support the development of a stronger, more agile and more sustainable ‘ecosystem’ for monitoring, evaluation, learning (MEL) and their application in decision-making.

Scope of Work

We are seeking multiple Data Analysts with a range of skillsets to support data analytics pilots, aimed at improving the CSSF’s use of data in decision making. Working closely with our Pilot Leads and the Lead Data Analyst, the Data Analysts will extract, scrape, analyse and visualise data for CSSF teams. Specific responsibilities include:

· Extract, Transform, Load (ETL) (45%):

o Extracting and scraping a variety of data from different sources, including social media, open source websites, CSSF datasets (excel, csv), geospatial, and text-based reports.

o Cleaning messy data and user-unfriendly excel spreadsheets into tidy relational datasets and identifying data quality issues with automatable/programmatic approaches wherever possible.

· Data analysis and visualisation (45%):

o Identify patterns and relevant trends or correlations from data using descriptive statistics.

o Develop prediction and forecasting tools using regression and/or machine learning techniques.

o Produce static visualisations and interactive or reactive dashboard solutions that are relevant, accessible and useful to CSSF clients.

o Produce digestible and non-technical research briefs explaining the key findings from data analysis.

o Provide brief slide decks explaining the methodology behind the analysis and dashboard development.

· Project design and learning (10%):

o Support the co-design of the pilot’s approach and methodology with Pilot team and potentially with the client.

o Contribute to project monitoring, reflection and learning to improve approaches throughout and at the end of the pilot.

Your Experience and Expertise

We are looking for candidates that bring a combination of data analytics/statistics skills as well as a passion for using data in the public policy and programmes field.

Essential experience/expertise includes:

· BA/BSc level degree or professional qualification in statistics, data analytics, computer science, maths or other relevant academic field with a data analytics component. Candidates with data science bootcamp or online qualifications (e.g., MOOCs) will also be considered provided they can demonstrate a strong portfolio of work and have a bachelors degree.

· Demonstrated examples of data visualisation work produced, such as an academic capstone project, relevant work experience or GitHub account.

· Understanding of data visualisation best practice principles, and ability to produce a wide variety of different visualisations (times series plots, maps, network graphs, sankey diagrams).

· Experience developing predictive models using regression models and machine learning.

· As we are looking to use a range of proprietary and open source software, we are looking for proven competency in at least one of the following to clean, analyse and visualise data:

o Microsoft power BI (preferred) or Tableau

o R data science libraries and packages (tidyverse packages such as dplyr and ggplot2)

o Python (pandas, seaborn, numpy, plotnine, statsmodels)

· Experience of working collaboratively within a team and to support others relating to project-tasks.

· Experience of working in fast-paced and high-pressure environments with the ability to adapt to new information and reprioritise.

Desirable experience:

· 2-3 years' work experience in a data-focused and project-based role.

· Experience of working with public-sector clients.

· Experience using version control software such as Git (e.g., GitHub, Gitlab, Bitbucket).

· Experience accessing open-source APIs.

Languages:

· Must have written and oral fluency in English, with the ability to write clear and compelling narrative.

Security Clearance

· Must be eligible for UK Government security clearance. This means being currently resident in the UK and having lived in the UK for at least two of the past five years, where one year is a period of 12 months consecutive months.

· Candidates with existing clearance, especially at Developed Vetting (DV) level are particularly encouraged to apply.

Competencies

Curious

The impulse to seek new information and experiences and explore novel possibilities.

§ Demonstrates genuine inquisitiveness

§ Has a bias toward asking and learning

§ Demonstrates an interest in others and what they might have to share

Adaptable and flexible

The ability to adjust or change to best meet the needs of the situation or environment.

§ Engages in continuous learning, adjusting the application of knowledge, skills and abilities while addressing new challenges

Creative

The impulse to understand problems and discover new opportunities and solutions for problems by looking beyond current practices and using innovative thinking.

§ Knows when a new approach is required

§ Introduces new ways of working

§ Draws on the expertise of a team with a diverse range of experience and skillset

Collaborative

The ability to work co-operatively with a range of stakeholders, to be part of a team, to work together as opposed to working separately or competitively.

§ Acts to promote a friendly climate, good morale and co-operation

§ Works to address and resolve conflicts within the team

§ Creates and supports opportunities for cross functional team working

§ Relationship building

Organised

The ability to plan and monitor one’s own work and the work of others to ensure achievement of desired results.

§ Coordinates ideas and resources to achieve goals.

§ Identifies the sequence of tasks and the resources needed to achieve a goal, and prioritises key action steps. Anticipates the impacts and risks of decisions and actions

§ Creates realistic schedules and follows them. Evaluates progress against schedule and goal. Evaluates proposed actions and timelines against the project’s theory of change

Time commitment and contract period

Duration: These positions are for an initial nine to ten-month consultancy, with an approximate start date in January 2022, to be confirmed at interview. The estimated end date is late September 2022.

Time commitment: Full-time availability (40 hours / 5 days per week) is preferred, but candidates with 80% (32 hours / 4 days per week) availability will also be considered.