Location
This role may be located in one of the following locations; Birmingham, Blackpool, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle or Sheffield.
Please find further information on the Corporate hub locations here.
Please note that for candidates requesting to work in Newcastle, this role will be based at Benton Park View from September 2025, and then at 1 Pilgrim Place in Newcastle city centre by the end of 2027.
About the job
Job summary
Please note this role requires you to pass Security Check clearance. For further information, please see ‘Selection process details’.
Are you looking for a role where you can use data science to influence, innovate and inspire improvements?
Would you love the opportunity to use our wealth of data to inform the customer journey for millions of users?
DWP is the UK’s largest government department. We help people into work and make payments worth over £195bn a year to support some of society’s most vulnerable people.
We’re using fresh ideas to drive a once in a generation transformation of government services, creating innovative, scalable, and user-centric digital solutions – join us as a Data Scientist and help us get this right.
If you can use a variety of programming languages or data science techniques to harness the power of data and would like to bring your analytical skills, curiosity, and innovation to bear, we’d love to hear from you.
Please note – all interviews will take place in person, at one of the following offices: Birmingham, Blackpool, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle or Sheffield.
Position: Data Scientist
Salary: £44,447–£55,091 per year
Job Type: Full-Time
Location: Birmingham, Blackpool, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle or Sheffield.
Job description
- Apply data science at scale to influence outcomes that affect millions of UK citizens, contributing to one of DWP’s highest priority transformation projects – the Health Transformation Programme.
- Work within a close-knit team supporting the delivery of Personal Independence Payments (PIP) and Health Assessment services.
- Handle and analyse large-scale datasets, potentially among the largest in the UK public sector, to deliver insights and benefits that positively impact thousands of citizens.
- Respond to commissioned data science requests from primary stakeholders, including feature discovery and prioritisation, hypothesis testing, trial and feature evaluation, natural language processing and machine learning and development of success measures.
- Contribute to cross-cutting data science initiatives, enhancing technical capabilities in machine learning, data visualisation as well as experimentation and evaluation.
- Collaborate across disciplines to ensure data-driven decision-making supports service transformation and policy development.
- Engage in continuous professional development, supported by comprehensive training and a collaborative working environment.
- Work in a supportive, inclusive and family-friendly organisation, committed to employee wellbeing and delivering services with real social purpose.
Person specification
See selection process for further details.
If you would like to learn more about the role, please contact Caicy.sandford1@dwp.gov.uk.
Technical skills
We’ll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:
Data Insight
Benefits
- Alongside your salary of £44,447, Department for Work and Pensions contributes £12,876 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.
- We also have a broad benefits package built around your work-life balance which includes:
- Working patterns to support work/life balance such as job sharing, term-time working, flexi-time and compressed hours.
- Generous annual leave – at least 25 days on entry, increasing up to 30 days over time (pro–rata for part time employees), plus 9 days public and privilege leave.
- Support for financial wellbeing, including interest-free season ticket loans for travel, a cycle to work scheme and an employee discount scheme.
- Health and wellbeing support including our Employee Assistance Programme for specialist advice and counselling and the opportunity to join HASSRA a first-class programme of competitions, activities and benefits for its members (subscription payable monthly).
- Family friendly policies including enhanced maternity and shared parental leave pay after 1 year’s continuous service.
- Funded learning and development to support progress in your role and career. This includes industry recognised qualifications and accreditations, coaching, mentoring and talent development programmes.
- An inclusive and diverse environment with opportunities to join professional and interpersonal networks including Women’s Network, National Race Network, National Disability Network (THRIVE) and many more.
This job role may be suitable for hybrid working, which is where an employee works part of the week in their DWP office and part of the week from home. This is a voluntary, non-contractual arrangement and your office will be your contractual place of work. The number of days that anyone will be able to work at home will be determined primarily by business need but personal circumstances and other relevant circumstances will also be taken into account. If you are successful, any opportunities for hybrid working, including whether a hybrid working arrangement is suitable for you, will be discussed with you prior to you taking up your post.
Salary Information
Pay for this role is from £44,447 to £46,547.
The maximum salary for the grade is £46,547, however a Digital Allowance of up to £8,544 per annum is available for exceptional candidates. Digital Allowance is non-salary, and non-pensionable, and is classed as a temporary allowance. It is reviewed annually where it could be retained, amended, or removed.
Our offer to successful candidates will be based on an assessment of your skills and experience as demonstrated at interview.
Existing Civil Servants who secure a new role on lateral transfer will maintain their current salary.
Existing Civil Servants who gain promotion will either move to the bottom of the grade pay scale or get a 10% increase to their current salary whichever would be the greater.
Things you need to know
Selection process details
This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Experience and Technical skills.
Stage 1: Application
Your application will consist of four parts:
- A Personal Details application form.
- Civil Service Numerical Test:
After submission of the first stage of your application you will be invited to complete a Civil Service Numerical Test. If you successfully pass the test, you will be invited to complete the final stage of the application.
Please complete the online tests as soon as possible (within 24-48 hours is recommended), the closing date for the tests is 23:55 on 26/10/2025. If you fail to complete the online test before the deadline your application will be withdrawn. Guidance for the test will be available when you are invited to take the test. The tests are administered online and accessed via the CS Jobs website.
Following successful completion of the test, you will then be asked to complete:
Employment history – this should contain your work experience and any skills, qualifications and accomplishments relevant to the jobs you have completed in line with the essential criteria below:
- Academic background in Data Science, Maths, Statistics or Computer Science or equivalent Data Science-related business experience.
- Experience of writing code in Python and SQL.
- Hands-on experience using data science to solve problems or improve established processes.
- Stakeholder management skills and experience working with colleagues to understand their requirements and deliver complex analytical projects in a timely manner.
- Being proactive in recognising opportunities to use Data Science to contribute to team or wider organisational priorities.
Technical statement (up to 250 words). The following statement is aligned to the required technical skill of Data Insight.
Describe a time you delivered a data-driven solution to solve a business problem or improve an established process.
The sift panel will use the information in your employment history and technical statement to assess your experience, skills and knowledge.
An initial sift will be conducted using the technical statement. Candidates who pass the initial sift will be progressed to a full sift.
For Hints and Tips on completing your application visit Applying for jobs at DWP Digital.
Important Information
You will be asked to complete your employment history. Any information that you would customarily share on a CV should therefore be entered onto the application form.
Personal details that could be used to identify you including your name, contact details and address must be removed for your application to be considered.
If your employment history or technical statement contain any personal details your application will be withdrawn.
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 candidate guidance for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use. A candidate’s guide to artificial intelligence (AI) in recruitment.
Stage 2: Face to Face Interview
If you’re successful at sift stage you will be invited to a face to face interview. There, you will be assessed against the experiences listed above.
You will be asked to do a 10 minute technical reasoning test at the interview. Further details will be provided to candidates at interview.
Interviews will take place from mid to late November 2025. Sift dates to be confirmed.
Other information:
If high application volumes are received, the benchmark for candidates to proceed to the next stage may be raised. In line with our commitment to the Disability Confident Scheme (DCS), we aim to advance all candidates applying under the DCS who meet the minimum standard. However, we may only progress those candidates who best meet the required standards.
All successful candidates and those placed on reserve will be posted in merit list order by location.
For these vacancies, we strongly recommend that applicants consult with an immigration specialist or qualified advisor to assess their eligibility for Visa Sponsorship before deciding to apply. Please note that while we consider sponsorship requests in accordance with current DWP guidance and Home Office policy, sponsorship cannot be guaranteed.
Application Process
To apply for this role, PLEASE VISIT HERE
Application Deadline
October 26th, 2025