The work of the directorate’s teams includes delivery of major events, designing and leading public affairs or marketing campaigns, providing data, evidence and analysis, leading cross-organisational programmes, to making sure we plan for and can respond to emerging events or emergencies in our city.
About the team
The City Data Team is made up of a range of technical experts in the fields of Data Science and Engineering, Data Visualisation and Information Design, GIS and Mapping, and Demographic Modelling and Analysis.
The team sits alongside economist and social policy analysts within City Intelligence - a central unit of City Hall serving the Mayor, the London Assembly, the Greater London Authority (GLA) and London.
Our chief purpose is to provide world-class evidence, analysis and tools for the Mayor and his team to formulate outcomes, strategies, policies and delivery plans in London – and to help with their delivery.
We aim to communicate an up-to-date understanding of London, its communities, its economy and its place in a rapidly changing wider world. We work with others to innovate and develop evidence-based policies, programmes and projects that will make a positive difference to London and Londoners.
About the role
The GLA produces a range of demographic projections to meet the needs of planners and policy makers across London. These projections are used to help deliver local services, identify future infrastructure needs, and form a key part of the evidence base for London’s Spatial Development Strategy.
The core purpose of the role is to contribute to the ongoing development of the models and systems used to produce and deliver the projections, to ensure the best possible information is available to underpin decisions about housing, transport, education, and infrastructure, that affect the lives of millions of people.
You will be working on the team’s current priorities for the models:
• Restructuring and refactoring our existing (R) codebase to simplify the process of updating models and producing outputs.
• Developing improvements to existing methodologies used to estimate and project individual components of population change and account for alternative assumptions about future housing deliver, jobs growth, and transport infrastructure.
• Performing analysis of retrospective projections to better understand the strengths and weaknesses of our existing models.
• Improving how we capture and communicate uncertainty in the projections.
What your day will look like
• Stand-up call with the team to update on progress and flag issues.
• Research and assess potential methods for use in the projections, producing a short technical note of your findings for review by the team.
• Coordinate with colleagues who are working to update our data infrastructure and identify changes to existing model code necessary to adapt.
• Call with users to discuss their requirements and receive feedback on existing outputs.
• Contribute to a code or methodology review requested by a colleague in a neighbouring team.
Skills, knowledge and experience
To be considered for the role you must meet the following essential criteria:
• A high level of numeracy and technical knowledge, typically evidenced by a graduate qualification in statistics, mathematics, or an allied subject or exceptionally, by at least five years’ experience in a similar role.
• Professional experience working with R and/or Python, and the use of version control systems for collaborative development.
• Able to appropriately select and apply a wide range of modelling and analytical techniques to real world problems.
• Experience in undertaking project-based work – adapting to deadlines and producing clear documentation of code and assumptions.
• Able to communicate complex technical ideas to a range of audiences.
Job Purpose
To contribute to the development and maintenance of the GLA’s suite of demographic models and analytical tools, leading on the publication of outputs, technical notes, and related analysis as required.
To work with stakeholders in the GLA, functional bodies and London Boroughs, providing analytical support and ensuring that their intelligence needs are met.
To provide expert advice and support on the development and use of models across the wider organisation, promoting best practice in the application of statistics and data science.
To help deliver the team’s programme of analysis and reporting and to develop new and innovative demographic modelling and analytical products to support the needs of policy makers in service provision and future planning for London.
Principal accountabilities
- Contribute to the ongoing maintenance, quality assurance, and improvement of the Demography Team’s suite of models.
- To work with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders to identify requirements and to address these by providing appropriate analysis, modelling, and expert guidance.
- To deliver projections and analytical outputs as part the range of data services provided by the team to internal and external users.
- To ensure outputs are produced to high professional standards and are accompanied by appropriate guidance and information to allow stakeholders to correctly interpret and apply the results.
- To engage with and share expertise with stakeholders, providing support and guidance, and promoting best practice in the application of data science and modelling.
- To undertake analysis and evaluation of alternative data sources, models, and methods, to help guide the team’s technical decisions.
- To realise the benefits of working in an open and collaborative manner, ensuring that models and analysis are reproducible and appropriately documented, being transparent with results and methods, and encouraging engagement with the team’s work.
- To realise the benefits of London’s diversity by promoting and enabling equality of opportunities and promoting the diverse needs and aspirations of London’s communities.
- Realise the benefits of a flexible approach to work in undertaking the duties and responsibilities of this job, and participating in multi-disciplinary, cross-department projects.
- Manage staff and resources in allocated to the job in accordance with the Authority’s policies and Code of Ethics and Standards
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