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Job description

The Senior Principal Statistician (Grade 6) role is a critical position in the Agency management structure with responsibility for the oversight and delivery of large components of the Agency’s key business. These roles involve leading large teams of professional and administrative staff with a varied and demanding portfolio of work, often producing statistics, analysis and research to inform the policy agenda. You will have responsibility for the leadership and management of your business area ensuring optimal structures to deliver the required outputs, and you will work collaboratively across the Agency and with policy colleagues in government. As part of NISRA’s Agency Board you will play a central role in delivering the Agency’s strategic objectives and priorities. The post holders, whilst accountable to the Senior Management Team for ensuring their areas of responsibility are performed in an efficient and effective manner, will have appropriate levels of autonomy.

Responsibilities

• Providing effective leadership, setting clear direction, engaging with staff to bring the vision to life, and coaching & developing staff to improve personal/team effectiveness and efficiencies.
• Oversight of data collection/ curation activities and delivery of analysis to inform decision making and the production & dissemination of statistical and research reports that are of high quality and meet user needs.
• Contributing to the development of the statistical and analytical systems: identifying and acting on cross-departmental opportunities for data, analysis and research to help transform and improve public service delivery.
• Being a role model, exemplifying the values, building capability and inspiring staff to achieve better outcomes for customers, and contributing to shaping the culture of the organisation.
• Taking a corporate perspective and ensuring activity is coherent with the wider organisation vision and objectives, providing expert advice and delivering solutions as appropriate.
• Leading on monitoring team performance against specific business plan commitments and taking action as appropriate.

Skills and Qualifications

Essential Skills

• At least two years senior management experience of successfully leading and managing a high performing team to deliver an impactful programme of statistical, analytical or research outputs and services.
• At least two years' senior management experience demonstrating your effectiveness at providing expert, detailed advice to senior colleagues on significant analytical outputs or services.
• At least two years' senior management experience of effective and collaborative partnership working, demonstrating the ability to engage and influence senior internal and external stakeholders.
• Evidence of building high-performing teams comprising of different skillsets to operate across organisational boundaries to deliver important, high-profile outputs or activities.
• Be in possession of at least a second class honours degree.
• Please refer to Page 12 of the Candidate Information Booklet for further information on qualifications.

Further Information

Location: Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. NICS Application form only, Vacancy closing date 22 May 2026 at Noon. Please Note: This is generic and may change from competition to competition. Applications from young people (people under the age of 35), people with a disability and people from minority ethnic communities are particularly welcome for this post.

Application Information

To apply please visit www.nicsrecruitment.org.uk (Job Ref: IRC326504)