Data Engineer

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is the UK’s largest producer of official statistics, covering a range of key economic, social and demographic topics.

We have exciting data engineering opportunities to work in the following ONS directorates:

• Social Surveys, focussing on the Transformed Labour Force Survey data, that is used to measure employment and economic activity.
• Population Statistics, focussing on the production of outputs on population size and structure, migration flows, and demographic topics.
• Macroecomonic and Environment Statistics and Analysis (MESA), with a focus on the Longitudinal Business Database (LBD) branch.

ONS Data Engineers are responsible for data products and services in ONS, supporting the consistency, accessibility, and usability of data across strategic platforms. They work across the lifecycle of data pipelines and services, enabling statistical teams, researchers, and wider data users to make effective use of data.

We’re looking for an enthusiastic and collaborative team player who combines technical capability with a proactive, positive approach. You’ll be organised, enjoy working with others and take pride in delivering high-quality work, with the curiosity and ambition to keep developing your skills. We welcome applications from a wide range of backgrounds with transferable Python development skills, including academia, data science, software engineering, statistical production, and other disciplines.

Alongside day-to-day data processing and delivery, you’ll help explore innovative approaches and build reusable, automated data solutions to support a growing and evolving organisation, giving you the opportunity to solve meaningful problems and improve how we deliver data services.

At ONS, we invest in your learning and development through a range of internal and external training opportunities. You’ll be supported to keep pace with emerging technologies, deepen your expertise and grow your career.

What You’ll Do

As a data engineer in the ONS, you will:

• Use tools across our tech-stacks, such as Python, PySpark, SQL, Google Cloud, Cloudera Data Platform.
• Work as part of an agile multidisciplinary team to design, develop and deliver end-to-end data solutions, such as repeatable data pipelines.
• Review and feedback on requirements and design specifications for data solutions.
• Write code to systemise the processing of data based on initial design documents, applying different testing techniques to ensure code and data quality.
• Re-engineer manual data flows to enable scaling and repeatable use.
• Use data engineering standards to refactor & improve existing code.
• Perform code reviews for your colleagues and provide effective feedback.
• Running, monitoring and quality assuring production pipelines and outputs running in ONS data platforms.
• Develop and maintain technical system documentation for processing pipelines, and documentation to support operational delivery and knowledge sharing.
• Collaborate with colleagues to share knowledge, provide mutual support, and brainstorm problems to identify opportunities for innovation, and improve ways of working.
• Depending on the role, there may be opportunities to work with other technologies such as web applications, Flask, Ninja, R, or Shiny.

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

Security Clearance

For ONS the requirement for SC clearance is to have been present in the UK for 3 consecutive years immediately prior to applying and the department will consider eligibility by exception on a case-by-case basis. You will be asked to provide information regarding your UK residency during your application, and failure to provide this will result in your application being rejected.

If you are unsure that you meet the eligibility above, please read the information available on Gov.uk on this link, or contact the recruitment email on the advert before applying to discuss, as failure to meet the residency requirements will result in your security clearance application being rejected and any offer of employment being withdrawn.

At the point of SC application, you will need to provide or give access to the following evidence:

• Departmental or company records (personnel files, staff reports, sick leave reports and security records)
• UK criminal records covering both spent and unspent criminal records
• Your credit and financial history with a credit reference agency
• Security Services records

ONS are unable to offer visa sponsorship for this role. Applicants are expected to hold a valid right to work in the UK when employment commences. If you are applying on a time-limited visa, this will need to be valid for at least 18 months at point of application.

To work at the ONS, candidates must meet both UK right to work and security clearance requirements (where applicable).

If you are unsure whether you meet the appropriate right to work or security clearance eligibility criteria, please refer to the guidance on Gov.uk or contact the recruitment email provided in the advert before applying. Failure to meet these requirements will result in your application being rejected and employment offers being withdrawn.

For full guidance in relation to the use of AI through the recruitment process, please read A candidate’s guide to artificial intelligence (AI) in recruitment

Application Process

Number of Stages: 2 stage process

Stage 1: Application

Stage 2: Interview

Stage 1 – Application

The assessment process at the application stage will be based on your work history, skills, experience, CV, and personal statement. It is important that your application is tailored to highlight the skills, knowledge, and experience relevant to the role.

A personal statement is required at application stage, the maximum wordcount allowed is 1000, which should not be exceeded. You should provide evidence for each essential skill criterion listed in the person specification. As these criteria are scored, it is advisable to give clear examples for each one, including the impact of your actions, ideally utilising the STAR technique (Situation, Task, Action, Result).

Please note that all campaigns may be subject to withdrawal at any stage if the internal resource position changes.

Please note that Success Profiles Behaviour examples are not required at this stage of the application process.

When a high volume of applications are received, the sift pass mark may be adjusted. Candidates will be invited to interview based on their merit order, with those achieving the highest scores being prioritised. Applicants who score below the adjusted pass mark but still pass will be placed on hold and may be invited to interview at a later date.

Stage 2 – Interview

If invited to interview, you will be assessed using a variety of assessment methods, for example interview questions, technical exercises, aligned with the Civil Service Success Profiles framework, covering all behaviours listed in the job advert and any required technical skills.

There is be a technical exercise at interview against: Programming and Build (Data Engineering) – Working

Interviews may be in person or via Microsoft Teams

If there are more successful candidates than vacant positions, a reserve list may be held for period of up to 12 months from which further appointments can be made. Candidates should note this is a multi-location campaign and therefore the reserve list is recorded by location in merit order.

A Sift will be conducted from the 09/11/2026

Interviews will be conducted from the 24/11/2026. Candidates will receive 5 working days' notice for interviews.

Dates are subject to change based upon availability.

For the full terms and conditions of the post, please see attachment.

Near Misses

We often have similar roles available at different grades. If a candidate is suitable for a similar role or a lower grade than they have applied for, we may offer the candidate that role without the need to go through a further selection process providing the role has the same behaviours and essential skills.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.