Health and Safety Executive
Senior Data Scientist (Band 3/ SEO)
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Job Summary
This pivotal role will significantly contribute to HSE’s mission to prevent death, injury, and ill-health in Great Britain's workplaces.
As a Data Scientist, you will be instrumental in developing robust analytical data sources and creating tools to help synthesise health and safety data. You’ll be part of an analytical team working closely with HSE's technical and regulatory specialists. You’ll be part of an analytical team that works alongside other HSE technical and regulatory specialists to ensure that HSE is able to access and synthesise data from several text-rich data sources. This work helps to generate and enhance the available evidence to support decisions made in health and safety across a wide range of industry sectors.
This is an exciting opportunity to support innovative work within government. Together with the widest range of health and safety specialists in Britain, you’ll be helping to protect thousands of people, whilst working in an inclusive environment where all our people can thrive and be themselves.
Working Pattern
- Part-time working hours are available for this role.
- We can accept part-time applicants who can commit to working a minimum of 30 hours per week.
Travel
- This post can be based in any of the advertised HSE locations. However, there is the expectation that you will travel to other HSE offices across Great Britain periodically with some overnight stays for team meetings and to meet business needs.
For details of HSE locations please see here [HSE Offices](HSE Offices).
Job Description
Key Responsibilities
- Designing, developing, and refining Natural Language Processing (NLP) applications
- Developing and refining analytical data sources to support decision-making within the Health and Safety Executive.
- Creating tools and techniques to extract, transform, and load data from various sources into analytical formats
- Working closely with programme leads and stakeholders to ensure that analytical approaches are sensible, and outputs are aligned with end-user expectations.
- Presentation, documentation, and visualisation of findings to key decision-makers.
- Contributing to an overall strategy for data analysis and evidence generation within HSE.
Person Specification
Essential Skills and Criteria
- Extensive knowledge of Python and Python text analysis libraries
- Experience in designing and executing quality assurance, benchmarking, and evaluation frameworks for Machine Learning and Large Language Models (LLMs).
- Experience of developing Artificial Intelligence (AI) workflows
- Previous experience as a text analyst, data scientist, or other similar role
- Experience leading a project team
- Ability to communicate at all levels to both technical and non-technical audiences.
- Ability to successfully work as part of a project, defining and working to agreed deliverables and timeframes.
- Proficiency with Machine Learning frameworks and libraries (e.g., PyTorch, Keras, scikit-learn) and integration of open-source models (e.g., Hugging Face).
Hybrid Working
At HSE, we are proud to be able to offer our people the opportunity to work in a hybrid way which combines working from home and the office. This is a voluntary, non-contractual arrangement, and your allocated office will be your contractual place of work.
There will be a requirement to travel to the office for various activities, e.g., collaborative working, supporting and training colleagues. If hybrid working is suitable for you and your role, you will be expected to attend the office, or other business-related site, for 60% of your working week. The arrangements will be determined primarily by business need, but personal circumstances and other relevant circumstances will also be taken into account.
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Therefore, we would encourage candidates to consider if the commute from home to the office is a feasible distance to travel before making an application. Please note that if you are successful, hybrid working will be discussed prior to taking up the post.
Qualifications
To be considered for this role, you must have ONE of the following:
- A first or second class honours degree in a numerate discipline, computer science, computational linguistics or IT equivalent which demonstrates core statistical skills
- A higher degree, e.g. an MSc or PhD, in Data Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Physics (this is not a definitive list)
Extensive experience working in a data science field.
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Changing and Improving
- Making Effective Decisions
Technical Skills
We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:
- Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework - Applied Maths, Statistics and Scientific Practices (expert)
- Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework - Data Engineering (expert)
Salary and Benefits
Alongside your salary of £47,686, Health and Safety Executive contributes £13,814 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).
- Learning and development tailored to your role
- An environment with flexible working options
- A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
We invest in our people with;
- Competitive rates of pay
- Access to the highly competitive Civil Service Pension Scheme to which HSE contribute 28.97% far more than in the private sector.
- Family friendly policies and working hours to help balance your home life and career
- Carer friendly policies to help create a supportive working culture
- 185 hours annual holiday increasing to 222 hours after 5 years' qualifying service, plus public holidays and 1-day Civil Service privilege leave (recorded as 7.4 hours in addition to your annual leave balance)
- Parental leave benefits
- As a member of HSE you will gain access to a wide range of fantastic benefits that you can take advantage of such as the Cycle to Work Scheme, E-Gift Cards, and Vouchers via our partner EdenRed.
Application Information
As part of your application, you will be invited to complete an anonymised CV which should include your career history, experience, and qualifications.
Please ensure you tailor your CV to match the Essential Skills and Criteria as listed within the advert.
You will also be asked to complete an anonymised Personal Statement, of no more than 1000 words which demonstrates how you meet the Essential Skills and Criteria of the job advert.
Application Guidance
Please access the following link for guidance on how to apply and how to complete a Personal Statement [How to Apply](How to Apply)
Selection Process Details
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This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.
Sift Information
The sift will take place week commencing 26th October 2026 when you will be assessed on your CV and Personal Statement.
IMPORTANT: Please note an initial sift will be conducted on your CV. If you meet the benchmark for the CV element, you will be progressed to a full sift in which the Personal Statement will also be scored. If you do not meet the standard for the CV, you will not receive a score for your Personal Statement.
Interview Information
Interviews will take place week commencing 9th November when you will be assessed against the behaviours and technical skills detailed within the job advert and also, your experience.
As part of your interview, you will be required to deliver a short presentation where the technical skills listed in the advert will be assessed. Further details will be sent to candidates invited to interview. A link to the technical skills can be found below.
[Data scientist - Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework](Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework)
The lead technical skill, applied maths, statistics and scientific practices, will be used in the event of a tie-break.
Interviews will be held in person.
Sponsorship
This role is not open to application from those who will require sponsorship under the points-based system. Should you apply for this role and require sponsorship your application will be rejected, and any provisional offers of employment will be withdrawn.
Further Information
Please note that a Reserve List will be held for the period of up to 12 months. There is no guarantee you will be offered a role from our reserve lists, so if you see a vacancy on Civil Service Jobs that you are interested in, we recommend you apply.
HSE reserve the right to conduct additional checks, including Google and social media checks, when recruiting candidates into a role within HSE. These checks will be carried out in line with the Civil Service Commission Principles and, if used all candidates will be subject to these additional checks.
From 23rd June 2025, if you are successful at interview, as part of your pre-employment checks, HSE’s Recruitment Team are required to check your details against the Internal Fraud Hub (IFH), using your personal details – name, NINO, and date of birth. If you are included on the database, you will be refused employment. If you believe that there has been an error in the inclusion of your data and wish to make an appeal, please contact the CO email box internal.fraud@cabinetoffice.gov.uk.
Details of the types of internal fraud/dishonesty covered by this process are defined by the Cabinet Office and can be found here [Internal Fraud Register privacy notice - GOV.UK](Internal Fraud Register privacy notice - GOV.UK)
It is the candidate’s responsibility to ensure they are aware of the terms and conditions they will adopt should they be successful in their application. For a summary of HSE terms and conditions as part of Civil Service Reform, please see the attached HSE Terms and Conditions document.
Progression through pay ranges is subject to annual pay awards as permitted within annual Civil Service pay remit guidance and negotiations with Trade Unions.
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