Salary: £43,760 - £51,690. A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%.
Job Reference: 443446
Location: York
Closing date: 26 February 2026
This is an exciting time to join our Occupational Psychology Services (OPS) team - part of the Recruitment Directorate in Government People Group in Cabinet Office - as we seek to update and expand our services.
Government People Group
Government People Group (GPG) is the strategic and functional centre for the Government People Function and human resources (HR) in the Civil Service.
Led by the Joint Interim Government Chief People Officers, Caitlin Kinsella and Janette Durbin, we enable and improve the delivery of recruitment, training, workplace policy, HR strategy and management excellence to over half a million civil servants.
From recruitment to retirement, GPG is at the forefront of working with ministers and departments to ensure the Civil Service is equipped to deliver for UK citizens. Some of our work includes:
- Leading on cross-government HR strategy, organisation design and workforce planning.
- Procuring and delivering training and development schemes for the Civil Service.
- Delivering recruitment services, guidance and expertise to departments.
- Coordinating and advising departments on pay, pensions and employee policy.
- Setting standards and guidance for line managers and senior civil servants.
- Coordinating the implementation of the Shared Services Strategy for Government.
- Enhancing employee experience to promote an engaged workforce and culture of performance excellence.
A shared aim of all civil servants working in the Government People Function is to support the delivery of the Civil Service People Plan 2024-2027.
The People Plan outlines five People Priorities for the Civil Service, alongside 45 commitments to address our most pressing and immediate people challenges. Departmental plans and strategies also align with and contribute towards the People Plan.
Our Vision
To embed best practice occupational psychology insights and solutions to support the future of the Civil Service, through delivery of high quality psychometric tests and assessments.
Our Priorities
- To be at the leading edge of assessment and selection techniques and digital developments.
- To develop our services through evidence-based research and analysis.
- To ensure diversity and inclusion is embedded in all our activities.
- To provide a seamless and flexible customer experience.
- To meet business requirements with efficient, effective and value for money solutions.
- To provide a great and evolving candidate journey.
Our Service
Acting as an internal consultancy to all of the Civil Service, we collaborate with government departments, functions and professions to develop and deliver high quality, customer-focused assessment products and solutions grounded in occupational psychology and psychometrics. Our services aim to help identify and develop the best people from all backgrounds, including the Civil Service’s prestigious talent programmes.
We also place ourselves at the forefront of assessment innovation, and are actively creating a growing range of evidence-based psychological assessment tools.
You will be joining a high performing multi-disciplinary team of occupational psychologists, psychometricians and digital experts who use evidence-based practice to put the client and user at the heart of what they do. We are a team that embraces innovation to deliver better results, improved efficiency and added value, with a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion.
If you are passionate about applying psychology and psychometrics in the workplace to really add value across a wide and varied agenda, then we really want to hear from you!
The Psychometric Analyst will contribute to the development and maintenance of assessments using the most appropriate psychometric approaches. They will be part of managing the day to day availability and integrity of the assessments and analytical function to ensure delivery is according to agreed standards. They will work with the Lead Psychometrician in developing new content, carrying out Subject Matter Expert reviews, content trialling as well as in assembly and implementation of test products. They will also work with the Lead Psychometrician to research and analyse new innovations and products, carrying out in-depth statistical evaluations.
The Psychometric Analyst will work very closely with a multi-disciplinary digital team operating an agile project management approach, so will work in an agile way in assessment development and evaluation, in the design and implementation of user interface and test assembly.
We have monthly meetings located in our offices nationally and occasional travel within the UK will be a requirement of the role.
Assessment Design, Trialling and Evaluation
- Evaluate and contribute to assessment blueprints to establish the most appropriate psychometric solution;
- Under the direction of the Lead Psychometrician, translating the blueprints into a workable trialling approach (involving trial design, test construction, trialling implementation and data capture);
- Use offline processes and online assessment platforms to implement and support delivery of assessment solutions; working with digital, data assurance and diversity colleagues to ensure new assessments are psychometrically sound, compliant, fair and meet customer and user needs;
- Arrange for accurate data capture for assessment analyses;
- Match data and validate its integrity;
- Apply statistical methods, including Classical Test Theory and Item Response Theory analyses to assessment and research data;
- Manage multiple assessment projects at all stages of the test development cycle;
- Work with customers to ensure best practice use of assessments to support client decision making including pass-mark setting, moderation processes, and reducing risk of adverse impact;
- Evaluate the effectiveness of assessment solutions by identifying appropriate statistical methods/techniques and interrogation of data to ensure they are robust, fair, reliable and valid (e.g. differential item functioning, predictive validity, adverse impact analysis).
Training and Development
- Keep up-to-date with the latest innovations in psychometrics and in particular recruitment testing;
- Develop standard tools for psychometric analyses and provide training to the wider team in their use.
Consultancy and Research
- Provide professional psychometric advice and guidance to clients and senior leaders to ensure adherence to industry best practice and the highest data ethical standards;
- Represent the Occupational Psychology Service Team and act as an Ambassador for the service at working groups, committees and other forums, within Government People Group (GPG) and across government to inform policy and operations;
- Work with the Lead Psychometrician to research new and emerging assessment methods/processes; set up and conduct detailed studies to explore their impact and efficacy and identify and implement workable solutions;
- Present and communicate analytical/research findings and proposals to customers, stakeholders and others, orally and in writing;
- Advise on delivery of user research, job analysis, online surveys and customer needs engagement initiatives.
Person specification
- Demonstrated experience in working with large-scale research and testing programmes and datasets, such as norm trialling, volume recruitment testing with large datasets;
- Proficiency in learning new programming languages and analytical techniques;
- High attention to detail;
- Have strong communication skills (both verbal and written) and be able to explain complex information so others can easily understand;
- Able to manage and prioritise workload to meet changing demands and delivery targets;
- Effective in building and maintaining relationships, both with clients and colleagues;
- Proactive, taking ownership and accountability for decisions and commitments;
- Strong in creativity, producing new and original ideas and creating analytical outputs in novel and imaginative ways;
- Demonstrate persistence, achieving success by delivering despite obstacles or difficulties.
- formal professional qualifications and memberships, or training and accreditations required of this role
- Degree educated in a numerate discipline with a strong training background in statistics;
- Have excellent knowledge of SPSS (including writing own syntax, such as using Python) or another statistical programming language such as R;
- Have good knowledge of Excel for data management;
- Have in-depth knowledge and practical experience of test development theories and measurement models (Classical Test Theory and Item Response Theory).
Additional information:
A minimum 60% of your working time should be spent at your principal workplace. Although requirements to attend other locations for official business will also count towards this level of attendance.
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
Technical skills
We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:
- Please submit a written response to “Evidence the depth of your knowledge of CTT and IRT including statistical programming language (e.g. SPSS, R, or others) for data manipulation” (in no more than 250 words words).
- Technical skill to be assessed: Acquiring data and understanding customer needs (GSG Competency Framework)
- Technical skill to be assessed: Data analysis (GSG Competency Framework)
- Technical skill to be assessed: Presenting and disseminating effectively (GSG Competency Framework)
- Technical skill to be assessed: Working with complex statistics
- Technical skill to be assessed: Conducting research and evaluation
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