Health department seeks to appoint a new technical leader to oversee a small team of experts, as well as work with teams across the organisation to support policy and delivery

The Department of Health and Social Care is recruiting for a senior leader to spearhead efforts to use data science to provide “real-world value” across the NHS and wider healthcare sector.

The position as the department’s head of data science sits at the head of a team of 15 experts. Duties of the leadership post include “scoping new work and proposing new analytical directions”, as well as “upskilling and recruitment of data scientists across DHSC”, according to the job advert.

Other efforts to grow “data science capability across the department” will focus not just on personnel, but also on the accompanying “platform, tooling and data requirements”.

The chosen candidate will, initially, be appointed to cover for the paternity leave of an existing leader.

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“Longer term, there is a demand for data science leadership across the department and this post will support meeting that need either through continued leadership of the data science hub or a reorganisation of data science leadership roles,” the advert adds. “As head of the Data Science Hub, you will be concerned primarily with capability building, strategy and leadership. You will act as both a technical leader and manage delivery through others as part of a larger team of 15 data scientists and a programme manager. You will take a strategic view in order to enable data science to have impact across the department and the wider health sector. As the leader of data science in DHSC you will be a key advocate in senior for and set the narrative for data science including adoption of AI within the department.”

The department’s use of data science techniques is used “in helping policy analysts make best use of health data such as NHS data, primary care data and third party datasets such as web data and ordnance survey for example”.

The advert says: “Our data scientists have demonstrated real-world value through topics as varied as public health, dentistry, adult social care, mental health, NHS performance and more, as well as focussing on how emerging AI tools can increase departmental efficiency.”

The postholder and the team they lead will, in the coming months and years, expected “to take a flexible approach to which projects they are working on, so that the department can meet its business priorities, [and] on occasion, this may include working outside the immediate team”.

The role offers an annual salary of £68,503 if the chosen applicant opts to be based in Leeds, or £72,602 if they prefer London.

Applications are open until 11.55pm on 8 December.