The ONS operates a flexible hybrid working model across the UK, with colleagues linked to one of our contractual locations working between office and remote throughout the week. The locations for this role are Newport & Titchfield (Fareham).
All colleagues are required to work from their contractually allocated site for at least 40% of their working time.
The induction process for the role will be conducted in person.
Job Summary
Join the Office for National Statistics as a Senior International Policy Officer and play a pivotal role in advancing the United Kingdom’s (UK) statistical priorities on the global stage. As the UK's largest producer of official statistics, ONS data on economic growth, population demographics, and social indicators shapes critical policy decisions both domestically and internationally. In this dynamic role within our International Division, you will be at the forefront of ensuring UK statistics maintain their world-leading reputation and continue to improve lives through data across international boundaries.
You will coordinate the UK's participation in multilateral organisations including the United Nations (UN), Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and World Bank, ensuring our statistical expertise influences global standards and methodologies. From managing high-level international visits to supporting our representatives at major conferences like the UN Statistical Commission, you will build strategic relationships that amplify the impact of UK statistics. This role offers exceptional variety, from advising on international statistical classifications to coordinating the response to emerging challenges, including the development of artificial intelligence and new forms of data.
As part of the Civil Service Policy Profession, you will contribute to evidence-based policy development while working in an inclusive environment that values diverse perspectives and experiences. If you are passionate about using statistical expertise to address global challenges and want to help shape the future of international statistical cooperation, this role offers an unparalleled opportunity to make a meaningful contribution to the UK priorities.
Job Description
The Senior International Policy Officer position sits within ONS's International Division, part of the newly formed Office of the National Statistician. This role directly supports ONS's mission to improve lives through data by ensuring UK statistical expertise influences international policy development and global statistical standards. You will also ensure the UK is well placed to learn from new innovations across the globe, either in the multilateral system or from our bilateral partners. The post holder will play a key role in implementing, coordinating and assessing the effectiveness of the Government Statistical Service (GSS) International Strategy. You will coordinate engagement with international organisations including the UN, OECD, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund (IMF) as well as cross-government and bilateral partners.
Working at the intersection of statistics, diplomacy, and policy development, you will manage complex relationships across government departments, international statistical institutes, and multilateral bodies. The role encompasses both strategic planning and operational delivery, from coordinating the update to the System of National Accounts to managing post-EU Exit collaboration programmes with peer National Statistical Institutes. You will provide leadership to a small team while working closely with the ONS’s directorates engaged in international activity to ensure the United Kingdom’s statistical development keeps pace with rapidly evolving global challenges.
This position offers significant autonomy in developing and maintaining international networks that enhance the UK's statistical reputation globally. Your work will directly contribute to ensuring UK statistics remain trusted, relevant, and influential in addressing international and domestic policy challenges from climate change to economic development, ultimately supporting better decision-making that improves lives.
Responsibilities
- Lead on the coordination of the office’s international activity by monitoring delivery against agreed international implementation plans.
- Directly supporting ONS business areas, through excellent stakeholder management, to deliver their parts of the GSS International Strategy.
- Assisting in the delivery of support to ONS representatives whilst on international business, building excellent relationships with them and the key stakeholders across the international statistical system.
- Supporting the delivery of ONS international engagement, offering a high quality, value-added service which ensures the Office’s international activity is efficient, well-controlled and with clearly identified benefits.
- Developing close working relationships with a network of contacts across the International Statistical System, monitoring and influencing statistical developments globally.
- Leading and supporting the economic and environment international work programmes liaising regularly with the economic and environment division to ensure the UK continues to lead and influence the international landscape at pace.
- Managing the coordination of international statistical classifications and manuals particularly the update to the System of National Accounts and related handbooks.
- Advising ONS business areas on relevant impactful international events and supporting with preparation of presentations and briefings.
- Effectively managing and prioritising projects and workload across the Office to ensure outputs are delivered at pace.
- Supporting as necessary the international projects and other international engagement undertaken across the ONS.
- Supporting the post-EU Exit international engagement work of ONS, including a program of collaboration with peer National Statistical Institutes.
Spans of control - This role requires complex working across ONS and the wider UK government. It also requires a mix of business as usual and managing externally funded programmes.
Line management - The role involves management responsibility for up to 2 staff from HEO to EO.
The Senior International Policy Officer position sits within ONS's International Division, part of the newly formed Office of the National Statistician. This role directly supports ONS's mission to improve lives through data by ensuring UK statistical expertise influences international policy development and global statistical standards. You will also ensure the UK is well placed to learn from new innovations across the globe, either in the multilateral system or from our bilateral partners. The post holder will play a key role in implementing, coordinating and assessing the effectiveness of the Government Statistical Service (GSS) International Strategy. You will coordinate engagement with international organisations including the UN, OECD, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund (IMF) as well as cross-government and bilateral partners.
Working at the intersection of statistics, diplomacy, and policy development, you will manage complex relationships across government departments, international statistical institutes, and multilateral bodies. The role encompasses both strategic planning and operational delivery, from coordinating the update to the System of National Accounts to managing post-EU Exit collaboration programmes with peer National Statistical Institutes. You will provide leadership to a small team while working closely with the ONS’s directorates engaged in international activity to ensure the United Kingdom’s statistical development keeps pace with rapidly evolving global challenges.
This position offers significant autonomy in developing and maintaining international networks that enhance the UK's statistical reputation globally. Your work will directly contribute to ensuring UK statistics remain trusted, relevant, and influential in addressing international and domestic policy challenges from climate change to economic development, ultimately supporting better decision-making that improves lives.
Responsibilities
- Lead on the coordination of the office’s international activity by monitoring delivery against agreed international implementation plans.
- Directly supporting ONS business areas, through excellent stakeholder management, to deliver their parts of the GSS International Strategy.
- Assisting in the delivery of support to ONS representatives whilst on international business, building excellent relationships with them and the key stakeholders across the international statistical system.
- Supporting the delivery of ONS international engagement, offering a high quality, value-added service which ensures the Office’s international activity is efficient, well-controlled and with clearly identified benefits.
- Developing close working relationships with a network of contacts across the International Statistical System, monitoring and influencing statistical developments globally.
- Leading and supporting the economic and environment international work programmes liaising regularly with the economic and environment division to ensure the UK continues to lead and influence the international landscape at pace.
- Managing the coordination of international statistical classifications and manuals particularly the update to the System of National Accounts and related handbooks.
- Advising ONS business areas on relevant impactful international events and supporting with preparation of presentations and briefings.
- Effectively managing and prioritising projects and workload across the Office to ensure outputs are delivered at pace.
- Supporting as necessary the international projects and other international engagement undertaken across the ONS.
- Supporting the post-EU Exit international engagement work of ONS, including a program of collaboration with peer National Statistical Institutes.
Spans of control - This role requires complex working across ONS and the wider UK government. It also requires a mix of business as usual and managing externally funded programmes.
Line management - The role involves management responsibility for up to 2 staff from HEO to EO.
Person specification
Essential Criteria:
- Experience building trust with a wide range of the most senior stakeholders, while balancing rapidly changing priorities and agendas.
- Thinking strategically, able to monitor and make connections across an expansive range of issues, making decisive recommendations for senior stakeholders to make decisions.
- Experience identifying and developing key domestic and international relationships and networks to increase the profile of UK statistics internationally.
- Demonstrate extensive knowledge and understanding of the international statistical system, and how it supports UK priority agendas in a changing global environment.
- Evidence of inspiring and motivating others to be fully engaged in their work, helping to steer team members through changing external demands and internal priorities.
- Working adaptably and at pace to master briefs and deliver operational demands across a wide range of subjects to the highest standards.
- Excellent organisational and administration skills, proficient in the use of Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, SharePoint and multiple conferencing platforms.
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Communicating and Influencing
- Seeing the Big Picture
- Delivering at Pace
- Working Together
Alongside your salary of £41,985, Office for National Statistics contributes £12,163 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.
The Office for National Statistics is part of the Civil Service, and as such we share a number of key benefits with other departments, whilst also having our own unique offerings to support our valued colleagues across the organisation.
Whether you are hearing about us for the first time or already know a bit about our organisation, we hope that our careers site will give you a great insight into the benefits and facilities available to our colleagues, and our fantastic working culture.
Inclusion & Accessibility
At ONS we are always looking to attract the very best people from the widest possible talent pool, and we are proud to be an inclusive, equal opportunities employer. As a Disability Confident Leader we’re committed to ensuring that all candidates are treated fairly throughout the recruitment process.
As part of our application process, you will be prompted to provide details of any reasonable adjustments to our recruitment process that you need. If you would like to discuss any reasonable adjustments before applying, please contact the recruitment team in the first instance.
If you would like an accessible version of any of the attachments or recruitment documents below or linked to in this advert, please contact the recruitment team who will be happy to assist.
Selection process details
This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.
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
Artificial intelligence (AI) software such as ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot and Gemini are powerful tools that can create and review text in ways that mimic what people can do. These tools can help you enhance your application and prepare for the process, but it is essential you use them appropriately.
They must also not be used to provide misleading or false information at any stage of the application journey.
It is also important to understand that while AI can help you prepare for an interview, you must not use it to produce responses during an interview.
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.
If a personal statement is required at application stage, it will state the maximum wordcount allowed, which should not be exceeded. Where it is a requirement to make a personal statement, 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 Success Profiles Behaviour examples are not required at this stage of the application process.
In instances where a high number of applications are received, the sift pass mark may be adjusted, and candidates will be invited to interview based on merit order, i.e., those with the highest scores.
Stage 2 – Interview
If invited to interview, you will be assessed using techniques aligned with the Civil Service Success Profiles framework, covering all behaviours listed in the job advert.
A presentation will be required at interview you will be given your presentation topic 1 hour ahead of interview .
Interviews will be carried out via Microsoft Teams.
Our main locations are Newport (South Wales), Titchfield and Darlington.
A reserve list may be held for a period up to 12 months from which further appointments may be made.
Important Dates:
The Sift will be conducted from Monday 5th January 2026
Interviews will be conducted from Tuesday 13th January 2026
Dates are subject to change.
For the full terms and conditions of the post, please see attachment.
Please note that all campaigns may be subject to withdrawal at any stage if the internal resource position changes.
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.
Security
Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.
Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).
People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.
Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.
Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).
People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.
Nationality requirements
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)
Working for the Civil Service
The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).
The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.
The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.
The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).
The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.
The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.
Diversity and Inclusion
The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).
This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.
Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.
Contact point for applicants
Job Contact :
- Name : Recruitment Operations
- Email : Recruitmentoperations@ons.gov.uk
Recruitment team
- Email : Recruitmentoperations@ons.gov.uk
Further information
If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint, in the first instance, you should contact recruitment.complaints@ons.gov.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission
