Research and Development Support Officer

Government Recruitment Service; Newcastle upon Tyne; On-site; GBP 31,000 - 37,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Disability Confident employer scheme

Job summary

Government Recruitment Service is recruiting for a Research and Development Support Officer to help develop psychometric tools and support research in the OPPS team. The role involves managing testing platforms, handling inquiries, and supporting agile project work with multidisciplinary colleagues across the UK.

Regular travel within the UK and office-based Work in Newcastle upon Tyne accompany a permanent, full-time position with salary between £30,768 and £37,121 per year.

Qualifications

• Background in social sciences or numerate degrees with research experience.
• Familiarity with quantitative data collection and analysis.
• Interest in statistics and data analysis development.
• Experience participating in research projects.

Responsibilities

• Manage and maintain the shared mailbox for stakeholder inquiries.
• Develop expertise in managing the testing platform and assign tests during trials.
• Provide data exports and support analyses for R&D activities and insights.
• Provide secretariat duties for online test and assessment meetings.
• Set up testing access and tailor products for bespoke assessments.

Skills

Social sciences background

Quant data collection

Research project experience

Statistics interest

Education

Social sciences degree (e.g., psychology)

Numerate degree (maths or statistics)

Tools

Testing platform

Job description

Research and Development Support Officer

This is an exciting time to join our Occupational Psychology and Psychometric Services (OPPS) team - part of the Recruitment Directorate in OneGov in Cabinet Office - as we seek to update and expand our services.

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. The ideal candidate for this role would be someone with a background in social sciences (for example psychology) or numerate degrees (such as maths or statistics) who has experience of taking part in research projects and understands quantitative data collection. Although these are not part of key deliverables for the role, depending on the right candidate, there will be opportunities to develop capability in statistics and data analysis. The role will provide a great opportunity to build experience in real world application of psychometrics and occupational psychology and to be supported by a range of experienced, senior members of the team with relevant backgrounds.

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 role

The Research and Development Support Officer will contribute to the smooth running of our service and will play a key role in assisting the development of new psychometric tools as well as the research required for the maintenance of our existing psychometric suite. The job holder will be responsible for managing and maintaining our shared mailbox where we receive a wide range of enquiries from different stakeholders. The job holder will also develop expertise in managing the testing platform and be responsible for assigning tests to test takers as part of trials run by Lead Psychometricians.

The R&D Support Officer will work very closely with a multi‑disciplinary team operating an agile project management approach, so will work in an agile way to assist the Psychometricians, Occupational Psychologists, and digital colleagues.

We have regular meetings located in our offices nationally and travel at regular intervals within the UK will be a requirement of the role.

Responsibilities

• Managing the testing platform for the purposes of new assessment implementation
• Setting up and managing testing access and tailoring products and services for ad hoc and bespoke assessment needs
• Customer relations for gathering systematic feedback on their experience using the service
• Providing research support working with the team’s occupational psychologists and psychometricians by preparing and building research materials, communicating withparticipants
• Tracking test usage and spend of customers using the service, providing data exports to the team to assist with R&D activities, technical evaluations, data analysis and data insights
• Managing the service’s support mailbox, including handling all enquiries incoming from stakeholders
• Providing secretariat duties for online test and assessment meetings

Company: Government Recruitment Service

Salary: £30,768 to £37,121 a year

Hours: Full‑time

Location: Newcastle‑upon‑Tyne

Job type: Permanent

Posting date: 3 Nov 2026

Closing date: 13 Nov 2026

Proud member of the Disability Confident employer scheme

About Disability Confident Disability Confident is a government scheme. It encourages employers to recruit and retain disabled people and those with long term health conditions.