Senior Occupational Psychologist

Cabinet Office; York and North Yorkshire; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

A UK government department is seeking a Senior Occupational Psychologist. In this role, you'll provide assessment consultancy and advice, designing bespoke assessment solutions and managing various projects. Candidates should have experience with assessments, project delivery, and strong communication skills. This position offers opportunities for professional development within the government’s occupational psychology community, emphasizing diversity and collaboration in assessment innovation.

Qualifications

• Experience in recommending appropriate assessments.
• Ability to manage multiple projects concurrently.
• Strong presentation skills for non-expert audiences.

Responsibilities

• Provide best practice assessment advice to stakeholders.
• Design bespoke psychometric tests.
• Research and evaluate the effectiveness of assessments.
• Manage projects through the consultancy cycle.

Skills

Experience with assessments

Accountability for decisions

Managing project relationships

Designing new assessments

Conducting evaluation research

Presenting findings

Applying reasonable adjustments

Education

Masters degree in Occupational Psychology

Job description

About the Role

These two Senior Occupational Psychologist (SOP) roles are part of the Occupational Psychology Service (OPS), which sits in the Government People Group (GPG). GPG is the strategic and functional centre for the Government People Function and human resources (HR) in the Civil Service. GPG’s mission is to enable and improve the delivery of recruitment, training, workplace policy, HR strategy and management excellence to over half a million civil servants.

Background

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. 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 OPS acts 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. We place ourselves at the forefront of assessment innovation, and are actively creating a growing range of evidence-based psychological assessment tools.

Your Professional Home: The Government Occupational Psychology Profession (GOPP)

This post is part of the wider Government Occupational Psychology Profession (a recognised government specialist profession). The profession comprises over 250 members across all the major government departments and many agencies and arms‑length bodies – which makes us the largest Occupational Psychology community in the U.K. We are a vibrant community with a long history in government going as far back as, at least, World War II, as shown in the Fifty Years of Occupational Psychology in Britain.

The Head of the Government Occupational Psychology Profession is Dr Antonia Dietmann.

Career Development

Building on the foundation of skills that you developed in your Masters degree, your career in the Government Occupational Psychology Profession will develop both your technical and consultancy capabilities. We welcome people from a range of different backgrounds as this helps to increase the diversity of thought and perspectives when developing solutions. Collaborating across departments and sharing learning is key to how we work. Throughout the year there will be many opportunities to connect with other members of the profession and build the relationships that will make the most rewarding occupational psychology career. Upon joining the civil service you are encouraged to sign up to the profession.

Role Overview

As a Senior Occupational Psychologist, you will play a critical role in supporting our growing business offer. You will frequently be working with other members of the team on large programmes of work, but you will also be given the freedom to lead on projects independently, covering the entire consultancy cycle. You will be adaptable, flexible and dependable, with an ability to effectively prioritise and manage your time.

Some of the exciting projects you can get involved with:

• Researching and building a new skills based assessment for use in the broader civil service
• Working alongside Lead Psychometricians to update and customise our existing assessments
• Amending our Managerial Judgement Test to align with the new Civil Service Leadership Capabilities
• Conducting different validations to best improve our assessments
• Working across the government with other Occupational Psychologists in the GOPP on a wide range of exciting projects, such as conducting maturity assessments, advising and designing interview processes, leadership assessment and development construction, providing best practice advice on assessment development

and more! 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.

Role Responsibilities

• Acting as a subject matter expert, providing up-to-date, impartial, best practice assessment advice to stakeholders;
• Scoping and designing bespoke assessment solutions including psychometric tests and evidence-based filtering tools;
• Using online assessment platforms to implement and support delivery of assessment solutions;
• Working with digital, data assurance, and diversity colleagues to ensure new assessments are compliant, fair, and meet customer and user needs;
• Researching new and emerging assessment methods/processes; setting up and conducting detailed studies to explore their impact and efficacy;
• Managing multiple projects concurrently across all stages of the consultancy cycle;
• Applying professional judgement and expertise in selecting robust, cost-effective, fair and relevant psychological assessments to meet customer needs;
• Act as a subject matter expert providing expert advice on recruitment, use of assessments and wider Occupational Psychology areas;
• Facilitating training for stakeholders to ensure their understanding of our supplier online test platform;
• Researching and evaluating the effectiveness of assessments through quantitative and qualitative methods, including statistical analysis and data interrogation to evaluate reliability, validity and fairness of assessments (e.g. adverse impact analysis);
• Presenting and communicating evidence-based findings verbally and in writing;
• Representing the Occupational Psychology profession at working groups, committees and other forums across government to inform policy and operations;
• Providing reasonable adjustment expert advice for assessments in line with the Equality Act 2010 and disability recruitment principles;
• Undertaking appropriate activities to maintain HCPC registration and remain CPD compliant;
• Supervising candidates on the Qualification in Occupational Psychology (BPS QOP Stage 2), if relevant. If not already registered on the Register of Applied Practice Psychology Supervisors (RAPPS), work towards RAPPS eligibility within a reasonable time scale.

Key Skills & Experience

• Experience of working with assessments and recommending the most appropriate tests to use depending on the situation;
• Taking ownership and accountability for decisions and promises/agreements;
• Consulting with and managing relationships during project delivery;
• Designing new assessments where relevant and suggesting opportunities for future assessment development;
• Conducting evaluation research including collecting, cleaning and analysing quantitative and qualitative data (e.g. survey design, statistical analysis, adverse impact analysis);
• Presenting assessment concepts, best practice and research findings to a range of non-expert audiences (e.g. internal staff, customers);
• An understanding of, and experience of, applying reasonable adjustments for candidates at different stages of the assessment journey;
• Desirable qualifications: Test User: Occupational, Ability (or Level A equivalent) and Test User: Occupational, Personality (or Level…)