This role is based in the Cultural and Creative Industries Analysis team. The team is embedded within Cultural and Creative Industries directorate (CCI). The directorate’s work includes: overseeing a number of public bodies (Arms Length Bodies), eg: Arts Council England and our National Museums; supporting the wider cultural and creative sectors; delivering our own projects and programmes; and working with partners around Whitehall to promote the value of our sectors.
Our mission is to ensure high-quality evidence and analysis informs all stages of the policy cycle across CCI. Our mission is supported by 4 objectives:
- Deliver influential analysis to inform policy, delivery and strategic decisions.
- Building our evidence base by identifying and filling our key evidence gaps through high quality research, data and evaluation.
- Work with others (policy, ALBs, academia, ESRC, AHRC etc) to deliver joined up evidence and analysis and maximise impact.
- Provide the right environment, support and opportunities for team members to flourish, developing as individuals and delivering excellent outputs, and maintaining our wellbeing.
As a embedded team we work collaboratively with our policy teams and stakeholders to drive positive change, shape policy and set direction. More recently, our work has been focussed on Government’s missions, including Health, Growth and Opportunity Mission.
Job description
You will lead the analytical work for the Museum and Cultural Property team, providing support in a dynamic and varied policy environment. We are looking for a highly driven economist with strong technical skills. Given the embedded nature of the role, you will work closely with a wide range of stakeholders, including Arms-Length Bodies, academia, consultancies, and research councils. This position is well-suited to individuals who can confidently engage with policy officials and external stakeholders. You will also need to take the initiative in addressing the analytical needs of policy officials, work effectively in a fast-paced environment, and demonstrate an inquisitive approach to applying and developing evidence.
Some of your responsibilities will include:
- Conducting economic analysis of the museum sector and arts markets.
- Strengthening the sector’s evidence base by drawing on relevant findings from various sources and translating them into policy insights to inform policy delivery.
- Leading internal and commissioned research and evaluations.
- Providing technical advice on business cases and impact assessments, working directly with museums to develop robust and innovative proposals with strong economic, strategic, and value-for-money cases.
- Collaborating with the Cultural and Heritage Capital (CHC) team to innovate and deploy the latest CHC methodology.
- Engaging with policy colleagues to enhance the visibility and impact of analysis, proactively deploying evidence, and improving analytical capabilities across the sectors.
Person specification
The ideal candidate would have the following essential and desirable skills:
Essential Requirements:
- Willingness and eligible to become a badged member of the Government Economic Service (or are already badged). Full criteria can be found in the GES membership guidance*.
- Clear and confident in communicating, both verbally and written, and experience of building valuable and influential relationships with stakeholders.
- Extensive experience of using analysis to influence policy development.
- Excellent quantitative analytical skills and a proven ability to identify and define core analytical questions, and devise the most appropriate approaches to address, within time and resource constraints.
- Experience in implementing HMT Green Book methodology.
- Experience of managing/leading a team and/or project, being proactive in planning and developing a programme of work, and taking ownership to deliver high-quality outputs, to time.
Desirable skills:
- Proficiency with analytical tools such as R or Python for data analysis and visualisation.
- Knowledge of museums and the art market.
- Financial modeling.
- Data visualisation.
*Membership requires a minimum 2.1 honours degree in economics (or international equivalent), or a postgraduate degree in economics. If it is a joint degree, at least 50% of the course modules must be in economics.
We are running an information session where prospective applicants can find out more about the role. This will be hosted by Harman Sagger, and will take place on:
- March 11th 2025 (13:30 PM)
The session will be an opportunity to hear more about the role, the team and wider directorate and the department. It will also be an opportunity for you to ask any questions.
Please register your interest by filling out this Registration form by 13:00 10th March 2025 and you will be sent an invitation.
Please note that the session will not focus on the DCMS recruitment process - please direct any queries that you have on this topic (timelines, reasonable adjustments, onboarding etc) to recruitment.team@dcms.gov.uk
Apply before 11:55 pm on Wednesday 19th March 2025
