Applications for this job are now closed
Duration: 3 years (minimum)
Starting salary: £27k (£45k to £55k after successful completion of the scheme and promotion)
Get on the Fast Stream and you’ll be encouraged, enabled and empowered to become a Civil Service leader, tackling the issues that matter to you and UK life. Whatever you want to achieve, whatever your degree subject or background, there’s something here for you.
What could I be involved in as a Government Operational Research Service Fast Streamer?
On this scheme, you’ll learn how to use scientific and mathematical techniques to find better solutions to policy making and resolve complex management problems. As you help to bring government policy to life, you’ll have an impact on everyone in the UK.
Operational Research (OR) is the discipline of applying advanced analytical methods to help make better decisions. From quick calculations to complicated systems dynamics models, forecasting, simulation and analytics, we use different techniques to objectively assess the current situation and how different changes might affect it.
As a Government Operational Research Service Fast Streamer, you’ll use your creativity and intellect to address complex problems, often with no single ‘right answer’. You’ll collaborate with colleagues in a range of professions, including economists, statisticians, social researchers and scientists. And your work will support all areas of government, including policy making, strategy and operations.
The OR profession is flexible, enabling you to shape your own career path throughout the programme and beyond.
Growing your knowledge, skills and experience
As well as learning different OR techniques, you’ll build your leadership skills through a variety of placements in roles across different government departments or agencies. You’ll also gain experience of collaborating with clients, senior stakeholders and sometimes even government ministers.
Other development opportunities include a two-day residential induction, access to a wide range of training courses, cross-government events and conferences, and support to achieve professional accreditation by the OR Society (if you choose).
To apply, you’ll need
- Eligibility to work in the UK.
- A 2:1 degree, degree apprenticeship or higher (or be expecting to achieve this) in a highly numerate subject.
- Or 2:2 with a highly numerate postgraduate degree (subjects like maths, statistics and physics; for mixed degrees, at least 50% should be in a highly numerate subject).
We support applicants with health conditions, learning difficulties and disabilities, with their applications and through their Civil Service careers. We operate a Guaranteed Interview Scheme. If you have a disability and meet the minimum qualifying criteria for your chosen scheme, you may choose to skip part of the first stage of the assessment process.
More benefits of being on the Fast Stream
Join us and you’ll be a valued member of the wider Civil Service community, where people genuinely matter and where you can confidently bring your true self to work each day. As well as the reward that comes from work with a strong social purpose, you’ll enjoy a variety of benefits. These include membership of the Civil Service Pension scheme, season ticket loan, flexible working arrangements, childcare assistance and more.
