Senior Advanced Analyst - Band 8b

Job description

Job responsibilities

ROLE PURPOSE / SUMMARY

The Essex Integrated Care Board (ICB) is a new organisation formed through the consolidation of three ICB areas in response to the NHSs ambition to deliver a more streamlined, strategic and cost-effective model of health commissioning. The ICB will oversee the commissioning of care for the approximately 2 million people who live in Essex. Operating within a reduced running cost envelope and aligned to the new requirements of ICBs in England, the ICB will focus on improving population health outcomes, health equity and smarter resource allocation.

The Senior Advanced Analyst will lead advanced analytical and evaluative work to support strategic commissioning, population health intelligence, prevention, health inequalities, transformation and resource allocation across the ICB. The postholder will apply advanced statistical, economic and population health methods to complex system questions, helping the ICB understand drivers of demand, outcomes, variation, inequality and cost.

The role will focus on evidence generation, hypothesis testing, impact evaluation and translating complex analysis into clear intelligence for strategic decision making. The postholder will work closely with BI, data engineering, information governance and commissioning colleagues, but will not be primarily responsible for routine reporting, dashboards or data engineering.

The Senior Advanced Analyst will be required to:

• Work in partnership with other analytical functions across Essex, e.g. in NHS providers and local authorities, to ensure a coordinated picture of health and care demand and capacity to inform decision making, market shaping, procurements and contract management
• Support the development and management of the analytical team, including day to day staff management, regular appraisals, staff development and performance management as required
• Support compliance with data sharing agreements, information governance, and NHS Federated Data Platform (FDP) standards to support secure and effective data integration
• Champion a culture of data-driven decision-making across the ICB, supporting commissioners and partners to use intelligence for strategic planning and continuous improvement
• Support delivery of training and development to improve organisational capabilities in analytics, intelligence and evaluation
• Ensure requirements for advanced analytical activities are well scoped in partnership with strategic commissioners, prior to projects starting
• Lead advanced analytical and evaluative projects, including modelling, health economic analysis, impact evaluation and scenario analysis to support commissioning, transformation, prevention and resource allocation.
• Provide advanced analytical input to support the development of agreed methodologies for segmentation and risk stratification across the ICB, with supporting tools to enable identification of priority populations.
• Prioritise and deliver complex advanced analytical requests, working with BI colleagues where reporting or dashboard outputs are required.
• Define data requirements for advanced modelling and evaluation, working within agreed information governance and platform standards.
• Apply proportionate technical assurance to analytical products, including clear documentation, reproducible methods, peer review, version control where appropriate, and robust quality assurance before outputs are used for decision making.
• Maintain sufficient technical understanding of data architecture, data models, data pipelines and cloud-based analytical environments, including the NHS Federated Data Platform and Microsoft Azure, to work effectively with data engineering and digital colleagues and to ensure analytical requirements are technically feasible and well governed.
• Deliver high quality communications, briefings and presentations for senior leaders that effectively translate analytical insights to support internal decision making and external engagement with partners
• Apply methods such as regression, survival analysis, Bayesian analysis, econometrics, causal inference, counterfactual analysis, cost-effectiveness analysis and statistical modelling where appropriate.

As the ICB transitions to become a leaner, more focused strategic commissioning organisation the post holder will be expected to support the ICB in delivering on the three fundamental shifts set out in the NHS 10-year plan:

• From Treatment to Prevention: Embedding preventative, personalised and population based approaches to commissioning.
• From Hospital to Community: Championing care model redesign that supports community and neighbourhood health.
• From Analogue to Digital: Enabling clinically driven transformation through digital innovation, data analytics and evidence based improvement.

KEY DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

To deliver on the job description set out above, the job holder will be expected to deliver on the requirements set out below:

Policy and service development

• Implement policy and service developments related to advanced analytics, evaluation, population health intelligence and evidence-led commissioning.
• Ensure compliance with relevant ICB policies
• Use research and innovation to inform service improvements or performance management

Strategy and analysis

• Use complex health, care, finance, quality and population datasets to understand demand, outcomes, variation, inequality and cost.
• Analysis of complex qualitative and quantitative data
• Translate complex analysis into clear intelligence and actionable recommendations for senior leaders.
• Present highly complex data, information and insights, including qualitative and quantitative data, through clear and simple written and verbal briefings
• Use of Population Health Management methodologies and tools to inform projects and programmes that will improve outcomes for patients and sustainability of health services
• Apply appropriate statistical, modelling and evaluation methods, including regression, forecasting, segmentation, risk stratification, causal inference, scenario modelling and impact evaluation.
• Able to use software required to develop reports and analytical products, including Microsoft 365 applications, SQL, Power BI, and relevant statistical or analytical tools such as STATA, R and/or Python.
• Oversee technical quality standards for analytics, including data definitions, data quality checks, metadata, reproducible code, documentation, peer review and appropriate sign-off of high-impact analytical products.
• Work with data engineering, business intelligence and information governance colleagues to shape data access, data model and platform requirements, ensuring analytical needs are clearly specified without taking primary responsibility for data engineering delivery.

Planning and organisation

• Develop project plans for complex analytical, modelling and evaluation projects
• Manage delivery against agreed project plan, ensuring appropriate governance, risk management, escalations and reporting
• Support delivery of the annual work programme for advanced analytics and population health intelligence.

Communications and Partnerships

• Work collaboratively, modelling inclusive, respectful and compassionate leadership
• Listen effectively to a broad range of perspectives, including staff, patients and the public, to inform decision making
• Present information and training to large groups
• Build strong, trust-based relationships across the ICB, with NHS providers, local government, VCFSE partners and communities as needed
• Effective engagement with patients and the public as required
• Work effectively in multi-disciplinary teams to enable the collective ownership and delivery of projects that are seeking to improve outcomes, reduce inequalities and deliver a sustainable health and care system
• Share complex and challenging information which may relate to service performance or staffing
• Manage conflict, find compromise and build consensus where needed to drive progress in delivery

Financial and resource management

• Responsible for supporting the management of the budget for the analytical and population health intelligence team, including budget setting and accountability for delivering against agreed budget
• Supports procurement of relevant services

Team management and capability building

• Help develop advanced analytical capability within the Data, Analytics and Population Health Intelligence function, including recruitment, onboarding, development and performance management
• Support staff through ICB transition, including the development of teams to deliver on new ICB portfolios as agreed through transition
• Support the effective transition of relevant functions to new portfolios within or beyond the ICB to support the new NHS operating model, in line with the requirements of the Model ICB Blueprint
• Work collaboratively with system partners to facilitate transitional arrangements
• Maintain a focus on quality, safety and affordability during transition
• Supporting effective Information Asset Management for the team

Other

• Use initiative and work with independency to deliver on requirements of the role
• Primarily desk-based work that requires use of visual display units, focused concentration and frequent participation in on-line or in person meetings
• Expected to be physically on site at least 2 days a week (From April 2026), this may be in the ICB office, or in a partner location as required
• Use Microsoft 365, SQL, Azure-based analytical environments, Power BI where appropriate, and statistical software such as R, Python and/or STATA.

Flexibility and evolving responsibilities

As the ICB continues to evolve, portfolios may be subject to change to reflect the needs of the organization, the health and care system and national policy direction. This may include adjustments to areas of responsibility or realignment of reporting structures.

Please see attached job description for Key Relationships.

Person Specification

Experience

• Significant experience delivering advanced analytics, evaluation or population health intelligence in a complex healthcare, public sector or equivalent environment.
• Experience applying statistical, modelling and evaluation methods to complex datasets to generate evidence and actionable insight.
• Experience working with NHS datasets and an understanding of NHS data flows, standards and nationally mandated datasets.
• Skilled in statistical analysis, with working knowledge of SQL and tools such as R, Python and/or STATA.
• Experience applying advanced methods such as regression, forecasting, segmentation, risk stratification, causal inference, impact evaluation, cost-effectiveness analysis and/or health economic analysis.

Strategy & Analysis

• Strong advanced analytical and interpretation skills, including use of data to support Population Health Management, prevention, transformation and commissioning.
• Ability to translate complex analysis into clear intelligence, recommendations and briefings for senior leaders.
• Experience scoping and delivering evaluations of projects, programmes and interventions, including interpreting impact for decision making.
• Understanding of statistical significance, uncertainty, bias, and the strengths and limitations of analytical methodologies.
• Experience using research evidence and innovation to inform decision making and service improvement.

Qualifications

• Educated to Masters level in a relevant discipline (e.g. Data Science, Statistics, Operational Research, Health Informatics, Epidemiology, Public Health, Mathematics, Economics) or equivalent analytical experience
• Evidence of sustained commitment to continuing professional development

• Experience supporting or contributing to health economic analysis, economic evaluation, or cost effectiveness work within a health or public sector context

People & Culture

• Experience supporting the development of analytical capability within a team or function.
• Evidence of compassionate leadership and promoting diversity, inclusion and equality of opportunity.
• A commitment to continuous improvement, organisational learning and achieving positive outcomes for staff, patients, service users and carers.
• Ability to work collaboratively, support colleagues and model inclusive, respectful behaviours.

Partnerships & Communities

• Experience working across organisational boundaries in the development and delivery of projects.
• Able to represent the organisation credibly and positively in internal and external meetings.
• Experience working on projects requiring cross-organisational collaboration and whole-system working.
• Strong influencing and negotiation skills, with the ability to challenge constructively and escalate appropriately.

Governance and Assurance

• Experience supporting robust governance, assurance and decision-making processes for complex analytical work.
• Understanding of information governance, data quality, documentation and analytical assurance requirements.
• Ability to manage sensitive and confidential information appropriately.
• Experience ensuring analytical outputs are quality assured, proportionate and suitable for decision making.

Personal Attributes and Values

• Personal commitment to the values of the NHS 10-year Plan, the NHS People Plan, the Nolan Principles, to championing equality, diversity and inclusion within the ICB and the wide health system

Employer details

Employer name

NHS Essex Integrated Care Board

Address

Seax House

Victoria Road South

Chelmsford

Essex

CM1 1QH

United Kingdom

Employer's website

https://www.essex.icb.nhs.uk