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The Scottish Government is recruiting for a chief statistician to help set strategy at a national level and work with many organisations across the country.

The successful candidate will serve as the government’s foremost advisor on all matters related to statistics, and will also be responsible for “providing leadership to the official statistics community” throughout the country. This will involve working with about 30 different organisations that produce statistics for official use.

The postholder, who will occupy a position on the senior management team of the Scottish Government’s Digital Directorate, will assume responsibility for “giving direction [and] setting strategy”, and for “setting statistics policy and standards across Scotland”. 

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The statistics chief will manage the delivery of household surveys led by the government, while directing “policy on data access and linkage” to external organisations. The chosen applicant will also be tasked with “identifying developments in the way statistics are collected, managed, communicated and shared, leading transformation programmes to improve the way this is done”.

Applications for the role – which will be primarily based in Glasgow or Edinburgh – are open until midday on 14 February. The position will offer an annual salary in the range of £82,000 to £85,000.

The job advert said: “As chief statistician, you will be legally responsible for ensuring that all official statistics published about Scotland are trustworthy, high quality and have an impact in improving decision making.”