Job Reference: 29903

• Ongoing Full-Time role
• Location:  Sydney City (moving to Parramatta late 2021)
• DPO 4/5, Salary ($121,288 - $ 131,094), plus employer’s contribution to superannuation and annual leave loading

Who should apply for this role

• You're interested in doing research and evaluations across interesting topics in justice, policing and crime like:
  • What influences who gets given bail by police and courts?
  • Who gets charged under terrorism offences?
  • What happens when you try to get more people to plead guilty early?
• You enjoy learning and applying statistical techniques to isolate the causal effect of a policy as accurately and precisely as possible (controlling for confounds, exploiting 'natural experiments', constructing comparison groups etc), and critically assessing existing evidence.
• You excel when you’re trusted to lead the design and delivery of projects based on your own expertise and judgement with an engaged (and fun?) team for support and guidance.

What we're looking for

• Essential requirements
  • Honours degree or equivalent in statistics, economics, epidemiology, psychology or another discipline with a strong statistical component.
  • Experience and expertise in program or policy evaluation, particularly quasi-experimental and micro-econometric methods like difference-in-difference, instrumental variables etc.
• Strong capabilities in:
  • Project management: The ability to prepare and submit schedules for projects, monitor performance against these schedules and deal with administrative problems that arise.
  • Effective communication: particularly translating technical work to policy makers and managing stakeholders
  • Providing expert advice and recommendations: Translating your expertise to a policy audience and senior staff based on your professional judgement and expertise
• Nice to have:
  • Skills or experience in complementary statistical techniques (e.g. machine learning, prediction)
  • Expertise and experience in economic evaluation and cost-benefit analysis

What you'll be doing

• Designing and delivering research and evaluation projects to understand the effectiveness of new policies and programs
• Reviewing draft evaluation and research reports, both informally within the team and as part of a peer review for other researchers.
• Building partnerships with stakeholders across the Department of Communities and Justice, other government bodies and research institutions
• Representing the Bureau on committees, task forces and working parties, including presenting the results of research studies at conferences and seminars.
• Developing new methodologies and sourcing new datasets that will enable improvements in program and policy evaluations, and establishing standard operating procedures for common tasks.
• Assisting the Director (Research and Evaluation) in the preparation of research grant proposals and monitoring the expenditure of grant funds.

There are more details in the role description here.

How to apply for this role

To apply for this role you will need to submit a short response to the three questions in this document (recommended length 1-2 paragraphs per question) and attach an up-to-date resume (maximum of 4 pages)

The process will have 4 stages:

• Initial application
• Psychometric testing (30 mins)
• Work task (recommended length 1 page)
• Interview (1 hour)

The timing of each stage will depend on the volume of applications, but we will work to be as timely, responsive and transparent as possible throughout the process. Applicants will be given further information as they progress through to each stage. We will aim to provide personalised feedback for all candidates who progress to the interview stage.

Closing date:  Sunday 3rd October 2021 (11.59 PM)

For role enquiries please contact Min-Taec Kim via email at min-taec.kim@justice.nsw.gov.au 

If you experience technical difficulties when submitting your application, please contact Stephanie August on stephanie.august@justice.nsw.gov.au

About us

The Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) is the lead agency under the Stronger Communities Cluster. DCJ works to enable everyone's right to access justice and help for families through early intervention and inclusion, with benefits for the whole community. Stronger Communities is focussed on achieving safe, just, inclusive and resilient communities by providing services that are effective and responsive to community needs.  For the first time, the creation of DCJ and Stronger Communities provides an opportunity to focus on prevention and early intervention across both the social welfare and justice systems.

The NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research is a statistical and research agency within the Department of Communities and Justice whose role is to analyse and report on trends and patterns in the criminal justice system. It was established in 1969. 

IMPORTANT

To ensure recruitment at the Department of Communities and Justice continues without interruption during the COVID-19 pandemic, some interviews and assessments may be performed using alternative methods.

This may include video interviewing, telephone interviewing and online assessments. If you are successful following review of your application, you may need to perform assessments and/or interviews via online platforms using a PC, laptop or smart phone. By doing so, we will be adhering to the strict social distancing advice currently in place.

Inclusion and Diversity lies at the heart of how we recruit

We continue to hire great people with a wide variety of skills, experience and backgrounds. This includes people with disability, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, women, people identifying as LGBTIQ+, culturally and linguistically diverse people, carers and other diversity groups.

If you require an adjustment within the recruitment process, please contact Stephanie August on stephanie.august@justice.nsw.gov.au and advise us of your preferred method of communication.

If you are looking for more information about workplace adjustments at DCJ, please visit our Careers site.

A talent pool may be created for future ongoing and temporary roles and is valid for a period of up to 18 months. 

Thank you for your interest in this role. We look forward to receiving your application.