Senior Occupational Psychologist


Company:	Government Recruitment Service
Salary:	£45,950 to £50,080 a year
Hours:	Full-time
Location:	SW1A 2HQ
Job type:	Permanent
Posting date:	15 Sept 2026
Closing date:	12 Oct 2026

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Summary

The Senior Occupational Psychologist (SOP) role is part of the Occupational Psychology and Psychometric Services (OPPS) Team.

OPPS is within the newly formed OneGov Delivery Agency and is currently led by Alice Clark (Head of Service) and Tina Gardner (Deputy Director).

OPPS acts as the provider for cross-Civil Service centralised tests and assessments. We collaborate with government departments, functions and professions to develop and deliver solutions grounded in occupational psychology. We place ourselves at the forefront of assessment innovation, and are actively creating a growing range of evidence-based psychological assessment tools.

Your Professional Home: The Government Occupational Psychology Profession (GOPP)

This post is part of the wider Government Occupational Psychology Profession (a recognised government specialist profession). The profession comprises over 250 members across all the major government departments and many agencies and arms-length bodies – which makes us the largest Occupational Psychology community in the U.K. We are a vibrant community with a long history in government going as far back as, at least, World War II, as shown in the Fifty Years of Occupational Psychology in Britain. The Head of the Government Occupational Psychology Profession is Dr Antonia Dietmann.

Building on the foundation of skills that you developed in your Masters degree, your career in the Government Occupational Psychology Profession will develop both your technical and consultancy capabilities. We welcome people from a range of different backgrounds as this helps to increase the diversity of thought and perspectives when developing solutions. Collaborating across departments and sharing learning is key to how we work. Throughout the year there will be many opportunities to connect with other members of the profession and build the relationships that will make the most rewarding occupational psychology career. Upon joining the civil service you are encouraged to sign up to the profession.

As a Senior Occupational Psychologist at the Cabinet Office, you will play a critical role in supporting our growing business offer. You will frequently be working with other members of the team on large programmes of work, but you will also be given the freedom to lead on projects independently, covering the entire consultancy cycle. You will be adaptable, flexible and dependable, with an ability to effectively prioritise and manage your time.

Some of the exciting projects you could be involved in:

Researching and developing a suite of new leadership assessments for Senior Civil Service recruitment;
Leading on the research of new and emerging assessment methods and processes;
Working alongside psychometricians to build, customise and update psychometrics for use in the broader civil service;
Amending our existing assessments to align with new Civil Service frameworks and standards;
Conducting different validations and impact assessments to best improve our tests;
Considering Best Practice guidance and the latest reasonable adjustments research, and implementing this in our suite of psychometric tests and assessments;
Working across the government with other Occupational Psychologists in the GOPP on a wide range of exciting projects.

You will be joining a high performing multi-disciplinary team of occupational psychologists, psychometricians and digital experts who use evidence-based practice to put the client and user at the heart of what they do. We are a team that embraces innovation to deliver better results, improved efficiency and added value, with a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion.

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