Specific Minimum Qualifications and Expertise
The following are requirements for the role:
- Policy analysis. You should have experience in applying quantitative or qualitative analysis to decision making – whether in a policy, corporate or business environment.
- Stakeholder management. You should have experience of building constructive and productive relationships with colleagues and others outside of your organisation, using these relationships to contribute to your and their professional aims.
- Communications. You should have evidence that you can write clearly and concisely to communicate your views and others’. You will be able to demonstrate that you can communicate complex issues to a range of audiences, including those who are not close to your work.
- Teamwork. Our work involves close co-operation, within our team, others in Ofgem and across many different types of stakeholders. You should be able to show that you can work productively as part of a team and that you contribute proactively to your team’s environment.
The following would be an advantage:
- Economic or analytical experience. An economics degree would be beneficial (but not essential).
- Sector knowledge. An understanding of the regulatory frameworks governing the operation of electricity and gas markets.
- Strategic thinking: Able to put the issues that you have worked on into a wider or longer‐term context.
Purpose
Purpose of the Smarter Markets Strategy team
- This role is in Ofgem’s Smarter Markets Strategy team, which is analysing ways that smart metering could improve competition in the energy supply market.
- Our work includes examining parties’ incentives across the supply chain, how customers actually use energy and participate in the market and behind‐the‐scenes processes that are fundamental to the working of competition.
- We aim to translate these changes into tangible policy actions that can help consumers benefit from the opportunities that smart metering could provide.
- You can find more information about our current and future work in a recent document published by the team:
This role
We are looking for you to have good analytical skills, which you are able to apply to real‐world problems, to understand policy implications.
Specifically, this role will involve quantitative and qualitative analysis of energy market policy in areas such as: enabling demand to be responsive, the process that allows customers to switch supplier and the mechanisms for settling payments for energy. These will be fundamental to the development of a competitive environment for new products and services that smart metering can deliver.
For example, working on the change of supplier mechanism, you could expect to be doing the following:
- Analysis on the benefits associated with faster switching and understanding inter‐dependencies with other industry changes. This could include desk research and consultation with stakeholders, and working with our consumer affairs team to guide consumer research in this area.
- Making policy, team planning and strategy recommendations based on your findings. Your research on the benefits of faster switching might determine how quickly customers can switch supplier. Furthermore, your findings on links and dependencies with other areas would give you opportunities to contribute to the team’s planning for industry reform and delivery of our own milestones.
We aim to make each individual’s role within our team flexible, to match the areas of work you are interested in, as well as those that will provide you with opportunities to develop and progress.
Your responsibility could expand to leading areas of work and using your initiative to influence the direction of the team. Your own ideas and contribution will have a direct impact on policy.
Day‐to‐day, you could be doing any of the following:
- carrying out quantitative and qualitative analysis and research to inform policy making;
- drafting letters, consultations and policy documents to communicate Ofgem views;
- contributing to industry meetings to communicate Ofgem positions and oversee industry development of market arrangements;
- building your working relationships within Ofgem through presentations, contributions to others’ work or internal written work such as decision papers to senior management.
Development opportunities in the role
The role will provide a range of development opportunities, including the following:
- Opportunities to lead areas of work or analysis.
- Opportunities to work with and present your work to senior managers in a range of teams within Ofgem.
- Strong focus on training to help you fulfil your role, exposure every day to colleagues with an intimate knowledge of the workings of the energy industry in Great Britain.
- Exposure to a wide range of viewpoints and perspectives, across a range of stakeholders, including government departments, consumer groups and energy supply companies.
