My career story: Alistair Edwardes
Job title and department or organisation
Alistair is Head of Spatial Data Science at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). His role matches the role of Geographic Analyst on the Analysis Function Career Framework.
Grade
Alistair works at Grade 6 level.
Profession and entry route
Alistair is a member of the Government Geography Profession.
He entered the Civil Service at Senior Executive Officer (SEO) grade as part of a departmental recruitment round.
Alistair’s career path
I achieved an undergraduate degree in Geography and a Masters in Geographical Information Science. I then went on to become a Doctor of Natural Science in Geography. My studies brought together both computer science and geographic analysis, including some data science techniques.
After I finished my studies I spent my early career working as a researcher in various universities in the UK and abroad. Between academic roles, I also worked in the private sector for a year in a start-up company building geographic and navigational software. I was head-hunted for the role and it was a great opportunity to try something new. I worked on mobile mapping, which was a big emerging area at the time.
I saw an intriguing job advert looking for a Spatial Analyst in government, which encouraged me to join Communities and Local Government (CLG) in 2009 as a Senior Executive Officer (SEO). In this role I worked on a range of issues including:
- analysing spatio-temporal patterns of housing repossessions
- modelling geographic distributions of groups at risk of social exclusion
- applying place typologies to in policy development
My qualifications and experience enabled me to become a Chartered Geographer in 2011.
After this, I was seconded to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) as an SEO. I was promoted to Grade 7 in 2012.In this role I worked on the Regional Growth Fund, which was a fund for supporting local economic growth. This included using management information (MI) to develop map-based data visualisation tools which supported decision making on bids. I provided live support to the Cabinet Committee for Local Growth, so it was a very important project to be part of.
I moved to the Department for Education (DfE), remaining at Grade 7, to lead a team undertaking spatial analysis and modelling. The work included developing a composite indicator to support geographical targeting of educational policies for a White Paper. The paper was looking for at improved processes to balance education policies against demand from under-performing schools.
After this, I moved to the Ministry of Justice on promotion to Grade 6. This role involved leading on reporting and analysis for the UK court system. I then moved laterally to the Office for National Statistics Data Science Campus as a Lead Data Scientist (Grade 6). I worked on innovative methods and data sources to develop new experimental statistics, now known as ‘official statistics in development’.
I joined Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) three years ago as Head of Spatial Data Science (Grade 6), which is my current role. I head up the new function in Data Science, working on supporting a range of environmental policy areas with cross-cutting data products and evidence tools. I work with a lot of geographical evidence in my role.
Throughout my career I have maintained a continuous professional development (CPD) log which has helped my career development and is also a requirement for my chartership. Having a CPD log is useful as it helps me to concentrate on my development and keep me on track in my career.
The flowchart shows Alistair’s career progression from achieving a degree in Geography to his current role as Head of Spatial Data Science. It shows the step-by-step journey Alistair has taken to achieve his current grade and experience. Enlarge the flowchart.
I am working on a project which concentrates on land use across the UK. I consider policy objectives from a range of areas which might affect land use, such as the Net Zero, food security, and policies and environmental targets aiming to improve nature, air and water quality. My role uses spatial data and modelling to look at these policies and identify how they work together or where they oppose each other. I also consider how those insights can help refine policies related to land. It is a very strategic area of work.
I am enjoying my current role as it is challenging and I get to work alongside a lot of other Geographic Analysts and policy areas which I am interested in.
I am also the Head of Profession for Geography, which is quite a new profession. I would like to concentrate on developing this and improve the recognition that Geographers get across government departments. I would like to progress to Deputy Director in the future if I find the right role.
There are two high profile projects I have worked on in my career which I am most proud of, and they have given me a large amount of insight and experience.
The first was when I worked in BEIS on the Regional Growth Fund providing live information to support important decision making. I was reporting to the Cabinet Committee on Local Growth, chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister and various Secretaries of State from government departments like DEFRA, Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) and Department for Transport (DfT). I got to see how decisions were made at the highest levels of government and my geographic analysis was informing those decisions.
The second project was when I was working in DfE on evidence that underpinned a White Paper. The work I did here had a fundamental influence on how education policies were implemented across the country, and it was great to work on something so important.
When I first joined the Civil Service as a Spatial Analyst there was no recognised Geography Profession to support my career development. None of the existing analytical professions at the time provided a career path for analysts with my skillset either. I knew there were other Geographic Analysts across government, and it felt like we had no support network to help us develop, which was difficult. So, to try and improve things, I started networking with other geographic analysts through communities of practice groups. This eventually led to us building our own Government Geography Profession. I am now the Head of Profession for Geography for core DEFRA.
Alistair’s advice
Put in the work to identify a network of people with similar interests to you. Get involved in those networks so you can learn from others in your profession to support your personal development.
Also, do not assume that you cannot change things just because there is a particular way of doing things within the Civil Service or your department. The Civil Service is more flexible than you think and if you find a better solution to something, you should challenge the way things are done and share your ideas. Build a case and develop your own career path, even if you follow a new method. When I joined the Civil Service there was no Geography Profession. I have worked with other Geographic Analysts, and we now have a Geography Profession to better support career development for analysts like us. It was a big change but with perseverance it was possible.
This career story was published on Tuesday 1 August 2023.