Profiles

• Kieran Ingram
• Jon Shingleton
• Katie Gronow
• Graham Oliver-Beech
• David Cope
• Rob Palmer

Kieran Ingram

Reasons for joining GORS

I had never heard of OR before I came across a recruitment advertisement for GORS while job hunting. The description of what a Government Operational Researcher does leapt out at me as an exact description of the sort of job I'd been looking for but didn't previously know existed.

Career path and experience

During my undergraduate and postgraduate studies I temped in a variety of accounts departments which got me strong Excel skills as well as experience in a corporate environment. My first full-time job was as Engineering assistant project manager at the consultancy branch of Imperial University where I gained a great deal of experience of project managing stakeholders with different priorities. I then joined the Civil Service as an OR analyst for School Funding in DfE where I worked on high profile projects such as the coalition government's Pupil Premium. I was involved in preparing evidence for Consultations and Ministerial Submissions and learnt a lot about how the civil service works. I left DfE after a busy year to join the Science and Innovation directorate in DECC.

Current role and responsibilities

My current role draws on the experience I have gained from all my previous jobs. I lead on producing the UK's non-CO2 Greenhouse Gas emission projections twice yearly, which are submitted to the EU on a biennial cycle; this involves data and knowledge transfer from the contractor who has been responsible for these projections for the last few years and establishing an in-house DECC projections system, including setting up and running a cross-departmental Steering Group to inform the data inputs to my projections model. I also project manage the UK's Atmospheric Observations research project, which helps to verify the UK Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory, and am in the process of developing new analyses for the outputs DECC receives from this project.

Life in GORS

I have had GORS experience in two very different departments: DfE had a large, well established GORS presence including regular OR meetings and numerous OR colleagues to exchange ideas with. I was a GORS Events rep at DfE and enjoyed the opportunity to help organise events. DECC has a small OR group who are generally embedded in teams comprised mainly of non-OR colleagues. OR meetings are more spontaneous and the OR network is maintained by informal discussions between colleagues; attendance at GORS events is strongly encouraged as well.