Cummings on the hunt for a ‘skunkworker’

DOWNING STREET has placed an advert for a £135,000 job to head “skunkworks”, in what appears to be Dominic Cummings’ latest Whitehall shake-up.

The successful candidate will be responsible for a new data science unit at No 10, aimed at “transforming” decision-making in government.

“Skunkworks” is a term, originating in the US during the Second World War, for a project developed by a small and loosely structured group focusing on radical innovation. The civil service advert says the role will involve leading a new “analytical unit known as ‘10ds’ – which stands for “10 Data Science”. It says: “The vision of 10ds is a skunkworks-type organisation that builds innovative software to allow the PM to make data driven decisions and thereby transform government”.

Mr Cummings, the Prime Minister’s chief aide, is known for his disdain for traditional civil servants. He has said his focus after Brexit is to establish a British version of the US Advanced Research Projects Agency, Arpa.

He recently instructed government advisers to read the books Super-forecasting by Philip Tetlock and High Output Management by Andrew Grove.

The advert says that the “newly created role will be responsible for establishing No10’s quantitative ability” as well as advising the Prime Minister. It says the job presents an opportunity to work “at the heart” of government. Applications close on July 27. Earlier this year, Mr Cummings placed an advert for “data scientists, project managers, policy experts and assorted weirdos” to apply for jobs within Downing Street.

The aide used his personal blog to invite applications from “true wild cards, artists, people who never went to university and fought their way out of an appalling hell hole”.

In the much-publicised post, he said: “If you want to figure out what characters around Putin might do, or how international criminal gangs might exploit holes in our border security, you don’t want more Oxbridge English graduates who chat about Lacan at dinner parties with TV producers and spread fake news about fake news.”

One of the appointees on that occasion, Andrew Sabisky, quit following reports of his controversial comments on pregnancies, eugenics and race.