The role, advertised at £130,000, and will have responsibility for leading teams of 500 data scientists, architects, statisticians and engineers.

The new recruit will report to Mayank Prakash, who was made chief digital and information officer earlier this month, after Kevin Cunnington’s move from being director general for business transformation at DWP to leader of the Government Digital Service.

Prakash’s new role at DWP – he was previously director general for digital technology – now includes a number of the responsibilities of Cunnington’s job, and covers digital, design, enterprise, IT, data and security.

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The DWP said in the job advert that the department - which has received widespread criticism for delays in the roll out of its flagship Universal Credit programme - was “well on the journey” towards delivering reforms that would “transform how the welfare system supports people and society”.

The chief data officer will work as part of the team delivering the digital side of these changes, which include using data to automate decisions and managing fraud, error and debt.

“We aspire to set the standard for how data can be effectively used, shared and protected by leveraging the potential of mining, big data and deep learning technologies by aggregating data across diverse sources while protecting the privacy of individuals,” the job advert stated.

It said that the chief data officer – which is not a new position – would work closely with industry and government leaders to set and implement data strategies, as well as the head profession for statistics and UK Statistics Authority.

The department is looking for someone who can “see the big picture”, lead and communicate well and has evidence that they can deliver value for money.

The deadline for applications is 15 September.