What qualifications are typically required?

This varies from university to university, but in general you need to have good - really good - academic qualifications. Universities generally look for people with First Class Honours or at least a good Second Class Honours, either in statistics itself or in a degree such as mathematics in which there was a large amount of statistics. Most universities look for postgraduate qualifications too. For some, an MSc is sufficient, but many near-enough insist that applicants either already have a PhD or are about to get one.

Even if you are an applicant for your first post, a university will be keen to know about your research interests and the research work you have already carried out. Sometimes universities want to recruit people whose research interests are in areas where the university is already active, but in other cases universities welcome research interests in any area.