26.135 Insight Manager

Disclosure & Barring Service

Scotland

Hybrid

Expires: Expiring in less than 4 weeks

Flexible

£44,221 - £46,339 per year

Job summary

The Insight Manager will deliver high-quality analytical insight and management information, transforming data into clear, actionable intelligence that supports the delivery of DBS strategy, continuous improvement, and strategic decision-making across DBS.

The role is accountable for ensuring insight is accessible, authoritative and impactful, supporting evidence‑based decision‑making across the organisation and enhancing understanding of performance, risk and opportunity.

The postholder will drive development of analytical products, strengthening the use of insight to deliver DBS strategy and improve outcomes.

**The successful applicant will initially need to attend office in Liverpool and Darlington for desk training, thereafter the role can be hybrid (remote/office based).**

In the case of system outages and business needs, attendance in the office will be required.

Job description

Key Responsibilities:

Manage and develop the DBS Insight function (including the provision of robust Management Information and Insight) to deliver a high-quality, trusted service and inform DBS thinking, plans and strategy.
Produce high-quality analysis using data from multiple sources.
Develop dashboards and visualisations to communicate key messages.
Translate complex data into clear, concise, actionable insight.
Support development and expansion of self-service MI capability.
Provide insight and recommendations to Executive Team and governance forums to support business planning, continuous improvement, and policy development.
Work with stakeholders to define MI requirements and ensure outputs meet business needs.
Identify opportunities to enhance analytical capability and impact across DBS.
Ensure that work processes and approaches, comply with Government Functional Standard 010 (Analysis).
Build strong, collaborative relationships across DBS and with customers.
Work collectively to ensure end-to-end service delivery across teams.
Identify and deliver continuous improvement in quality, efficiency, and processes.
Ensure accuracy, integrity, and timeliness of data, analysis, and outputs.
Contribute to business planning, operational delivery, and strategic decision-making.
Provide clear narrative, insight, and implications alongside data outputs and draw out the 'So What' to enable confident decision making.
Ensure risks are identified, communicated, and mitigated.
Support organisational objectives including service transition, LTER, and new products.
Lead and develop a multi-grade team, setting objectives, managing performance and workload, and building the capability required to deliver current priorities and adapt to future business needs.
Contribute to governance reporting (Executive Team, Board, committees, Ministers).
Deputise for the Head of Service as required

Corporate Duties:

Support the Head of Service in their role as a member of the Directorate Leadership Team (DLT) and by engaging in and helping to drive change as required.
From time to time, the postholder may be asked to support corporate activity with duties that are commensurate with the grade (e.g. supporting other parts of the business with HR related matters).

Person specification

Essential Criteria

Ability to identify the opportunities for insight and the priorities according to the associated risk/impact.
Understanding of Performance Management and Reporting within a large business setting.
Strong analytical capability, with the ability to interpret complex data and identify key insights.
Ability to communicate complex data and insight clearly to a range of audiences, including senior management.
Strong stakeholder engagement and relationship management skills.
Ability to lead others and deliver under pressure.
Ability to prioritise work effectively against competing demands.
Strong working knowledge of Microsoft Office tools.
Experience of producing, interpreting, and presenting data and Insight
Experience of developing Data Insight products (with visualisations and storytelling) and prioritising requirements in line with user needs.
Proven experience in developing and applying data collection, analysis, and performance reporting approaches to support both operational delivery and strategic decision-making.
Experience operating in a large, complex business/operational environment (ideally central government or similar).
Track record of managing performance and providing clear direction to teams.
Experience of delivering outcomes under pressure, prioritising competing demands and meeting challenging deadlines.
Experience of building effective strategic relationships across a wide range of internal and external stakeholders.

Desirable Criteria

Advanced Microsoft Excel skills including practical ability in using Power Query in Excel.
Expert, current knowledge of Business Intelligence tools and technologies and their practical application.
Strong capability in modern BI platforms (e.g. Tableau, Qlik Sense, Microsoft Power BI).
Ability to develop machine learning solutions using modern ML tools.
Strong understanding of business intelligence and analytical tooling (including Qlik).
Experience applying scenario modelling techniques to support decision-making.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

Seeing the Big Picture
Managing a Quality Service
Working Together
Delivering at Pace

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £44,221, Disclosure & Barring Service contributes £12,810 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

The DBS offers a number of excellent benefits for its employees. These can include:

Generous annual leave entitlement
Excellent maternity, paternity and adoption schemes (after a qualifying period)
Commitment to the health and wellbeing of our employees
Employee Assistance Programme
Flexible working opportunities
Eyecare voucher scheme
Occupational Health Service including referrals for counselling and physiotherapy
24/7 Counselling and Wellbeing Service
A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

The DBS vision and purpose is to make people safer by being a visible, trusted and influential organisation, providing an outstanding quality of service to all our customers and partners, where our people understand the important safeguarding contributions they make and feel proud to work here. To do this, the DBS is committed to being an employer that is able to attract, develop, retain and engage diverse talent that is representative of the communities we serve, and to be an organisation providing outstanding service to all our existing and new customers, who are diverse and have a range of different needs. We want all our staff to be able to bring their ‘whole self’ to work.

This role is available on a remote, hybrid, or office basis. (delete as appropriate - manager to advise) Initially, all DBS employees' contracts are office-based at one of our two sites.

Employees can apply for remote or hybrid work from day one. If approved, the arrangement will start after six months for transfers from Home Office or after completing probation for new joiners. Requests will be considered based on business needs and role requirements. Informal hybrid working arrangements are also available from day one, subject to business needs and role requirements and will be discussed further following any job offer.

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

To apply for this role, please provide a CV along with a personal statement of no more than 500 words, outlining how your skills and experience meet the requirements of the role, including all essential and desirable criteria.

Selection Process:

As part of the recruitment process the Disclosure & Barring Service will conduct a sift based exercise and interview process.

All candidates who are successful at the initial sifting stage will be invited to attend a virtual panel based interview via MS Teams. As part of the interview, you will deliver a short presentation on a function related subject. You will be given a brief for the presentation in advance of your interview. The presentation will be marked against the behaviour, Seeing the Big Picture.

The aim of the panel interview will be to assess your ability to demonstrate the remaining behaviours:

Managing a Quality Service
Working Together
Delivering at Pace

There will also be probing questions relating to the essential criteria.

The following timetable outlines indicative dates. Please note, these dates may be subject to change without prior notice.

Advert Closing date: Monday 2nd November at 10am
The initial candidate sift is due to take place week commencing 2 November 2026.
Interviews will be virtual, and are due to take place week commencing 16 November 2026.

Whilst we will endeavour to provide some flexibility with regards to dates wherever possible, it is unlikely that we will be able to offer an alternative date once an appointment has been scheduled.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a basic (or equivalent) criminal record check.People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

UK nationals
nationals of the Republic of Ireland
nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

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Contact point for applicants

Salary range

£44,221 - £46,339 per year