Head of Data & Analytics Engineering - Office for Students

Job summary

Head of Data & Analytics Engineering

Salary: £82,082 - £86,006

12 months fixed term contract

Location: Bristol

Generous Civil Service defined benefit pension

About us

We are the independent regulator of higher education in England. We aim to ensure that every student, whatever their background, has a fulfilling experience of higher education that enriches their lives and careers.

We’re proud of our people, our culture and the benefits we offer. We care about supporting and developing our staff. At the OfS we want to create a welcoming and engaging working environment which is free from discrimination.

We’re looking for skilled, committed people who care about students and their experience of higher education. Join us and you’ll be part of an energetic, forward-looking organisation with high ambitions and big opportunities for our people.

Job description

About the role

Provide leadership to the data & analytics engineering teams, owning and driving the development of our Azure Databricks platform to enhance our analytical and AI capabilities. Optimise and assure our data model and estate, ingesting new sources and governing use across the Of

You will be responsible for:

• Providing strategic leadership to a team of analytics and data engineers, modelling the OfS behaviours and values to ensure analytical best practises are implemented and there is a standardised operational approach. Enabling Data to respond to changes in the regulatory environment and OfS business priorities, whilst developing long term strategic priorities in the data engineering space.

• With your Product Owner develop a long-term roadmap and vision for the data platform and join up with other OfS systems.

• Create space to innovate and test new Databricks functionality as it is released and share and support the rest of the data team to exploit them.

• In conjunction with the rest of the data Senior Management team creating a high performance, continuous improvement culture across Data.

• Champion data governance best practise across Data, owning the data security model, auditing and taking responsibility for complying with data sharing agreements.

• Working in partnership with the data analyst teams to ensure the data model is in the most appropriate structure, has the right data and continues to build upon data modelling best principles. Continually ensuring the team delivers a high-quality data service for the rest of Data.

Person specification

About you

• Excellent leadership and people development skills

• An ongoing commitment to personal development and data landscape awareness

• Experience of the modern data stack and associated methodologies

• Strong knowledge of ELT process

• Excellent knowledge of modern data ops and agile working practices

• Experience of working with SQL and Python

• Experience of Dashboarding tools such as Tableau and Power BI

• Ability to produce forward plans, written papers and briefs in an understandable format for non-specialists

Desirable experience

• Knowledge of Higher education sector data

Application process

Please provide a copy of your CV demonstrating your experience and skills for this role.

After shortlisting there will be a 2-stage interview process based on experience and a presentation based on a set of queries we will provide.

Reasonable adjustment

We are committed to ensuring our recruitment process is accessible to everyone. If you require any reasonable adjustments to support you through the application stage, please contact us at recruitmentteam@officeforstudents.org.uk and we will be happy to help.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £82,028, Office for Students contributes £23,763 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

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

Working for us

The OfS regulates the higher education sector on behalf of all students. We value diversity and the wealth of perspectives, experience and ideas that it brings to our work, and we strive to embed equality of opportunity in everything we do.

We recruit based on fair and open competition and welcome applications from candidates regardless of age, disability, race and ethnicity, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation.

Flexibility is important to the OfS, as we recognise that it can enable people to work more effectively. A set of organisation-wide principles shape our approach to flexible and hybrid working, which our teams then use as guidance on how they deliver their business goals. This would usually mean working from the office for two or three days in a typical week.

To attract the widest possible field of qualified applicants, flexible working, for example job share and part time working apply to this role.

Closing date for applications: 27th of February at noon

First stage Interviews: from week commencing 9th of March

For information: the OfS does not hold a UK Visa & Immigration (UKVI) Skilled Worker Sponsor Licence.

About Us

Useful Links

Guidance for applicants - Office for Students

OfS careers site

Read More

Full privacy notice

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a 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

Please note this Post is NOT regulated by the Civil Service Commission.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

The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : Recruitment Team
• Email : RecruitmentTeam@officeforstudents.org.uk
• Telephone : 0117 931 7444

Recruitment team

• Email : RecruitmentTeam@officeforstudents.org.uk

Further information

Careers - Office for Students

Attachments

Why work for the OfS edited Opens in new window (pdf, 425kB)