Performance Officer

Performance Officer

Permanent, Full Time

£28,059 to £33,010 per annum

Location: Chelmsford

Working Style: Anywhere worker

Closing Date:26th May 2025

This position has been classed as an anywhere worker role but has an expectation that the successful candidate will attend the office, in Chelmsford, 1 day per month, with the remaining time allowing for remote working if desired, in line with the organisation's needs.

The Role

As a Performance Officer, it'll be your job to turn our deep well of data into insights that can help senior leaders take operational and strategic decisions. Working to support one of the council's key business areas - Children Services, you'll build reports that tell a story, exposing the questions our senior leaders need to focus on. You'll develop a role as a trusted specialist business intelligence adviser - helping senior leaders to understand what the data means for their business, and supporting effective performance conversations.

You will work in partnership with stakeholders across the organisation helping to visualise performance information through the creative use of reporting solutions such as Microsoft Power BI. You'll be a key part of a new team, building the council's capacity and capability to ask and answer difficult questions.

The Opportunity

The Performance Officer is part of a flexible team within the Performance & Business Intelligence Service specifically working with the business to deliver accurate, timely and purposeful management information and performance intelligence that enables senior leaders to take accountability for and manage performance. The role involves various aspects of information management including performance reporting, supporting the business to complete statutory data returns, interpreting & presenting performance information.

The role requires the application of subject matter expertise across the functional areas of the business with skilled matrix working to ensure improved integration with services to align priorities and deliver efficiency. The role provides specialist knowledge within a defined business area to support data quality monitoring and key organisational information systems.

Accountabilities

• Responsible for manipulating data and turning information into insight to provide detailed technical advice to champion the value of information and business intelligence within and outside the organisation.
• Working collaboratively with functional business areas and analysts to make business intelligence available, aligned to the Council's strategic aims and priorities to provide senior leaders with the information required for effective leadership, governance and decision making.
• Responsible for working with a range of data and evidence sources for the development of services and products to agreed standards to enable performance analysis and data interpretation, and translation of information requests.
• Building effective relationships with key business areas to understand and agree management information requirements and working collaboratively to develop solutions that provide access to high quality information to enable services to manage their performance
• Responsible for using quality assurance techniques to empower data owners to understand and repair data quality issues and complete statutory data returns, including reporting on the quality of data held within management information systems and providing recommendations for data quality improvement.
• Responsible for identifying, collecting and reporting the right data sources and then preparing, validating, cleansing and interpreting data to ensure it is fit for purpose. Working with data developers to automate processes.
• Specific individual and shared targets and objectives are defined annually within the performance management framework.

The Experience You Will Bring

• On top of your ability to manipulate data and present with confidence, you'll need strong people skills. You'll work closely with business areas and Analysts, making sure intelligence is aligned to the Council's strategic aims and priorities.
• We're an evidence-led organisation, but you'll also need to understand the complexities of working in a political environment and be able to appreciate and respond to different perspectives.
• We'll also expect you to have advanced user knowledge of Microsoft Office suite including sound experience in manipulating data using Excel and Power BI, enabling you to prepare clear and concise reports and make robust recommendations.

Essex County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults, and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment.