Senior Data Architect

Job summary

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is the UK’s largest producer of official statistics, covering a range of key economic, social and demographic topics. These include measuring changes in the value of the UK economy, estimating the size, geographic distribution and characteristics of the population, and providing indicators of price inflation, employment, earnings, crime and migration.

ONS will be designing, planning, and delivering a mandatory, questionnaire-based, whole-population census of England and Wales in 2031. The data collected helps shape public services, guide policy decisions, and support long-term planning across government and society

We’re recruiting a Senior Data Architect to join our Data Products, Services and Governance (DPSG) directorate.

Data Products, Services and Governance (DPSG), which sits centrally within ONS, provides a cross-ONS capability for data, including data access and preparation, and the provision of data and linked data products.

DPSG develops and manages the systems and processes that underpin the distribution of data across ONS and beyond. DPSG provides data to ONS, academia, wider government, and other external users in a safe and controlled way, supporting and encouraging users to maximise data utility, enabling innovation and statistical and research use.

Job description

As a Senior Data Architect, you will be responsible to - deliver the data models, data journeys, understand/capture the data (and metadata) management including data governance specifications and mechanisms, identify data transformations, ensure data/ technical standardisation, define data volumes and high-level non-functional requirements, define and design the enabling technologies.

Responsibilities

• Work across stakeholders, including business and technical teams to ensure data architecture plays a key role in the design of an end-to-end data pipeline.

• Lead on data architecture contributions to support the design and development of a end to end statistical data pipeline.

• Contribute to the design and delivery of our Enterprise Metadata Management programme.

• Participate in cross-government data architecture communities, to help set direction and share your expertise.

• Champion the work of the DALI division across ONS.

• Contribute to the ongoing implementation of the ONS data strategy (including data principles, policies and standards) and provide advice to stakeholders on how to comply with the strategy.

• Line management of a small team one or two data architects or apprentices, and/or matrix management technical work.

• Play a role in the Data Architecture branch leadership team, particularly supporting the development of technical capabilities of your colleagues.

Person specification

Essential Criteria:

• Communicating between the technical and the non-technical (Practitioner) - Listen to and interpret the needs of technical and non-technical stakeholders and manage their expectations. Manage active and reactive communication, support or host difficult discussions within the team or with diverse senior stakeholders.

• Data Modelling (Practitioner) - Produce relevant data models across multiple subject areas. Explain which models to use for which purpose. Understand industry-recognised data modelling patterns and standards, and when to apply them. Compare and align different data models

• Metadata Management (Practitioner) An ability to design a metadata repository/ service, suggest design changes to improve metadata repositories/ service, ensure application of metadata standards, advise less experienced members of the team about metadata management.

• Data Standards (Practitioner) - Create data standards for different subjects and ensure senior leaders understand them. Work with subject matter experts across the organisation to introduce data standards best practice. Monitor compliance with policies and standards in the organisation. Make recommendations about how the organisation should resolve breaches of standards.

• Communicating Data (Awareness) - Understand the appropriate media to communicate findings. Shape communications for the audience.

Behaviours

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

• Working Together

• Seeing the Big Picture

• Making Effective Decisions

• Changing and Improving

Technical skills

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

• Communicating between the technical and non-technical (Practitioner)

• Data Modelling (Practitioner)

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £56,861, Office for National Statistics contributes £16,472 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme.

The Office for National Statistics is part of the Civil Service, and as such we share a number of key benefits with other departments, whilst also having our own unique offerings to support our valued colleagues across the organisation.

Whether you are hearing about us for the first time or already know a bit about our organisation, we hope that our careers site will give you a great insight into the benefits and facilities available to our colleagues, and our fantastic working culture.