Principal Data Steward

More details

Job title: Principal Data Steward
Salary: From £43,000 per annum, negotiable dependant on experience
Contract: Permanent
Location: Hybrid - flexibility to work from home and at any of our main hubs (London, Bristol, Manchester and Milton Park - Oxfordshire)

Jisc is the UK digital, data and technology agency focused on tertiary education, research, and innovation. We are a not-for-profit organisation with a big ambition to improve lives through education and research by providing hardware, software, and networking solutions.

Join us and your contribution will help us to empower UK universities, colleges, research institutions and wider customers with technology so that everyone prospers.

About the role:

Within Jisc Licensing we strive to be evidence-driven in our negotiations and to enable our members, customers and funders to take evidence-based management decisions through the use of our data and intelligence products.

The Data Management team within Data and Intelligence includes Data Stewards who are responsible for the acquisition, management and supply of metadata associated with Licensing data and products.

As Principal Data Steward you will lead on the design, testing and implementation of a service and technical solutions to support better data management across licensing, and in alignment with data standards across the organisation, industry and the sector


Responsibilities will include:

• Responsible for strategic planning, development and ongoing delivery of a data management service, ensuring that it delivers quality-assured, standardised metadata to customers in a timely manner.
• Drive developments to increase use of technologies to support greater automation and improve our ability to deliver a service sustainably and at scale.
• Responsible for identifying appropriate data assets that underpin licensing activities, assigning data ownership and for the ongoing management of metadata.
• Process metadata using a variety of formats and applications which, for example, could include via SQL queries, XML / XSD files, CSV / TSV or JSON formatted files.


Key Skills and Experience:
• Ability to build relationships with suppliers to maintain effective working relationships and with customers to understand their requirements and needs.
• Ability to write and interpret technical specifications and specify process documentation, including data entry definition.
• Skilled in creating and managing large and complex data models.
• Experience of using SQL to query relational databases.
• Expertise in working with ETL tools such as Alteryx.
• Flexibility to travel and to meet with key stakeholders.
• Keen interest in own continuing professional development.

Please refer to the job description for full details.

Don’t meet every single requirement?
We know that sometimes people can be put off applying for a job if they think they can’t tick every box, but we realise the ‘perfect candidate’ doesn’t exist. So, if you can do most of what we’re looking for, go ahead and apply. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles!

Why work for us?
At Jisc, everyone plays a key role and gets the chance to feel part of it, that to us is the definition of a meaningful career. We want to create a culture of lifelong learning. You can look forward to a rewarding job with opportunities to develop and make a real difference to the education and research sectors.

We believe a balance between your personal and professional life is essential to your happiness and fulfilment. We work flexibly at Jisc and focus on outputs rather than presenteeism and are open to a whole range of ways of working. It isn’t about how many hours you spend at home or at work; it’s about the flow you establish that brings energy to both parts of your life. Our hybrid working policy is flexible, and the frequency of time spent in your nominated office will vary across teams and job roles.

Take a look at our fantastic benefits! We offer:
• Flexible work pattern, which can adapt to suit your schedules and personal commitments
• 31 days annual leave (plus bank holidays) that includes an additional three closure days over Christmas
• A generous pension scheme
• A range of leave options, including parental leave, 3 days volunteer leave per annum and even career breaks
• A generous budget to support you with external learning and Continuous professional development
• Allocated allowance of up to £250 to equip your home office
• A company culture which supports and promotes personal learning and development, including access to thousands of courses on LinkedIn Learning
• Mental health first aid trained staff and supportive environment
• Financial well-being support
• The opportunity to donate to charity tax-free with our Payroll Giving benefit
• A wide range of discounts from retailers and big-name high-street stores
• Cycle to work scheme
• Employee recognition awards and travel loans
• Additional Flexible benefits include Holiday Buying - Purchase 1-5 days’ additional holiday per annum, Healthcare Cashplan, Electric Car Lease Scheme and option to purchase SmartTech


Equality, diversity and inclusion
We celebrate diversity, embrace our differences, through our culture and employee networks and know that this is critical for our success. We work hard to make sure we’re inclusive and we are committed to furthering our culture of inclusion. Striving to be best in practice, we are working hard to achieve progressive change. ‘Always inclusive’ is one of our six guiding principles - a principle which actively encourages acceptance of differences within individuals.

We are committed to equal employment opportunities regardless of race, colour, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, class, citizenship, marital status, disability, neurodivergence, trans status, veteran status, or gender identity.


Application process:
Please do let us know what reasonable adjustments you need made to the application or selection process so you can do your best. We will be happy to help you.

Just so you know, we review CVs as soon as we can and aim to provide an update on your application within 4 weeks of receiving it. However, you may hear from us a lot sooner, so please keep an eye out for our emails or calls!

We advertised this role on 15th April 2024