Job details

When you work for the University of Lancashire, you’ll be part of a thriving community of talent that’s united in a common commitment to transform lives. We do this by delivering an outstanding educational experience and creating prosperity and opportunity in the communities we serve. Whatever your role, you’ll be playing a vital part in helping us achieve our vision.

Purpose

The post holder will provide in-depth analysis, and develop accessible and effective
business intelligence tools, with a focus on enabling the University to achieve its strategic
goals. The successful candidate will manage a data analyst, and will be responsible for
developing new solutions, prioritising incoming work and leading on larger insight projects.
This is to enable the wider University to understand make more effective, data-driven
decisions, which will improve organisational performance and student outcomes.

Duties

1. Manage the design, development and delivery of targeted and effective business
   intelligence dashboards, including targeted and relevant performance measures, to
   help the University to monitor performance and to support strategic decision
   making.
2. Work closely with key stakeholders in developing the specifications of our
   dashboards, whilst ensuring they are kept up to date with developments.
3. Develop in-depth reports and briefings, including sophisticated data-led forecasting
   and analysis, to help the University understand and improve its performance, to
   generate insights, and to inform actions and interventions.
4. Deliver presentations and provide support to a range of senior stakeholders, with an
   excellent understanding of the University’s strategic aims, external performance
   indicators and the regulatory context.
5. Act as one of the team’s senior data insight analysts, coordinating the work of other
   analysts, identifying team goals, prioritising work, and ensuring effective
   collaboration across the team.
6. Deliver data manipulation, analysis and presentation of data that exists in the
   University’s data warehouse, student record system, and other data stores - with a
   focus on meeting customer needs and requirements.
7. Have advanced developer-level knowledge of data reporting tools, particularly
   Microsoft Power BI and Tableau.
8. Line-manage Data and Insight Analysts in the team, directing their work and
   considering staff development and recruitment where necessary.
9. Show effective time-management, working responsively to deal with a substantial
   amount of data queries and requests, and helping to lead the team’s triage process.
10. Develop relationships with key stakeholders across the University, working with
    them to deliver accurate analyses about the progress and performance of the
    University in relation to key strategic themes.
11. Contribute to the University’s Data Strategy, embedding new practice within team
    processes. Consider data quality, verification and integrity in all work.
12. Educate and train colleagues in other teams in the use of data analysis tools, helping
    them to develop data skills, and embedding a data-informed culture in the
    University.
13. Contribute to the work of the wider directorate by thinking creatively and
    innovatively about how we use data, developing new ideas and products, and
    embedding data-informed decision-making in the University’s projects and
    processes.
14. Approach analyses with curiosity, creativity and agility, keeping abreast of policy
    developments within the HE sector, and how these influence the team’s work and
    University’s strategy.
15. Undertake other duties commensurate with the role, as determined by the Deputy
    Head of Strategic Data.

Person Specification

Knowledge and Behaviours (Essential)
• Experience of dealing with large databases, and the extraction and manipulation of
data from multiple sources, using a range of software packages, especially
Microsoft, Power BI and Tableau (Application/Interview).
• Experience in the design and development of reporting dashboards
(Application/Interview).
• Experience in the design and development of a range of forecast models to make
planning decisions (Application/Interview).
• An undergraduate degree or equivalent in a discipline related to data reporting and
analysis (Application).
• Experience of managing the production of data to support university requirements,
working closely with requesters to scope requirements (Application/Interview).
• Demonstrably high level of organisational and project management skills
(Application/Interview).
• Experience in coordinating the work of other staff members, prioritising demanding
workloads across a team and within available resources (Application/Interview).
• Experience in direct line management (Application/Interview).
• Highly numerate, with substantial experience of data modelling, visualisation and
analysis using packages such as Power BI, Tableau, and Alteryx. Advanced user of
Microsoft Excel (Application/Interview).
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to present data in a way that is clear
and meaningful to a non-technical audience (Application/Interview).
• Able to support an inclusive environment where everyone feels respected and able
to participate (Interview).
• Understands the University’s values and can work in line with expected professional
behaviours (Interview).

Knowledge and Behaviours (Desirable)

• Experience of working in the Higher Education sector, and an understanding of
current risks, issues and trends in the sector (Application/Interview)
• Evidence of continuous professional development relevant to the role
(Application/Interview).
• Experience of using SSRS report writer (Application/Interview).