Data Governance Manager

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is the UKs 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.

The function can cover multiple areas within the Office for National Statistics which reflects the critical role Data Governance plays and the lifecycle of data moving through the office.

You may work as part of the Data Acquisition team to support ONS, Government and Academic analysts answer the questions of the day by working with data partners to negotiate and enable access to sustainable data sources, putting in place, maintaining and managing data governance frameworks for safe data sharing and usage, and implementing and supporting the data strategy. This involves understanding and consolidating analysts requirements for producing and developing their statistics, matching these with the available data, negotiating access to these data for statistical and research purposes, and making tactical recommendations on the creation of data assets. Successful delivery will result in robust processes and documentation, working closely across Data Acquisition, the directorate and the rest of the organisation.

You may work as part of the Data Governance Office Team to support the Chief Data Officer (CDO) and Deputy CDO to ensure good governance of all data within the ONS.

This team engages across ONS with subject matter experts in a range of data management areas, tapping into their expertise to develop strategy and identify, collate and catalogue, policies, standards, guidance, and metadata. This team works with staff holding data governance roles & responsibilities to ensure that the strategy, policies, and standards are known, adopted, embedded and adhered to and supports the tracking and reporting of key performance indicators to demonstrate the effectiveness of this work.

All Data Governance roles within ONS apply relevant data and ethical frameworks and standards to their work and understand data governance good practice. Specifically, providing advice to users on the technical, ethical, data protection and security, and legal aspects (e.g. GDPR) of using data, and the benefits of using it.

You will be able to grasp statistical, economic, and social concepts quickly, identifying common needs for data and communicating appropriately and clearly between technical and non-technical audiences.

You will understand data and how they can be prepared for, and used in, statistics and research and how they can benefit policy and decision making, as well as understanding the economy and society better. You will need to build and demonstrate a good understanding of data and how it is used in the production of official statistics and research.

Responsibilities

• Lead the process of capturing stakeholder needs, assessing, defining and justifying those needs to arrive at a definitive set of user requirements that are reflected in the required documentation. 
• Leading on stakeholder engagements using strong negotiation and tailored communication to build trust and reach consensus.
• Lead the process of preparing documentation for data sharing and/or governance, for example memorandums of understanding, business cases, and policy documents and play an instrumental role in standardising this documentation.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with stakeholders to ensure data governance policies, standards and guidance are understood, adopted and embedded across the organisation.
• Develop a good understanding of data sharing legislation, data governance and data management and be able to apply this to your day-to-day work.
• Develop, maintain and own project plans, incorporating requirements, deliverables and risks that are associated with the project.
• Provide expert advice on data governance, including data protection, security, ethical and legal considerations (e.g. GDPR), ensuring the appropriate and responsible use of data.
• Promote good data management practices, including data quality, metadata and standards, helping to ensure data is findable, understandable and reusable.
• Communicate complex data governance concepts clearly and effectively to both technical and non-technical audiences, tailoring messages to meet their needs.
• Contribute to the effective use of data across the organisation by supporting its governance, accessibility and appropriate use for statistical, research and operational purposes.
• Monitor and support compliance with data governance policies and standards, using evidence to inform improvements and strengthen governance practices.
• Line manage and support colleagues where applicable, fostering a culture of continuous development and high performance.

Essential Criteria:

• Stakeholder relationship management (Working) - Identify important stakeholders and communicate with them clearly and regularly. Tailor communication to stakeholders' needs and work with them to build relationships while meeting user needs. Build and reach consensus with stakeholders. Work to improve stakeholder relationships using evidence to explain decisions.
• Communicating between the technical and the non-technical (Working) - Communicate effectively with technical and non-technical stakeholders. Support and host discussions within a multidisciplinary team, with potentially difficult dynamics. Be an advocate for the team externally. Manage differing stakeholder perspectives.
• Data Management (Working) - Follow organisational data governance, including policies on data access, sharing, dissemination and protection. Participate in or deliver data management across services or products. Use appropriate data management tools, procedures and methods with some support
• Data Governance (Working) - Demonstrate up-to-date knowledge of data governance theory, standard methodology and the practical considerations. Develop an end-to-end data governance framework (the processes, operational policies and standards needed to support data management). Work effectively with technical teams and other stakeholders to implement a data governance framework, and make recommendations to ensure compliance
• Strategic Thinking (Working) - Work within a strategic context and communicate how activities meet strategic goals. Contribute to the development of strategy and policies.