SC-Cleared Senior BI Analyst / Platform Lead

An opportunity for an SC-cleared Senior BI Analyst / Platform Lead to join a mature, well-established delivery team supporting a mission-critical, secure on-premise data and reporting platform for a major UK defence organisation. This role is less about green-field development and more focused on the ongoing management, optimisation, and evolution of a live BI environment. You will act as a trusted interface between technical teams, civil servants, and operational end-users ensuring the platform remains secure, performant, and aligned to changing business and operational needs., * Own and manage the day-to-day health, performance, and roadmap of a secure, on-premise BI and data platform

• Act as a technical authority and analytical partner for stakeholders, translating operational and policy requirements into sustainable reporting and data solutions
• Lead continuous improvement initiatives, including data quality, model optimisation, security hardening, and reporting usability
• Support and enhance existing ETL pipelines, semantic models and reports rather than focusing on large-scale rebuilds
• Provide ongoing support, troubleshooting, and optimisation for business-critical dashboards and datasets
• Work closely with civil servants, analysts and operational users to ensure insights are trusted, accessible and actionable
• Ensure the platform remains compliant with GDS standards, security policies, and defence assurance requirements, Platform Ownership & Continuous Improvement
• Own the on-prem BI estate, including SQL Server, SSIS, SSAS (Tabular), and Power BI Report Server
• Proactively identify and implement improvements to performance, resilience, data quality, and security
• Manage technical debt and incremental enhancements in a controlled, low-risk manner
• Ensure robust monitoring, logging, and operational support processes are in place

Stakeholder & User Engagement

• Act as a trusted BI partner to business and operational stakeholders
• Run requirement-gathering sessions and translate needs into analytical solutions rather than raw development tasks
• Support users in understanding data, metrics, and limitations of the platform
• Balance competing priorities across multiple user groups in a secure environment

Analytical & Reporting Capability

• Maintain and evolve SSAS Tabular models, measures and KPIs using DAX
• Ensure reporting logic is consistent, auditable, and aligned to operational definitions
• Oversee data ingestion, cleansing and transformation processes to ensure reliable downstream reporting
• Support analysts and end users with complex data questions and ad-hoc analysis

Governance, Security & Assurance

• Ensure alignment with GDS standards, internal data governance, and defence security policies
• Manage access control and authentication using Active Directory
• Support audits, assurance activities and documentation required in high-security environments
• Champion best practice in secure on-prem BI delivery

The successful candidate will bring strong BI architecture awareness, analytical capability, and stakeholder management skills, alongside deep hands-on experience of SQL Server, SSIS, SSAS and Power BI in high-assurance environments., * Strong experience managing and supporting secure, on-premise BI platforms

• Advanced SQL Server expertise (2019+):
• Engine, Security, Jobs, Objects, Performance tuning
• Strong experience with SSIS (data ingestion, transformation, cleansing and scheduling)
• Strong understanding of SSAS Tabular models and semantic layer design
• Advanced use of DAX to deliver robust, maintainable business logic
• Hands-on experience with Power BI Report Server (on-prem) administration and configuration
• Experience working in UK Government environments to GDS standards
• Confident working with Active Directory for authentication and role-based access

Analytical & Soft Skills

• Proven ability to operate as a bridge between technical teams and non-technical stakeholders
• Strong analytical mindset with a focus on insight, usability and data quality
• Experience supporting live systems with ongoing improvement rather than project-only delivery
• Comfortable working in structured, assurance-led environments with formal governance
• Experience in Defence or Military settings
• Exposure to information assurance, data classification and secure environments
• Experience mentoring junior analysts or developers