Head of Data

We’re looking for a strategic data leader to define Oak’s technical data roadmap and data strategy, and shape how we use, govern and open up our data across our products, our AI and the wider education sector.

You’ll lead our data department end-to-end, own data compliance and security, steer our data architecture, and build the open data products and standards that make Oak genuinely useful beyond our own platform.

This is a leadership role with real breadth and impact, grounded in a mission that matters.

Oak is a fully remote, mission-driven organisation offering high levels of flexibility, autonomy, and purpose. We’re a national not-for-profit working in partnership with teachers to create high-quality, sequenced curriculum and lesson resources for pupils across all subjects and age groups.

Our culture has been independently recognised through:

• Flexa verified (93% overall score, including 95% for working hours and 97% for role modelling)
• Escape the City’s Top 1% Employers - based on anonymous colleague reviews of culture, development, and impact
• Investors in People Gold - through external accreditation and colleague feedback

What you’ll be doing:

• Develop and manage a high-performing data department, leveraging internal and/or external relationships.
• Lead the development of our data products (AI assets, open educational resources and datasets), collaborating with external partners including DfE Digital to develop high-impact, transparent datasets and standards.
• Manage the data department budget (minimum 6 figures), covering data tooling, cloud infrastructure, and contractor spend.
• Responsible for all decisions relating to the performance and function of the data department.
• Lead on data compliance, including GDPR and related regulation with copyright and third-party rights the priority alongside data protection, through end-to-end systems we can audit and evidence.
• Maintain specialist expertise in data and analytics and be an authority across Oak and more widely across the sector.
• Own the quality and integrity of the AI and algorithms we build, so they are accurate, fair and safe to put in front of teachers and pupils.
• As a member of the leadership team, contribute to the strategy, planning and model the culture of the organisation.
• Deputise for the Director of Engineering and take on other general responsibilities as required., * Sponsorship: Unfortunately, we’re unable to offer visa sponsorship at this time
• Closing date: We’ll be reviewing applications as they come in and may close the role early

If this sounds like the kind of role and team where you could do your life’s best work, we’d love to hear from you.

Next steps

You’ll answer a few admin questions and some questions related to your day-to-day job. Your answers will go through our sift process: all answers will be anonymised, randomised, and then reviewed by a panel of reviewers (real humans), so it’s your thinking that gets assessed, not your CV.

If you’re shortlisted, we’ll invite you to interview. We give everyone feedback at the end of the process.

Interview dates:

• Interview 1: Wednesday 2 September and Thursday 3rd September 2026
• Final interview: Monday, 7 September 2026

• 5+ years holding responsibility for data and analytics systems across a department, including at least 2 years defining strategy across multiple cross-functional teams.
• Experience of recruiting, developing and managing a high-performing data or analytics team.
• Experience of managing a six-figure budget.
• Experience of building data and AI/ML infrastructure, including training data pipelines, model evaluation, access control and data classification.
• Deep understanding of copyright and content licensing, and of data protection (GDPR and related regulation), with direct experience of owning compliance end to end.
• Experience building public-facing open data products and collaborating with external partners to develop high-impact, transparent datasets and standards.
• Experience of data security practices in a software engineering context, including access control, data classification and incident response.
• Familiarity with modern data stack tooling and the ability to make sound architectural decisions across a data estate.
• A good understanding of education policy and the UK education system (desirable, not essential).

The successful candidate will have a desire to contribute across all areas to ensure Oak’s success. You will be comfortable moving quickly and with agility, and be confident working with a range of digital systems (including proprietary ones, as required). You will continually look for ways that the team can keep getting better. You will be excellent at working as part of a remote team, building relationships and managing your time effectively.

• 25 days annual leave, plus one extra day for each year of service (up to 28)
• Additional Oak closure days over Christmas/New Year
• 11% employer pension contribution (with no minimum employee contribution, which can be varied as you choose). Please note this is a workplace pension rather than the Teachers’ Pension Scheme.
• A 36-hour working week, with half-days on Fridays or every other Friday off.
• Fully remote working - we’ll support your home set-up and offer coworking options if preferred
• Twice-yearly in-person whole Oak offsites to collaborate, connect, and have fun (with other occasional team events in person)
• A culture that genuinely supports flexibility, autonomy, and trust

Inclusion and Belonging

We believe diverse teams build better products. We warmly welcome applicants from all backgrounds, particularly those who are underrepresented in the tech and education sectors.

If you’re from an underrepresented group, there’s a good chance you’re discounting yourself before you’ve even started. That’s more common than you’d think, and it means we may miss out on brilliant people. If you’re excited by this role but don’t meet every requirement, please apply anyway.

We use the Applied platform to help reduce bias in our hiring process. Answers are anonymised and reviewed by a panel of humans.