Senior Data Architect

Department for Energy Security and Net Zero’s mission is to ensure the department has the data and evidence it needs, when it needs it to support decision-making and enable delivery of our core objectives, including ensuring energy security, bringing down energy bills, and delivering net zero emissions by 2050.

This role is a fantastic opportunity to develop as an architecture change agent playing a critical role in the drive towards Net-Zero through ensuring that the department has a clear and consistent approach to how it uses data. The role is part of the Central Data Office Team in the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero. The team is led by the Chief Data Architect.

The architectural activity within the team is ultimately governed by the Director-level Data Board which spans the entire department. As a Senior Data Architect, you will play a key role in shaping a new capability of Enterprise Data Architecture. You will work to ensure that the developing departmental data architecture and its management processes are consistent, coherent, and compliant with the DESNZ Data Governance Framework.

You will also provide guidance and feedback to data owners, stewards, and users on data management best practices. You will be joining a team and will play a role in fostering positive working culture based on trust, inclusivity and a fail-fast mentality. You will be a change agent in the department, advocating for the effective use of data to meet key policy priorities and continually spotting opportunities to innovate.

Person specification

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to understand business needs and translate these into coherent data architectures that align to the DESNZ Data Strategy.

• Design data flows and champion data standardisation, advising on appropriateness of data and metadata standards to ensure smooth data flow and data discoverability in the organisation.
• Develop the Enterprise Data Model for DESNZ, reflecting subject areas, domains, entities and their relationships to ensure consistent data management across the organisation.
• Develop and maintain appropriate and comprehensive data models and schemas across a variety of use cases.
• Develop and maintain key metadata products and standards for DESNZ across its various datasets and platforms, including data catalogues, data dictionaries and standards.
• Effectively communicate complex data concepts and insights to non-technical stakeholders, ensuring a clear understanding of data-driven implications and fostering informed decision-making across the department.
• Utilise data analysis and synthesis techniques to derive meaningful insights from complex datasets, supporting appropriate end use of the data.
• Ensure that data governance policies are enabled through data architecture

• Ensure compliance with regulatory requirements and departmental and cross government data standards.

• Foster a culture of data innovation by exploring and implementing new technologies and methodologies, driving continuous improvement.
• Proactively identify and resolve data-related challenges, ensuring the stability and reliability of the overall data ecosystem.

• Provide strategic advice on data management, data integration, and data warehousing, optimising solutions for scalability, efficiency and reliability across the DESNZ data estate.

• Foster collaboration in development of the design and implementation of a coherent and robust data architecture for DESNZ, ensuring alignment with the department’s maturing data model, its core objectives and industry best practices., Candidates who meet the minimum benchmark may be placed on a Reserve List for consideration for similar roles, including those at a lower grade. Candidates who narrowly miss the benchmark and are not placed on the Reserve List may still be considered for an offer in a similar role at a lower grade.

Please note terms and conditions are attached. Please take time to read the document to determine how these may affect you.

Any move to the Department for Energy, Security and Net Zero from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare; for further information visit the Childcare Choices website.

DESNZ does not normally offer full home working (i.e. working at home); but we do offer a variety of flexible working options (including occasionally working from home).

DESNZ cannot offer Visa sponsorship to candidates through this campaign. DESNZ holds a Visa sponsorship licence but this can only be used for certain roles and this campaign does not qualify., * UK nationals

• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

• Experience in designing data architectures in large organisations, supporting digital delivery.

• Expertise in designing and implementing data solutions using a variety of technologies, such as SQL, NoSQL, cloud services, ETL tools, data pipelines, data lakes, data warehouses, and data marts.

• Strong knowledge and experience of data modelling (conceptual, logical and physical) and data flow design, experience in developing, maintaining and updating data models for specific organisational needs.

• Experience of driving data standardisation, data governance, data quality, data security, with the ability to apply them in complex and dynamic environments
• Excellent communication, collaboration, and leadership skills, with the ability to translate business requirements into technical specifications, present data architecture vision and strategy to stakeholders

Desirable criteria

• Experience in Data Modelling using specialised software (e.g., Erwin Data Modeller).
• Experience in creating and maintaining metadata repositories (e.g., Purview Data Catalogue).

Technical skills

We’ll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Communicating between Technical and Non-Technical
• Data Modelling
• Turning Business Problems into Data Designs
• Data Governance (Data Architect), Successful candidates must undergo a basic (or equivalent) criminal record check. Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check .

Pulled from the full job description Childcare Annual leave Employee discount Company pension, £56,900 - £69,765 National: £56,900 - £64,510 London: £62,595 - £69,765 (pro-rata for part-time hours) + This role can include an allowance of up to £10,000 (see Further information for more details) A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97% GBP, Alongside your salary of £56,900, Department for Energy Security & Net Zero contributes £16,483 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides .

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero offers a competitive mix of benefits including:

• A culture of flexible working, such as job sharing, homeworking and compressed hours.
• Automatic enrolment into the Civil Service Pension Scheme, with an employer contribution of 28.97%.
• A minimum of 25 days of paid annual leave, increasing by 1 day per year up to a maximum of 30.
• An extensive range of learning & professional development opportunities, which all staff are actively encouraged to pursue.
• Access to a range of retail, travel and lifestyle employee discounts.
• A hybrid office/home based working model where staff will spend a norm of 40-60% of their time in the office (minimum of 40%) over a month with flex dependent on balancing business and individual need., This role can include an allowance of up to £10,000 depending on skills, qualifications, and experience, as part of the Government Digital and Data Framework. Further details on the framework can be found on: https://ddat-capability-framework.service.gov.uk/role/data-architect#senior-data-architect

Do you want a career where you can make a real difference? Do you want to have an impact on the UK and beyond? If yes, then a career at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) could be for you.

Here at DESNZ we are delivering our mission to make the UK a clean energy superpower, with clean electricity by 2030 and accelerating the UK’s journey to net zero.

Our work is helping ensure clean energy for all, keep bills down and seize the opportunities to lead the world in new green industries, taking back control of our energy with Great British Energy and encouraging greater energy efficiency across the UK. The work of the department has never been more timely or relevant, and by joining us you will be part of making that difference.

Our work is varied, interesting and most importantly it’s impactful. Our DESNZ Values are interwoven into everything we do; we are bold, we are collaborative, we are inclusive, and we learn. As a department we are committed to these values to build a culture where everyone can thrive.

We work in an agile way. This means that, as our priorities evolve, your work may adapt to meet emerging needs and help us deliver our mission. This approach offers opportunities to develop your skills, gain new experiences, and contribute where you can make the greatest impact. This relates to the nature of the work rather than contractual terms, such as location or working pattern.

We offer great working benefits including a world-class pension, flexible working options and a career where your learning and development is taken seriously. We are enormously proud to be a Disability Confident Leader employer. We support candidates with adjustments throughout our recruitment process. Information about disability confidence and just some examples of the adjustments that you can request can be found in the reasonable adjustment section below.