Insight Analyst

Job description

Job responsibilities

The use of data to provide business insights to support decision making is an emerging and fast evolving area within Wiltshire Council with an organisational goal to shape our future through insight.

The Insight Analyst is a key member of the team that delivers business insight across the Council, working from the BI Hub and collaborating with the service area expert spokes and other members across our data ecosystem.

In this role the postholder will be required to:

Horizon scan and keep abreast of technological developments in their area of work, taking the initiative to apply them within a council context.

Interpret and advise on key business requirements, applying innovative approaches to resolve problems. This may require creative application of existing skills to build an original solution or the learning of new technical skills to solve the problem.

Exploit opportunities through the recognition of new digital technologies to enhance analytical capability in alignment with business goals.

Demonstrate benefits of bringing data together from different sources and communicate the limitations of data to managers and Heads of Service.

Apply data accessibility decisions and adhere to defined security frameworks.

Advocate to the services the benefits of our Data Strategy which sets out an ambitious change programme for the council. This may involve navigating challenging conversations with service personnel and data professionals.

The postholder will:

Apply specialist skills and experience to work with all types of data, unstructured, structured, and big data to deliver across all business areas.

Apply appropriate tools and techniques for data analysis and data visualisation (Power BI).

Proactively promote a data-driven culture, sharing their skills, knowledge, and experience with colleagues across council teams and supporting colleagues in data and insight roles in other council team.

Identify, collect, and migrate data to and from a range of systems, which may require negotiation with data owners, key stakeholders and establishment of new processes or ways of working.

Support services to improve data quality to ensure end-users are making decisions on the best possible data.

Identify and mitigate the risks and impacts of using incorrect or incomplete data.

Manipulate and link different data sets from across the council whilst understanding and mitigating the risks implications of linking inappropriate data, understanding security protocols, and adhering to legislation.

Summarise and present data and conclusions in the most appropriate format for users, using plain English to ensure data is fully understood and recommendations are clear.

Person Specification

Experience

Essential

• Education and qualifications
• Educated to degree level, professional qualification or equivalent in a related discipline.
• Equivalent relevant experience and evidence of continuous professional development within the field of data, performance, and insight Technical Skills.
• Specialist understanding of BI technologies (e.g., Microsoft Power BI, SSRS, SSAS) and the ability to collate data from a range of sources (e.g., API, SharePoint, MS Excel, CSV, web,
• databases, JSON).
• Advanced knowledge of SQL queries; TSQL or PL/SQL.
• A good understanding of the complexity of the various technical elements of BI development, data quality, knowledge management and how these feed into the overarching data strategy for the Council.
• Demonstrable ability to translate between business requirements on paper and technical deliverables required to deliver the solution.
• An ability to understand sentiment and perceptions from what is said or written from end users.
• Develop and maintain value analysis tools for strategic and value-driven decisions.
• Up to date knowledge of relevant legislation and guidance in relation to working with information systems e.g., GDPR, consent and information sharing.
• Solid understanding of basic mathematical and statistical principles such as measures of central tendency, measures of spread, correlation, and the ability to apply this understanding within Power BI to good effect.
• Personal Skills
• Experience of working constructively and collaboratively with senior managers and partners.
• Ability and skill to act as a change agent, driving forward the changes which are required to drive improvement and stay compliant with legislation.
• Able to relate and communicate effectively verbally and in writing, with a wide range of audiences including system users, professional staff, and senior managers in various agencies.
• Effective time management skills to respond to complex and constantly changing work priorities to manage own and teams workflow.
• Experience of delivering quality outputs with limited resources.
• Curiosity and creativity to problem solve and negotiate the benefits of new solutions.
• Personable with strong persuasive and negotiating skills.
• A passion for learning and willingness to explore and develop their skillset beyond analytics and into data science.

Desirable

• Education and qualifications
• PL-300 (Microsoft Certified Data Analyst).
• Technical skills
• Agile principles and Scrum methodology.
• Experience with the application of statistical analysis such as regression analysis or central limit theorem.
• Familiarity with DAX, R, Python or equivalent.
• Experience working in a Big Data environment, dealing with large diverse data sets.
• Experience of Data Science, Machine Learning and/or Statistical concepts (e.g. Azure Machine Learning Studio or Cognitive Services).
• Experience with ArcGIS Pro.
• Familiarity with the benefits of IoT in a local authority context.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

Employer details

Employer name

Wiltshire Council

Address

County Hall

Bythesea Rd

Trowbridge

Wiltshire

BA14 8JN

Employer's website

http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)