Data Steward - Surrey County Council : Job Details

This role has a starting salary of £45,680 per annum, based on a 36-hour working week. This is a 12-month fixed term contract / secondment opportunity.

We are excited to be hiring a new Data Steward for data quality to join our fantastic team. As Data Steward, you'll be our data quality specialist, working across the council on data quality projects and support activity to drive adherence to data governance policies, which will enable Surrey County Council to get greater value from its data.

This role is based in Reigate, however this is a hybrid role and you will have the option of working from home for some of your week. You will be expected to attend the office a minimum of 2 days a week and when business need requires you to do. Many of our staff also work flexibly, including term-time only, so we welcome a conversation as to what might work best for you.

Rewards and Benefits

• 26 days' holiday (prorated for part time staff), rising to 28 days after 2 years' service and 30 days after 5 years' service
• Option to buy up to 10 days of additional annual leave
• An extensive Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) to support health and wellbeing
• Up to 5 days of carer's leave per year
• Paternity, adoption and dependents leave
• A generous local government salary related pension
• Lifestyle discounts including gym, travel, shopping and many more
• 2 paid volunteering days per year
• Learning and development hub where you can access a wealth of resources

About the Role

At Surrey, our vision is to help create better lives, a better place, and a county where no-one is left behind. We know that delivering this vision starts with how we manage our data and so we're on a mission to revolutionise our approach to data governance and management.

As the Data Steward for data quality, you will work closely with the Senior Data Quality Steward, Data Governance Manager and other Data Stewards to develop, promote and ensure all council directorates adhere to data governance policies and will help identify and address data issues to support the organisation to deliver its data strategy.

You will work collaboratively with technical leads, project managers and stakeholders across the organisation to build data quality solutions that help them to understand specific data issues, manage data quality as part of their operational activities and understand how issues with process, technology or training contribute to data quality.

The role will have an essential part to play in supporting projects that help teams understand the data quality measures that will add value to their service, as well as the importance of undertaking work to address known data quality issues.

Shortlisting Criteria

To be considered for shortlisting for this position, your application will clearly evidence the following:

• A passion for data and the awareness of the importance and potential of well managed, good quality data provides to an organisation.
• A motivated and highly collaborative individual, with previous experience within a data steward, data analyst or business intelligence role. You will also have some experience of performing data quality measurement utilising industry standard toolsets e.g. Collibra, Experian, Informatica.
• An understanding of what constitutes good data quality as well as have some experience of work to improve data quality and facilitate programmes of improvement.
• Some experience of interpreting business process flows, how these may contribute to data issues and be comfortable discussing these in stakeholder workshops.
• An awareness and understanding of other areas of data governance, such as metadata management and master data management and able to work with other data stewards in the team with specialisms in those disciplines.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to work across organisational boundaries and help educate and influence those around you on the value of data quality management. You will also have a fantastic customer ethos and be able to build strong relationships across the organisation.

Application Questions

As part of the application process, you will be asked to answer the following questions along with uploading your CV:

• Tell us about a data quality project you have previously worked on. Please detail the hands-on activities you were involved in, and whether you examined the business process flow design during any root cause analysis.
• Describe your technical skills and knowledge and how it helps your ability to work with data.
• Describe a time when you used your excellent interpersonal and collaboration skills to achieve a positive outcome.
• Tell us why good data is important and give an example from a previous role of what 'good data' meant in practice.

The job advert closes at 23:59 on 30th March 2025 with interviews to follow.

Our Commitment

Surrey County Council is proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. A guaranteed interview will be offered to all disabled applicants where:

• The candidate has evidenced the minimum criteria for the role through their application
• The candidate has chosen to share that they have a disability on the application form

Our application form and onboarding process will provide an opportunity to request any reasonable adjustments for the interview and/or the role. We want to be an inclusive and diverse employer reflecting the community we serve and particularly welcome applications from all underrepresented groups