Senior Data Administrator (Fixed Term Contract) - Dubai Campus

Heriot-Watt University; United Arab Emirates; On-site; AED 120,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading international university in Dubai seeks a Senior Data Administrator for supporting data compliance and analysis. The role involves managing and interpreting regulatory data, ensuring accuracy and consistency across systems while collaborating with various teams. Applicants should have a strong analytical background with experience in MS Power BI and data reporting. This full-time position offers a dynamic work environment focused on enhancing student outcomes.

Qualifications

• Experience in managing data submissions and compliance.
• Strong analytical skills with experience in data reporting.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Manage regulatory compliance data and submissions.
• Lead production and assurance of retention datasets.
• Enhance documentation and maintain data accuracy.

Skills

MS Power BI

Data analysis

Presentation skills

Communication skills

Problem-solving

Customer service

Education

First degree or equivalent

Tools

MS Office Suite

Excel

Job description

Job Title: Senior Data Administrator

Grade: G6

Department: Registry and Academic Support (RAS)

Location: Dubai Campus

FTE and Working Pattern: 1 FTE, Fulltime

About our School/Directorate and Team

The Global Registry and Academic Support Directorate supports our students and staff across the full student life-cycle from enrolment to graduation.

The Directorate has responsibility as the definitive record-keeper of all student information, programme and course details, as well as leading services that help students settle and stay at the University. This includes providing professional help and advice through a range of support and wellbeing services.

The Directorate supports academic and professional services staff across the University in a number of areas, including: academic, institutional and student-related Regulations and Policies, and global, national and institutional quality matters.

It delivers its services through five Divisions, each managed by a Global Head and two Heads of Campus Registry and Student Services:

• Student Life
• Online Students
• Academic Operations
• Academic Quality
• Academic Secretariat, Regulation and Policy
• Head of Registry & Student Services – Dubai Campus
• Head of Registry & Student Services – Malaysia Campus

The Academic Quality Division is made up of three Teams:

• Quality Assurance: Has management and oversight of all processes related to approval, annual monitoring and periodic review. Delivers an integrated approach to the assurance of quality and academic standards
• Academic Enhancement: Overseeing enhancement of learning and teaching and of the student learning experience (incl. PGR students), and delivers strategic change in learning and teaching and in the student learning experience
• Accreditation and Academic Partnerships: Has management and oversight of all academic partnerships and external accreditations (government and professional bodies) and delivers a consistent approach to external accreditation and the assurance of partnerships

In Dubai and Malaysia the Academic Quality divisions run as single teams, which liaise with the three central teams for professional support, and are managed locally by the Academic Quality Manager.

Purpose of Role

The Senior Data Administrator will have lead responsibility for supporting Registry & Academic Services (RAS) data requirements, with particular emphasis on regulatory compliance datasets and institutional performance reporting. This includes the management, analysis and assurance of annual retention and progression data, statutory data returns to external regulators, and complex ad hoc data requests that support institutional decision-making.

The role will provide specialist expertise in regulatory and student data, ensuring accuracy, consistency and alignment across university systems. Acting with a high degree of autonomy, the postholder will support regulatory compliance obligations, mitigate data-related risk, and enable evidence-based initiatives that enhance the student experience, retention and progression outcomes.

Summary of Key Duties and Responsibilities

Working closely with the Academic Quality Manager and Deputy Head of Registry (Dubai) and wider Registry, Academic Quality and Professional Services teams, the postholder will:

Regulatory and Compliance Data Management

• Take operational responsibility for the collation, validation, reconciliation and assurance of data submissions to:
• Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research (MoHESR)
• Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA)
• Other regulatory bodies as required
• Interpret evolving regulatory data requirements, ensuring that institutional datasets remain compliant, accurate and submission ready.
• Act as a key point of contact for regulator-driven ad hoc data requests, exercising judgement in prioritisation and risk management.

Institutional Reporting and Analysis

• Lead the production and quality assurance of retention and progression datasets for the Dubai campus, ensuring data integrity.
• Support the development of analytical outputs that inform student experience initiatives, performance monitoring and compliance KPIs.
• Identify data anomalies, trends and risks, escalating issues and proposing solutions where appropriate.

Systems, Processes and Documentation

• Maintain and enhance data definitions, processes, and documentation to ensure transparency, consistency and audit readiness.
• Work with University systems (e.g. Banner and associated reporting tools), applying specialist system knowledge to improve data accuracy and reporting efficiency.
• Proactively keep abreast of developments in data systems, regulatory platforms and reporting tools relevant to the role.

Stakeholder Engagement and Influence

• Collaborate with academic and professional service departments requiring complex or sensitive data support, providing expert guidance and interpretation.
• Communicate effectively with colleagues across the global institution, particularly teams based in Dubai and Edinburgh, to ensure alignment of data standards and reporting expectations.
• Attend and contribute to regulatory data workshops, briefings and training, disseminating key updates and implications to relevant stakeholders.

Continuous Improvement and Project Work

• Contribute to process improvement initiatives that strengthen data governance, reduce compliance risk and improve reporting efficiency.
• Undertake complex data-related projects as agreed, requiring independent planning, analytical judgement and stakeholder coordination.

Education, Qualifications & Experience

Essential

• The role-holder should have a first degree or equivalent featuring significant relevant numerical and analytical content, with experience of working with dashboards in MS Power BI and submission portals
• Excellent IT skills with experience across the MS Office suite and, in particular, advanced working knowledge of PowerBI (or similar BI and visual analytics platform) and Excel
• Demonstrable experience of extracting, analysing and interpreting data to produce reports and dashboards in support of management activities
• Excellent written and oral communication skills, including data visualisation and presentation skills, with the ability to present complex management information in an accessible way for a diverse audience
• Analytical problem-solving skills
• Well-developed interpersonal skills
• Demonstrable excellent customer service, with a professional and proactive approach
• Demonstrable ability to work quickly, flexibly and accurately in a dynamic, changing and pressured environment

Desirable

• At least two years’ experience working with a medium level of autonomy and responsibility in a management information role
• Experience of working in Higher Education in a similar management information / planning environment as outlined above

Values and University Overview

With a history dating back to 1821, Heriot-Watt University has established a reputation for world-class teaching and professionally relevant, leading-edge research, which has made it one of the top UK universities for business and industry.

We are a vibrant, forward-looking university, well known for the quality of our degrees with employers actively seeking out our graduates. Heriot-Watt is also Scotland’s international university with an unsurpassed international in-country presence. We deliver degree programmes to circa 30,000 students in 143 countries around the world, have a further overseas campus in Dubai and boast the largest international student cohort in Scotland.

At Heriot-Watt we’ve created an environment that nurtures innovation and leadership - where our researchers, staff and students can realise their potential and develop their ambitions.

We are proud of our collegiate atmosphere and integrated teaching and research approach which has helped to build a community of committed academics and highly motivated students. Our focus on careers delivers results and we’ve an excellent reputation for graduate employability.

In addition to the Edinburgh campus, we currently have campuses in the Scottish Borders, Orkney, Dubai and Malaysia. For all of our campuses we aim to provide stimulating, supportive environments conducive to effective learning and research, where staff and students can excel. At Heriot-Watt, we have an established set of values that help us to nurture innovation and leadership, and show our commitment to continuous improvement and development in all our activities.

Our values describe our deeply held beliefs and our community spirit. They characterise not only how we are as a higher education institution but also frame how we want to be.

Our values are:

• Belong
• Collaborate
• Inspire
• Celebrate

As learning, living and working institution, we use our values as the building blocks of how we go about doing our work and how we each conduct ourselves as members of Heriot-Watt University. They represent what binds us together as a University community and help us to become the best at what we do.

For full details on our University, please view our website https://www.hw.ac.uk/about.htm

‘How to Apply’

Please submit your CV and a cover letter setting out how you meet the criteria for this role.

Shortlisted candidates may be invited to complete an on-demand-video interview as the first stage of the selection process. Successful candidates will then proceed to in-person formal interviews at our Dubai campus, where you will be asked to deliver a brief presentation on a relevant topic. Following the formal interview, the preferred candidate will attend a second interview with senior staff at the Dubai campus before a final offer decision is made.

Heriot-Watt University is committed to securing equality of opportunity in employment and to the creation of an environment in which individuals are selected, trained, promoted, appraised and otherwise treated on the sole basis of their relevant merits and abilities. Equality and diversity are all about maximising potential and creating a culture of inclusion for all.

The appointment is conditional upon successful completion of all Labor and Immigration formalities, and the start date will need to be delayed if the employment visa is not in place.