Senior Data Sharing Officer

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; Manchester; On-site; GBP 42,000 - 47,000; Full time

Job summary

A government department is seeking a Senior Data Sharing Officer to manage secure data sharing across various projects. You'll oversee data governance, improve metadata quality, and provide stakeholder support. The role requires strong communication and problem-solving abilities, as well as experience in data management. Benefits include a competitive salary along with generous pension contributions, flexible working options, and extensive professional development opportunities.

Benefits

25 days’ leave plus bank holidays

Civil Service pension with significant employer contributions

Flexible working options

Paid volunteering days

Budget for training

Health cash plan

Access to wellbeing resources

Qualifications

• Experience and interest in data management and procurement.
• Strong understanding of data governance, licensing, and metadata standards.
• Ability to interpret complex licensing terms.

Responsibilities

• Manage cataloguing and quality assurance of metadata on the Data Sharing Platform.
• Act as a subject matter expert providing onboarding support to data owners.
• Collaborate to manage data licensing activities and provide advice.

Skills

Data management

Data procurement

Stakeholder engagement

Data governance

Communication skills

Problem-solving

Organisational skills

Job description

Salary : National : £42,665 - £46,765 London : £46,060 - £50,495 plus industry leading pension and benefits.

Job description

We are a team of data sharing and geospatial systems experts, supporting the Defra Group and its partners. Our work spans a wide range of data access and sharing topics, and we collaborate with colleagues across Defra, its arm’s-length bodies (ALBs), other government departments, external partners, and contractors. We manage several key geospatial services, including the Defra Data Services Platform, MAGIC, and a suite of ESRI services. Our team provides hands‑on support for users, helping with data access and publishing. We also offer expert advice on data licensing for projects across Defra and maintain access to important third‑party datasets, such as those from Ordnance Survey.

As the Senior Data Sharing Officer, you will be responsible for enabling secure, compliant, and efficient data sharing across the Defra Group. You will support the development and implementation of data governance, licensing, and publishing processes to ensure Defra achieves best value from data. You will work with colleagues and external partners to enable access to third party, licensed data products, making sure those are accessed and reused in line with their licensing conditions. Your work will be instrumental to delivery of activities and projects across the Group. You will work with colleagues from a variety of specialisms and professions, offering you ongoing opportunities to learn about Defra, the government, and the environment we are working to protect.

The Data Access Team is a dispersed team. We meet several times a year, which means that occasional travel to Defra, partner or supplier sites will be required.

Person specification

Responsibilities

Data & Metadata Publishing

• You will manage the activity of cataloguing and quality assurance of Defra core metadata on the Data Sharing Platform (DSP).
• You will work with data owners across Defra to improve the quality and completeness of metadata and data available on the DSP.
• You will contribute to metadata standards and ongoing data governance initiatives such as the data ownership and metadata policy implementation.

Stakeholder Engagement

• You will act as a subject matter expert, providing guidance and onboarding support to data owners and stewards looking to improve their content available on the data systems we manage.
• You will work with colleagues across Defra Group to promote our services and maximise their benefits.

Data Licensing

• You will collaborate with internal teams and external suppliers to manage data licensing activities, including renewals, and procurement of third‑party data.
• You will provide licensing advice to users, enabling data sharing and access.

Line Management

• You will line manage a small team of data access and sharing specialists.

Skills & Experience

• Experience and interest in data management, data procurement and stakeholder engagement.
• Strong understanding of data governance, licensing, and metadata standards.
• Excellent communication, problem‑solving, and organisational skills.
• Ability to interpret complex licensing terms and provide actionable advice.
• We work in a varied and dynamic environment – a strong commitment to continuous learning and development is essential.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £42,665, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs contributes £12,360 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• 25 days’ leave (rising to 30 days over 5 years) plus bank holidays.
• A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 28.97%.
• A day off per year for the King's birthday.
• Access to a range of retail discounts (these include supermarket, tech, gym, holiday, phone and more).
• Flexible working options such as condensed hours, part‑time and flexi time.
• 3 paid volunteering days per year.
• Funding for professional membership of a recognised professional body.
• Learning and development tailored to your role and budget for training or qualifications.
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity.
• Cycle to work scheme.
• Health cash plan to help you manage health costs for a reduced monthly fee.
• Access to the Employee Assistance Programme open 24 hours, 7 days a week, that provides support to you during any times of stress or difficulty.
• Free access to Headspace for wellbeing.
• Season ticket loan for public transport.

Please note all applications need to go through Civil Service Jobs.