Senior Officer Data & Digital

Government Recruitment Service; York and North Yorkshire; On-site; GBP 35,000 - 50,000; Full time

Job summary

A UK government department is seeking a candidate to join the Data & Digital team within the Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment Programme. Responsibilities include developing a common approach for open data, providing technical advice on data pipelines, and promoting compliance with data standards. The ideal candidate will have experience in data management and cross-partner collaboration. This role supports environmental data initiatives critical to enhancing biodiversity and decision-making.

Qualifications

• Ability to manage and promote best practices in data management.
• Experience collaborating with diverse teams.
• Familiarity with open data and archiving practices.

Responsibilities

• Support development of open data policies across partners.
• Provide technical input to integrated data pipelines.
• Test barriers to data integration and promote use cases.

Skills

Data management standards

Cross-partner collaboration

Technical data advice

Metadata authoring

Open data policies

Job description

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is the UK government department responsible for safeguarding our natural environment, supporting our world‑leading food and farming industry, and sustaining a thriving rural economy. Our broad remit means we play a major role in people’s day‑to‑day life, from the food we eat, and the air we breathe, to the water we drink.

About the programme

The Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment Programme (NCEA) sits in the Central Analysis and Insights Directorate, overseen by Defra’s Chief Scientific Advisor. The programme aims to deliver a world‑class knowledge capability for our natural environment which enables us to enhance our landscapes, improve biodiversity and encourage innovation. It will develop integrated, adaptive and collaborative methods to measure our land and freshwater environments; transform physical and digital infrastructure to underpin, facilitate and present our understanding to aid decision‑making; and deliver data, evidence‑based insight and understanding to inform ambitious, proactive and sustainable policy decisions. The NCEA is Defra’s largest R&D programme, due to complete in 2028 and key partners include the Environment Agency, Forest Research, JNCC, Natural England, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew and the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology.

About the NCEA Data & Digital team

The Data & Digital team is one of four G6 led teams in the core of the NCEA programme. The team is responsible for managing the flow and delivery of environmental data collected by the programme through its partners. The team leads on data governance, licensing and developing standards for Analysis Ready Data and development of a digital search platform for the programme. Providing underpinning services to the whole programme, Data & Digital work closely with teams across all the partners and with Defra’s specialist Digital, Data, Technology and Security team (DDTS) to publish NCEA’s data and outputs and make them discoverable on the NCEA search platform.

Encouraging diverse applicants

We recognise the challenges that people with (multiple) protected characteristics may experience on the job market and in their career progression. We are fully committed to being an inclusive employer and ensuring equal opportunities. We are keen to make our workforce as diverse as possible, and we hope to attract applications from under‑represented groups.

We are looking for an exceptional candidate able to work at pace to help deliver a pipeline of Analysis Ready Data from field surveys, liaising closely with science and data specialists from across the programme. The candidate should be confident working with and promoting standards and best practice in data management and be passionate about maximising the benefits of the programme’s data.

Responsibilities

• Support development of a common approach, policies and agreements for open data, archiving and cross‑programme data dissemination.
• Support the Data & Digital Strategic Delivery Group and Operations Group as key mechanisms for cross‑partner co‑ordination and delivery.
• Provide technical input and advice to an integrated data pipeline across partners through common data standards, a common metadata standard, and common formats for storing data.
• Work closely with partners to develop and promote a network of expertise across the programme in metadata authoring, including natural capital terms.
• Test potential barriers to data integration and interoperability, and identifying potential use cases for customers.
• Liaise with science teams to agree common minimum standards for data quality and develop suitable communication and monitoring.
• Promote programme compliance with Q‑FAIR principles.
• Contribute to the development of a Product Tracker and pipeline.
• Contribute to the development of natural capital search tools for programme data.