About the job

Job summary

Are you a dedicated person who is passionate about making a difference?

Would you like to work for the Ministry of Defence? 

Defence Business Services (DBS) is one of the largest shared service organisations in Europe that provides a wide range of corporate services, to over 1.2 million end users, including serving and past military and families, as well as MoD civil servants and industry. DBS delivers large scale administration and smaller specialist services to enable the wider MOD to focus on its core aims, maintaining the UK’s Defence and Security. Services include Human Resources, Pay, Veterans, Finance and Procurement. 

• Our Vision - To support UK defence customers with outstanding service every time.
• Our Mission – Together we will proudly support Defence, continuously improving and delivering flexible, timely, sustainable and value for money services that underpin the whole force and enhance operational capability. 

DBS is committed to creating a great place to work for all our colleagues. We are building an inclusive culture and respectful environment that reflects the diversity of the society. 

We want to maximise the potential of everyone who chooses to work for us through opportunities to develop your skills and experience. We also offer a range of flexible working patterns and support to make a fulfilling career accessible to you and offer a Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%. Where your role permits, we support a blended working approach alternatively known as hybrid working.

Come and join the DBS community today! 

Job description

Act as a Senior Data Steward supporting the delivery of an effective data governance practice across the Armed Forces & Veteran Services (AFVS) data estate and associated data flows in accordance with the MoD’s Data Strategy, Defence Policies and AFVS Data Governance & Management practices.

Work collaboratively with DBS’s Business Partner (SSCL) and Single Services, to implement effective data governance and management practices to all data holdings and data flows in AFVS estate. Including:

• Manage and maintain AFVS Data Holdings Register. Including data flows in and out of those holdings. Identify potential new data holdings, including their business use, data contents and Data Quality (DQ)/metadata requirements. Update existing holdings details to maintain Register’s accuracy. 
• Manage and maintain Data Criticality Matrix. Undertake data lifecycle activities for AFVS business data, ensuring business critical data items are identified in each data holding/flow, purpose & use understood and documented, and DQ rules requirements are identified as per criticality marking.
• Use DBS’s Continuity, Retention, Archive & Disposal (CRAD) policy to understand Lifecyle Management across AFVS’s data holdings and support ITMS in identification of potential data requiring CRAD review.
• Manage receipt and /or creation of AFVS’s data holding’s systems technical information and associated metadata documentation, including interface lineage documentation. Publish to relevant stakeholders and consumers to promote intelligent use of data, iaw MoD/GDPR rules.
• Maintain Data Team’s SharePoint sites. All sites to remain current both in contents & format, and information/documentation is readily available for use and protected from unauthorised access.
• Support the create and distribute of AFVS Data Quality HeatMaps.
• Undertake scrutiny of all Change Requests to ensure impacts to AFVS data holdings/flows have been identified and business requirements considered iaw AFVS Data Governance & Management practices. Including metadata impacts, new data items criticality/definitions, DQ rules and DQ consideration in both design & recovery of any changes.
• Act as primary reviewer of Data Team’s multiuser mailbox, triaging messages, acknowledge receipt and forwarding to correct point of contact/Team member to answer.
• Line management responsibility for one Data Steward role.
• Use Oracle Enterprise Metadata Manager (OEMM) to understand AFVS data and support answering any data related queries.
• Support monitoring of data obligations in Service Delivery Contract (SDC) to ensure DBS receive value for money and benefit of incumbent Business Partner.
• Attend / participate in AFVS’s data and technical meetings, including quarterly military Data Governance Forum, and other miscellaneous data meetings as required.

Please note hybrid working is supported, but weekly attendance at Gosport Office will be required at a minimum of 3 days per week. Role doesn’t attract travelling/accommodation allowances.

Person specification

Essential

• Expertise and understanding of Data Governance and Data Management principles as applied to business data, including different data types, data lifecycles, data quality, security and GDPR requirements.
• Understanding of relational databases and data flows, including design models, system technical documentation and associated metadata and lineage.
• Understanding and ability to apply data governance and management practices across data holdings and data flows. Including identification, investigation and management of data quality issues, their impacts, and risks to the business.
• Possess strong numerical and data analytics capabilities with proven expertise in investigating and tackling complex technical data issues following an analytical and systematic approach applying attention to detail.
• Good communication skills, including the ability to communicate effectively at all levels on topics of a technical & complex nature.
• Proficient in the use of MS Office Products such as Word, PowerPoint and in particular MS Excel (advanced level). Plus proved ability to write SQL code (or willingness to learn).
• Ability to thrive in a demanding environment and add value to the team by leveraging experience, knowledge and apply sound judgment to the business demands.

Desirable

• Knowledge and understanding of Military Service, Military HR and AFVS data holdings.
• Experience of Oracle Systems (in particular, Oracle Analytics Server (OAS), Oracle Enterprise Data Quality (EDQ) and Oracle Enterprise Metadata Management (EOMM)).

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £35,290, Ministry of Defence contributes £9,528 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

Please ensure that at the application and interview stages of the campaign you review the Success Profiles Framework to assist you in the demonstration of your skills and experience.

Your suitability for the role will be assessed using the Success Profile elements that have been chosen for this campaign. Each element will be scored accordingly, and the successful candidate will be appointed on merit.

Applications will be sifted on all Success Profile elements.
In this instance the remaining elements will be tested at interview. – this part may not be needed if the LM doesn’t want to lower the criteria assessed if there is a high number of applications

At application stage you will be assessed against the following:
Behaviours:
•    Making Effective Decisions 
•    Changing and Improving 
•    Communicating and Influencing 

Experience: 
•    CV - Please include : Job history, full qualification details, Previous skills & experience 
•    Personal Statement : In no more than 1250 words, please detail your experience of the following:

1) Knowledge and experience of Data Governance and Data Management principles and putting them into practice.
2) Technical knowledge and experience of working with relational databases, in particular Oracle systems. Understanding data models, different data types, metadata and data lineage.
3) Practical strong data analytic capability and experience, including investigating data anomalies and handling big data sets.

Technical:
Technical Requirements (Digital, Data and Technology Professional Capability Framework (DDat)):

Practitioner level 

• Communication Skills 
• Data Management 
• Quality assurance, validation and data linkage abilities 

Working level 

• Analytical and Problem-Solving Skills 
• Logical and Creative Thinking Skills 
• Proven IT and mathematical skills 

Awareness level

• Data Modelling, Data Cleansing, and Data Enrichment Skills 
• Data Visualisation 
• Project Management Skills 
• Statistical methods and data analysis skills

At interview you will be assessed against all of the above.

In the rare case where individuals have exact matching scores, the order of merit will be determined based on the behaviour scores at interview in the following order:
1. Behaviour - Making Effective Decisions
2. Behaviour - Changing and Improving

If candidate scores are still exact, the merit order will then be determined on the sift score in the below order or priority:
1. Experience - Personal statement 

We want to offer opportunities to all who are successful at interview for our roles, but this isn’t always possible, so we do hold candidates on an active reserve list for 12 months.

Application sifting is scheduled to take place at the end of February 2024

Interviews are currently taking place remotely via Ms Teams and will be conducted Early March 2024
A minimum of 2 full working days’ notice will be provided for interviews.We endeavour to stick to these dates, but these are subject to change around business needs.

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equality of opportunity.

There is a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.
If you need to advise us that you need additional help or reasonable adjustments for the recruitment process, please contact: DBS-EnhancedRecruitmentTeam@mod.gov.uk

MOD Recruitment Satisfaction Survey – we may contact you regarding your experience to help us improve our customer satisfaction. The survey is voluntary and anonymous.
You may however be given the opportunity to provide additional information to help us improve our service which includes the collection of some personal data as defined by the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR). The MOD Privacy Notice sets out how we will use your personal data and your rights.

As a result of the changes to the UK immigration rules which came into effect on 1 January 2021, the Ministry of Defence will only offer sponsorship for a skilled worker visa under the points-based system, where a role has been deemed to be business critical. 
The role currently being advertised has not been assessed as business critical and is therefore NOT open to applications from those who will require sponsorship under the points-based system. Should you apply for this role and be found to require sponsorship, your application will be rejected, and any provisional offer of employment withdrawn. 

To assist with your application please find attached below: 

DBS Candidate Information Guide - Working for Defence Business Services - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) 
Technical Skills framework link -  Digital, Data and Technology Profession Capability Framework - Capability Framework (ddat-capability-framework.service.gov.uk)

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window). People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window). The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.