Data Analyst - Strategic Planning and Performance Insight - 107906 - Grade 6

Position Details

Executive Support

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £33,002 to £35,608 with potential progression once in post to £39,906

Grade: 6

Full Time, Permanent

Closing date: 27th September 2026

We will be shortlisting and interviewing candidates throughout the duration of this advert and reserve the right to close the post early if we are able to shortlist enough candidates. You are advised to submit your application as soon as possible.

There is also a Grade 7 position available

Our offer to you

People are at the heart of what we are and do.

The University of Birmingham is proud to have been a part of the City of Birmingham and the wider region for over 100 years, and we are equally proud to be recognised as a leading global university. We want to attract talented people from across the city and beyond, support them to succeed, and celebrate their success.

We are committed to helping the people who work here to develop through our sector-leading Birmingham Professional programme which provides all professional services staff with development opportunities and the encouragement to reach their full potential. With almost 5,000 professional services jobs in a wide-range of functions in Edgbaston and in our campus in Dubai, there are plenty of opportunities for you to be able to develop your career at the University.

We believe there is no such thing as a typical member of staff and that diversity is a source of strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation, and debate. We warmly welcome people from all backgrounds and are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where diversity is at the heart of who and what we are, and how we work.

Supporting our people to achieve a healthy work/life balance is important both to our employees and to the success of the University and, depending on the role, we offer a variety of flexible working arrangements. We therefore welcome discussions on all forms of flexible working. In addition, you will receive a generous package of benefits including 40 days paid holiday a year, one paid day a year for volunteering, occupational sick pay, and a pension scheme. We also have three high quality subsidised day nurseries.

The University is situated in leafy Edgbaston and there are excellent transport links to our beautiful campus, including main bus routes and a train station on site. On campus we have a state-of-the-art sports centre with pool, shops, places to eat and drink, our own art gallery, museum and botanical gardens.

Find out more about the benefits of working for the University of Birmingham

Background

The University of Birmingham is a global institution working within a diverse and vibrant City, offering an inspiring education to our students, and undertaking critically important research.  We are a place of open, critical thinking, and the creation, sharing and dissemination of knowledge.  Professional Services put students at the heart of all they do and enable an exceptional educational experience. They provide outstanding support to our researchers and help the University to grow its influence regionally, nationally, and globally. They ensure the University’s resources are used wisely, manage and improve the infrastructure which sits at the heart of the institution, and support decisions to be made quickly and based on sound evidence.  Our Birmingham Professional programme operates across the University, supporting colleagues to network and collaborate, offering opportunities to learn and develop, contributing to the delivery of the University’s objectives, and helping everyone to understand the broader context within which we work.

Department overview 

The Data and Analytics Team is responsible for delivering key elements of the University's Data Strategy, alongside providing analytical capability, data management expertise and reporting services for a wide range of business-critical activities. Situated within the Strategic Planning and Performance Insight Office and part of the wider Executive Support Division, we have a close working relationship with IT Services. As an office, we work with colleagues across the University to connect a range of perspectives to support senior leaders in making well-informed and evidence-led decisions. We aim to provide trusted advice and expertise, insightful analysis, and robust data.

Our activity can be categorized into four broad segments: 

• Data governance, capability and reporting.  Our enabler, providing technical data and systems management, and ensuring quality, accurate and accessible data. 
• Policy, regulation and compliance. Seeking to understand and interpret the implications of the external environment on the University. 
• Institutional planning. Understanding and advising on where we want, and need, to go as a University. 
• Performance Insight and Strategy management.  Understanding whether the University is on track to deliver to its strategic priorities.

Role Summary

The Data Analyst is a vital support role in the Data & Analytics Team, preparing data and administering IT systems and processes for business-critical areas of work. Alongside a varied portfolio of business-as-usual responsibilities, the role holder will also play an integral part in delivering the institutional Data Strategy, supporting our move from legacy systems to cloud solutions, building data literacy and the overall data culture of the institution. You will also act as an expert in navigating university governance processes and supporting others to extract the most valuable analyses from the reporting suite. If you are looking to develop your experience of supporting impactful change and are passionate about demonstrating the value of data and analytics in driving institutional progress, this is the role for you!

Reporting to the Data and Systems Manager, within the Business as Usual (BAU) sub-team, and working in close partnership with colleagues across the department and IT Services, you will have experience using reporting tools like Power BI and Tableau, CRM systems and databases, and advanced Excel skills. You will maintain an array of vital data transformation and refresh processes, and maintain key enterprise reports across a range of systems. You will monitor incoming requests and help the Data and Systems Manager monitor and prioritise actions using project management methods and software. You will spend time working directly with stakeholders, developing an understanding of user experience and business need, contributing to the improvement of our reports and fostering the data culture of the institution as a whole. As the Data Analyst you will become a recognised expert within the University who enables users across the University to access data and assess performance accurately and quickly.

This will be a huge opportunity for the right person to support business critical systems and processes across the University, and to learn a valuable range of skills required for a career in data analytics, strategic planning and higher education. The successful candidate will be a skilled, delivery-focussed, and technically competent hands-on analyst who thrives on working in a varied and challenging environment. You will be confident in engaging colleagues at all levels and will act flexibly and pragmatically to seek and implement solutions.

Main Duties

The expected focus of this role for the initial 1-2 years of appointment are likely to be within the following areas: Business Intelligence, Data Analytics, Data Management, Data Visualisation, and Reporting Release and Deployment.

Key Duties include

• Develop and maintain reports within Power BI and Tableau to meet internal and external reporting requirements. Work with initiative and sets priorities for continued development of reports in line with organisational priorities.
• Monitor data pipelines and refresh schedules and coordinate activity with IT Services to ensure reporting services are maintained, ensuring the availability of trusted and high-quality institutional data. 
• Interpret data and communicate quantitative information to a variety of audiences clearly and concisely, and highlight the most important insights to be drawn from the data whilst making recommendations for improvement.
• Provide support to business critical processes owned by Strategic Planning, including Student Number Planning, Fee Schedule production, the Workload Allocation Model and Management Information Unit changes. 
• Monitor team email mailbox and work with Data & Systems Manager to record and prioritise team workload and backlog. Coordinates internal comms via Teams and Email as required.
• Champion the data culture of the University, support clinics and outreach events, and coordinate Reporting and Analytics Community of Practice (RaCoP) activities, including seeking presentations and papers. 
• Advise and train users on Tableau, Power BI, Simitive and other systems as required.
• Supports the provision of Graduate Outcomes contact data to OfS, managing the process effectively and efficiently.

Additional Duties

• Coordinates the update of documentation and advises on established procedures for deployment of new reports.
• Fosters a fair and equitable workplace for all staff. 
• Identifies and responds to equality and diversity issues in line with relevant university policies and procedures.
• Supports the University’s sustainability agenda through resource efficient working. 
• Any other duties commensurate with the grade.

We are committed to developing a clear development pathway for our technically focussed staff working within our data and analytics space. We use the SFIA framework as a mechanism for demonstrating skills and competencies and have mapped the main duties of this role to the SFIA framework. 

Business Administration

• Provides administrative support function to teams and meetings. Assists in planning for meetings. Liaises and organises across functions.
• Provides guidance on software, procedures, processes, tools and techniques for administration and workplace productivity.
• Contributes to the development and maintenance of organisational policies, procedures and documentation.

Business Intelligence

• Sources and prepares data for analysis and performs standard business intelligence analysis activities.
• Checks the integrity and validity of data sources. Creates and delivers standard reports in accordance with stakeholder needs and conforming to agreed standards.
• Investigates the need for new or revised business intelligence analysis.
• Contributes to the recommendation of improvements. Engages with stakeholders under direction

Data Analytics

• Supports data analytics by gathering and preparing data from multiple sources.
• Applies analytical and statistical methods and software tools to analyse data and develop reports.
• Assists in identifying trends, patterns and insights that inform business decisions.
• Communicates complex findings to stakeholders in an understandable manner.
• Collaborates with team members to refine analysis techniques and maintain data quality.

Data Management

• Helps identify and report issues and discrepancies.
• Assesses the integrity of data from multiple sources.

Data Visualisation

• Uses visualisation products, as guided, to design and create data visuals.
• Selects appropriate visualisation techniques from the options available.
• Engages with the target user to prototype and refine specified visualisations.
• Assists in developing narratives around data sets to support understanding and decision-making.
• Contributes to exploration and experimentation in data visualisation.

Organisational Capability, Knowledge Management, and Training

• Supports Communities of Practice.
• Publicises and promotes a catalogue of learning and development resources.
• Supports sharing, collaboration and communication of knowledge, sharing ideas and examples of existing practices.

Reporting Release and Deployment

• Participates in reviews of own work and supports peer reviews of colleagues' work.
• Maintains versions of reports, documentation and deployment records.
• Ensures releases meet defined quality, security and compliance standards.
• Communicates release plans, progress and outcomes to stakeholders.

Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience

Essential

• A relevant technical qualification (or equivalent experience) and substantial relevant professional experience are required.
• Evidence of a high standard of literacy and numeracy, with the ability to analyse data and write clearly.
• Experience working with modern reporting software, such as Tableau, Power BI or Data Bricks. 
• High level of aptitude for Microsoft Excel, Teams, SharePoint and PowerPoint. 
• Experience working with databases, CRM systems or statistical tools.
• Able to listen to, and communicate clearly and openly with others, both within and external to the University. Open to support and challenge from and to colleagues in their area or specialism and able to share status updates effectively with senior colleagues. 
• Outstanding personal organisation and time management. Ability to self-start, solve and anticipate problems. Conscientious and empathetic towards the time and priorities of colleagues. 
• Constructively challenges assumptions and traditional views. Identifies issues and generates and implements solutions.
• Understanding of and willingness to adopt a range of project management techniques appropriate to the task, including common digital tools such as Trello, Jira or MS Planner. 
• Ability to communicate in a range of styles appropriate to different individuals, groups and situations.
• Ability to present information clearly and effectively to colleagues at various levels both expert, and non-expert, in a variety of media.
• A customer-orientated approach to service provision.
• Analytical and systematic approach to problem-solving.
• Ability to work calmly and systematically in a busy environment and to meet agreed deadlines.
• Good team player, with an ability to contribute outside their principal area of work in a constructive and helpful manner.
• An appropriate manner in dealing with senior managers, staff, students, visitors, clients and other contacts.
• Awareness of departmental and institutional relationships and an ability to work across teams and activities.
• Knowledge of the protected characteristics of the Equality Act 2010, and how to actively ensure in day to day activity in own area that those with protected characteristics are treated equally and fairly.

Desirable

• A good awareness of the issues facing UK higher education and how they affect university support services.
• Experience with a programming language, such SQL, Python or similar. 
• Proven experience of working in agile teams using methodologies such as Scrum or Kanban.
• Experience in a customer service or student experience role within UK higher education
• Experience of Cognos Planning Analytics.
• Experience of Simitive WAMS.

Informal enquiries to Thomas Hennessy, email: [email protected] 

View our staff values and behaviours here

Use of AI in applications: We want to understand your genuine interest in the role and for the written elements of your application to accurately reflect your own communication style. Applications that rely too heavily on AI tools can appear generic and lack the detail we need to assess your skills and experience. Such applications will unlikely be progressed to interview.

We believe there is no such thing as a 'typical' member of University of Birmingham staff and that diversity in its many forms is a strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation and debate at the heart of University life. We are committed to proactively addressing the barriers experienced by some groups in our community and are proud to hold Athena SWAN, Race Equality Charter and Disability Confident accreditations. We have an Equality Diversity and Inclusion Centre that focuses on continuously improving the University as a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone has the opportunity to succeed. We are also committed to sustainability, which is a key part of our strategy. You can find out more about our work to create a fairer university for everyone on our website.