Job Title: / Data Officer
Reporting to: / Research Manager
Location: / London Head Office
Revised: / January 2017
Summary
We are constantly building our understanding of canine behaviour, health and welfare and developing our approaches and policies based on research. This is a new role working with the Research Manager to devise and introduce imaginative but reliable approaches to the collection, storage, analysis and reporting of data.
The Data Officer will work collaboratively with staff in other departments, including IT, International, Veterinary, Operations, Education, Marketingand Communications to understand data needs and current approaches. Under the guidance of the Research Manager they will work in an internal consultancy role with other departments to develop new data collection methods where requested, assist with their implementation where required, develop appropriate storage and reporting solutions, and seek feedback from those affected to ensure appropriate integration and good communication.
The role requires visits toa range of Dogs Trust activity, including rehoming centres,to research the types of data currently collected and seek staff views on any practical issues involved in developing new methods of data capture. The Data Officer will also produce detailed reportsfor the Research Manager and Director of Canine Behaviour and Research, informing the development of new data collection systems within different operational and research contexts.
Duties
- Develop and maintain an excellent knowledge of the working practices and procedures within relevant areas of Dogs Trust activity to inform development of new data collection strategies
- Assist the Research Manager in responding to requests from other teams for assistance with data collection, analysis and reporting relating to other areas of activity and to advise them as appropriate
- Work closely with Departmental or Rehoming Centre Managers to gather information on how best to integrate data collection protocols and associated IT hardware requirements into different working environments
- Work with the IT Business Analyst and Head of IT in developing optimal data collection and storage systems alongside other data transformation projects carried out within the IT department
- Seek and take on board the views of key staff within each relevant area of Dogs Trust activity on data collection and gather a range of ideas and opinions about the practical implementation of new data collection processes. Help to communicate new processes as necessary.
- Co-ordinate working groups of key staff to identify the main analytical outputs required for each research/data collection project. This will include engaging with operational, research, veterinary, marketing, IT, education and behaviour staff to ensure optimal data collection and preparation for each user group.
- Work with the Employee Engagement Manager in HR before setting up any focus/working groups to ensure synergy with other projects seeking staff views
- Work with the Research Manager to gather relevant information to inform strategic development in data collection and storage
- In collaboration with IT, develop database structures to optimise reporting
- Devise processes for data loading and preparation for reporting and analysis
- Produce comprehensive written reports about the developments and strategy for achieving outcomes for each project undertaken
- Any other reasonable duties
Person Specification
The Data Officer will:
- Have proven expertise in data handling and analysis, ideally with a postgraduate research qualification
- Have a good knowledge of research methods, data collection techniques and statistical analysis, ideally including multivariable statistical modelling.
- Understand the operational practicalities of accurate data collectionand be sympathetic to any issues raised by staff
- Have demonstrable experience in data preparation and reporting
- Ideally have experience in managing large data sets
- Be fully conversant with all relevant Data Protection legislation and committed to its implementation
- Have experience of working with databases and reporting tools, and expertise in SQL (either with SQL Server or other databases)
- Have a good knowledge of statistical packages for data analysis, MSWord and Powerpoint for writing reports and presentations.
- Be able to explain complex information to lay audiences
- Be able to produce clear written reports in an accessible language for a range of end users
- Be empathetic and personable, able to discuss system requirements and potential implementation problems with a range of different staff members with full consideration of their concerns and reservations
- Be well organised with demonstrable experience of successfully implementing new administration systems
- Have good interpersonal skills and the ability to work effectively in a team
- Be passionate about animal welfare and the aims of Dogs Trust
- Be able to work independently, be organised and able to develop and prioritise own workload.
- Be willing to travel to rehoming centres or other sites
- Experience of designing data structures to support reporting needs would be beneficial
- Ideally have a full manual driving licence
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Job Description/Data OfficerDogs Trust/Feb 2017