Job description and selection criteria
Job title / DARS Technical Data ManagerDivision / University Administration and Services
Department / Development Office / IT Services
Location / University Offices / Hythe Bridge St
Grade and salary / Grade 8 £37,756 - £45,053 p.a.
Hours / Full time
Contract type / Permanent
Reporting to / Direct report to Head of DARS Support Centre, Development Office
Dotted line report to DARS Data Architect, Software Solutions, IT Services
Introduction
The University
The University of Oxford is a complex and stimulating organisation, which enjoys an international reputation as a world-class centre of excellence in research and teaching. It employs over 10,000 staff and has a student population of over 22,000.
Most staff are directly appointed and managed by one of the University’s 130 departments or other units within a highly devolved operational structure - this includes over 6,500 ‘academic-related’ staff (postgraduate research, computing, senior library, and administrative staff) and over 2,700 ‘support’ staff (including clerical, library, technical, and manual staff). There are also over 1,600 academic staff (professors, readers, lecturers), whose appointments are in the main overseen by a combination of broader divisional and local faculty board/departmental structures. Academics are generally all also employed by one of the 38 constituent colleges of the University as well as by the central University itself.
Our annual income in 2011/12 was £1,016.1m. Oxford is one of Europe's most innovative and entrepreneurial universities: income from external research contracts exceeds £409m p.a., and more than 80 spin-off companies have been created.
For more information please visit www.ox.ac.uk/staff/about_the_university.html
University Administration and Services
University Administration and Services (UAS) is the collective term for the central administrative departments of the University. UAS comprises structures to:
· support the University’s core academic purposes of teaching, learning and research;
· ensure the University can meet the requirements of government, funding bodies and other external agencies; and
· facilitate the attainment of the objectives set out in the University’s Strategic Plan.
The offices of the UAS sections are spread across the city centre, with the main University Offices located in Wellington Square.
For more information please visit: http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/
Development Office
The role of the University’s Development Office is to help secure philanthropic support for the University. The Development Office works in partnership with academic and development colleagues throughout the collegiate University to build enduring relationships with external constituencies – including alumni, non-alumni, corporate and foundation donors – and to increase financial support for agreed academic priorities. In 2008, the University launched Oxford Thinking, the Campaign for the University of Oxford, aimed at raising a minimum of £1.25 billion to transform the collegiate University for many generations to come. Gifts totalling more than £1.6bn have now been received, and a new minimum goal of £3bn was announced in October 2012.
In addition to fundraising staff, the Development Office has a number of teams that cover particular support functions. These include the Research Team (which gathers information on potential and existing donors); the Proposals Team (which writes proposals and project information); the Gift Registry (which records and processes donations received by the University and on behalf of colleges); the DARS Support Centre (which supports the Development and Alumni Relations database); and the Donor Relations and Communications team (which ensures that donors are appropriately targeted, thanked and stewarded through strategic events and communications). There are also three overseas offices covering North America and Asia whose remit includes development: New York, Hong Kong and Tokyo.
The Director of the Development Office, Liesl Elder, reports to the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Development and External Affairs and works closely with officers in UAS, especially in Alumni Relations, Public Affairs and Finance, as well as with academic and development colleagues across the collegiate University.
For further information please visit: www.campaign.ox.ac.uk
IT Services
The role of IT Services is to ensure that the University of Oxford has the modern, robust, reliable, high-performing and leading-edge IT facilities it requires to support the distinctive needs of these engaged in teaching, learning, research, administration and strategic planning.
IT Services is a new department which brings together the University’s three existing IT service departments: Business Services and Projects, Oxford University Computing Services and the ICT Support Team. The new department came into being on 1 August 2012, but this is only the start of a complex change programme designed to ensure that the department is optimally configured to meet existing and future IT challenges.
IT Services, headed by the University’s Chief Information Officer, has 300 staff across 5 buildings and an annual budget of £19m.
For further information please visit: http://www.it.ox.ac.uk/about/
Overview of the role
Key relationships Members of the DARS Technical Data Group and other members of the DARS Support Centre; members of the Development Office and Alumni Relations Office; members of IT Services; Departmental and College development staff; other administrative staff as appropriate.
Purpose To meet the objectives outlined below and other key strategic priorities as identified by the University.
The Development Office has implemented an advanced constituent relationship management system, known as the Development and Alumni Relations System (DARS), which is available to support development and alumni relations activity across colleges, faculties, departments, administrative units, international offices, recognised alumni societies, and sports and other entities associated with the University (known as Participants). Live since 2009, the primary purpose of this System to provide a common source of data on all alumni, donors and friends of the collegiate University.
The underlying database comprises data that have been collated by the University and each of the Participants, and the intention behind this shared resource is to improve mutual understanding, by enhancing the quality of our communication at all levels and developing a better appreciation of our relationship with alumni, donors and friends. DARS includes a relationship management and fundraising database with analysis and reporting tools called Blackbaud CRM (BBCRM) and an integrated web portal for alumni to update their own contact details and book places on events called Blackbaud Internet Solutions (BBIS), alongside several other smaller software tools. The System is currently used by members of UODO and the Alumni Office and by around 50 other departments and colleges. For the purposes of the Data Protection Act 1998 (“the DPA”), the University and the applicable Participant(s) are joint “data controllers” of the personal data held in DARS.
DARS is supported by the DARS Support Centre. This team consists of five groups, one of which is the Technical Data Group (the other four are Data Migrations, Functional Support, Website Production and Process & Training). This post is responsible for leading the Technical Data Group and playing a key role in driving forward the use of data to support the collegiate University’s fundraising and alumni relations objectives and providing data support to all current Users via the DARS Helpdesk.
The Technical Data Group also more closely supports UODO in its management and usage of data, and acts to facilitate positive and responsible data-sharing between DARS Participants and currently non-participating colleges, faculties, departments, administrative units, international offices, recognised alumni societies, and sports and other entities associated with the University. The post holder simultaneously helps to ensure that data within the System are held and used appropriately at all times.
The line manager will regularly review progress. There may be opportunities for career development within the University Development structure. The office seeks to support and encourage staff to help them reach their potential, providing access to appropriate courses and training whenever possible.
The Development Office culture is professional, collaborative and service-oriented, and values transparency, flexibility, trustworthiness, tenacity, energy, drive and the ability to act as an ambassador for the office and for the collegiate University.
The duties of the post are set out as they are envisaged at present, but it will be important for the person appointed to be flexible and adaptable, and able to contribute to the development of the fundraising function of the collegiate University.
Responsibilities/duties
Working closely with the Head of DARS Support Centre, the DARS Technical Data Manager’s key duties are to:
1. Line-manage the Technical Data Group within the DARS Support Centre including oversight of their activity on a day-to-day basis. Initially, this team comprises one data developer (although this is expected to increase to two by 2014/15), two data officers, a database assistant and four part-time data entry assistants (DEAs).
2. Develop, implement and maintain a strategy, standards and processes for:
a) Enhancing the quality of data held within DARS, including through regular feeds, migrations and imports where appropriate
b) Delivering sophisticated reporting, analysis and modelling of data held within DARS, including through custom reports and queries, and future use of a data warehouse
c) Monitoring the appropriateness and integrity of data held within DARS, including through weekly checks and alerts.
3. Act as a central point of contact and advice for the strategic management and utilisation of data by all DARS Participants and become a champion of best practice and standards among all users and Participants.
4. Manage requests made by the Development Office and all other DARS Participants with respect to the following areas:
a) Datafixes and imports
b) Data migration testing
c) Custom reporting
d) Data analysis and modelling
e) Data enhancement exercises
f) Duplicates management
g) Weekly checks, auditing and monitoring of data
h) Advice and guidance on data-related activities
i) Hiring the DEAs for short-term placements (DEAs assist Participants with improving the quality of data on DARS, charged on a pay-as-you-go basis).
5. Manage significant data changes within the System, by:
a) Ensuring that Changes and Incidents assigned to the Technical Data Team work-list (via an incident management system, ITSM) are prioritised and resolved accordingly.
b) Coordinating testing and other support by the Technical Data Team for data changes to the Live and other environments.
c) Overseeing the integrity of code tables (list values) held within Blackbaud CRM.
d) Assisting with the implementation and maintenance of data integrations to DARS (both incoming and outgoing feeds).
6. Assist with investigating and/or resolving any potential breaches of the Data Protection Act and/or DARS Rules for Participation, as they pertain to data; and co-ordinate the use by all Participants of DARS Confidentiality Agreements where appropriate.
7. Participate on various DARS management and advisory groups as/when required.
8. Any other duties which are requested by the Development Office and are commensurate with the grade of this post. It is essential that the post holder develops good professional working relationships with the other members of the DARS Support Centre, Development Office and IT Services.
Selection criteria
Candidates will be judged on the basis of the following criteria, and should ensure that their application shows how they meet these criteria:
Essential
1. A degree or equivalent experience
2. Strong and up-to-date background in MS SQL, SSIS and T-SQL, the development environment for the Blackbaud software
3. Very confident use of the Microsoft Office toolset, including experience of Excel functions, and an understanding of file types and file formats
4. Broad competence in a range of software applications including email, web browsers etc, including an understanding of configuration settings
5. Proven analysis and innovative technical or problem-solving skills
6. Ability to write data queries to enable the efficient and accurate extraction of data from the database in a number of formats and to manipulate and re-order data in ways to make it acceptable to users
7. Proven data analysis and development experience, including:
a) Strong data structure design and operation
b) Design and build of SSIS packages for data transfer purposes
c) Interface design
8. Ability to manage, plan and take responsibility for a range of data related tasks involving lone working and interaction with colleagues, including the agreement of technical solutions, and a track record of managing work request deadlines successfully
9. Outstanding oral and written communication skills, including the ability to relate confidently and effectively to users at all levels.
Desirable
10. Experience managing other team-members on a day-to-day basis
11. Experience of Blackbaud software solutions such as Blackbaud CRM, Raiser’s Edge, Internet Solutions and/or Net Community
12. Experience of report-writing tools such as Reporting Services, Report Builder and/or Visual Studio
13. Experience of working within a fundraising or marketing environment and/or an interest in higher education.
Working at the University of Oxford
For further information about working at Oxford, please see: www.ox.ac.uk/about_the_university/jobs/professionalandmanagement/
How to apply
If you consider that you meet the selection criteria, click on the Apply Now button on the ‘Job Details’ page and follow the on-screen instructions to register as a user. You will then be required to complete a number of screens with your application details, relating to your skills and experience. When prompted, please provide details of two referees and indicate whether we can contact them at this stage. You will also be required to upload a CV and letter of application which explains why you are interested in the role and how you meet the selection criteria for the post. The cv or letter of application should explain your relevant experience which may have been gained in employment, education, or you may have taken time away from these activities in order to raise a family, care for a dependant, or travel for example. Your application will be judged solely on the basis of how you demonstrate that that you meet the selection criteria outlined above and we are happy to consider evidence of transferable skills or experience which you may have gained outside the context of paid employment or education.
Please save all uploaded documents to show your name and the document type.
All applications must be received by midday on the closing date stated in the online advertisement.
Information for Priority Candidates
A priority candidate is a University employee who is seeking redeployment owing to the fact that he or she has been advised that they are at risk of redundancy, or on grounds of ill-health/disability. Priority candidates are issued with a redeployment letter by their employing departments and this letter must be attached to any application they submit.