Head of Data & Insights

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Expires: Expires at any time - latest being 9:00am on Monday 13th JanuaryStart Date: ASAPTerm: Permanent, full-time (40 hours per week - Monday to Friday)Salary: £70K - £80KLocation: Oxygen House in Exeter. In person - with flexibility
Are you passionate about data and insights and looking to create a positive impact in the world of education? We're hiring a data leader to help us make a difference!

This Head of Data & Insights role is different in 3 ways:

1. We are purpose-driven. At Sparx Learning, data is at the heart of what we do, and your work will have measurable impact as you help us leverage our leading educational dataset to improve the lives of millions of learners across thousands of schools.

1. You'll strengthen our data culture. You will help drive a data-driven mindset across Sparx, increasing data literacy and enabling teams to self-serve their data needs. By empowering others to use data effectively, you'll help unlock new opportunities for innovation and impact.
2. You'll have ownership and influence. You'll lead and mentor a talented team, while also using your technical expertise to engage directly with data. Your insights will drive meaningful decisions across our organisation and with external stakeholders, helping to deliver tangible improvements and positive impact.

About us

At Sparx Learning, we're on a mission to improve lives and the world through learning. We work with over 2,600 schools, 60,000 teachers, and 2.4 million students, building systems that enhance student confidence, skills, and attainment. Learn more about our history, impact, team, products and work environment [here].

What's needed

As Head of Data & Insights you will play a pivotal role - taking ownership of our data warehouse, leading our team of Data Scientists (Insights) and Data Engineer to deliver powerful insights to our schools and internal teams and using your strong technical skills to get stuck in with the data day-to-day. Your work will help drive real impact for schools and our internal teams and support us in our goal to make a difference to the lives of millions of learners.

Here's how you'll make a difference:

• Lead the Data & Insights team: Manage and mentor a talented team of Data Scientists (Insights) and a Data Engineer, fostering a high-performing, collaborative, and customer-centric team culture.
• Deliver impactful insights: Transform complex data into actionable insights for our internal teams, schools, and external stakeholders, that drive impact and help improve student outcomes.
• Develop and manage our data: Work closely with the Data Engineer and Engineering team to ensure data scalability, reliability, and accessibility while exploring new external datasets to complement our own.
• Strengthen our data culture: Drive a data-driven mindset, increase data literacy across Sparx, and develop the ability for teams to self serve their data needs.
• Support innovation: Empower teams to use data to support new innovations, and look for new opportunities to use our data to increase our impact.

What you'll bring

• Passion for data: Fuelled by your love of data - managing and using it to have tangible impact. Excelling at navigating and manipulating real-world data to extract meaning, and opinionated about how to do it well
• Strong data & technical expertise: Possessing a deep understanding of insights, data science and data engineering, with a broad skillset and a proven ability to apply these skills hands-on everyday. Advanced skills in SQL, R/Python, and familiarity with ETL/data warehousing. Experience with Google's ecosystem (BigQuery, Dataform, Looker Studio, Composer) is a plus, along with a degree in a quantitative field like Mathematics or Statistics.
• Inspirational leadership: Proven experience mentoring and managing high-performing data teams, with a commitment to personal and professional growth-for yourself and your team.
• Collaboration skills: Experienced in building strong relationships with a wide range of stakeholders and excited to collaborate with teams across Sparx
• Excellent communication skills: Skilled at translating technical findings into actionable insights and compelling visualisations for a wide range of audiences.
• Purpose-Driven mindset: A passion for education and a commitment to creating meaningful change. Experience in the education sector is a bonus.
• Supportive nature: A team player who's warm, encouraging and a pleasure to work with.

We know you may not be an expert in every skill or software listed, but we're seeking someone who thrives on variety and enjoys learning. If you're curious, adaptable, and ready to grow with us, we'd love to hear from you!

Our benefits

We believe in living life fully and offer a range of benefits, including generous annual leave, comprehensive medical and dental insurance, enhanced family leave and pay plus so much more! Click here to find out more!

In person with flexibility: We trust you to manage your schedule when life happens, whether it's school runs or unexpected errands. But, at Sparx, we love the energy, creativity and pace that comes from being together in person. Collaboration and connection drive our success, so we encourage everyone to be together in person as much as possible.

Selection process

1. Video interview & technical task: We'd like to get to know more about you and understand your skills and experience.
2. In person interview: You'll meet some of the team and undertake a technical task.
3. Meeting with our CEO: A great chance to dive deeper into Sparx and our mission.

Join us and be part of a mission shaping the future.

Sparx does not hold a licence to sponsor visas. We cannot process applications requiring sponsorship.

Need support during the recruitment process? Email us at recruitment@sparx.co.uk or call 01392 440 400.