Head of Data and Technical Standards

Head of Data and Technical Standards The Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) is a community interest company which represents eight leading awarding organisations in the UK : AQA, CCEA, City & Guilds, NCFE, OCR, Pearson, SQA and WJEC/Eduqas. JCQ exists to establish and communicate common arrangements for taking exams and assessments, for most of the exams and assessments offered by the organisations we represent. Every year we issue guidance to schools and colleges to support exam administration with an associated inspection service, to help protect the integrity of exams and assessments. JCQ and its members lead a number of shared data services to support the administration of examinations. JCQ interacts with government departments, UK regulators and organisations such as UCAS to help improve data systems across the UK that contribute to analysis of trends and support national projects such as use of the unique learner number. JCQ also publishes exam and assessment data for over 1 million learners and circa 6 million qualification results cumulatively across the UK, covering general, vocational and technical qualifications including GCSEs, AS, A levels and T Levels in August and January. Our results data is widely covered across national media channels and the data is used to help stimulate debate across the education sector and inform national policy developments. JCQ’s Head of Data and Technical Standards role is an essential senior role within JCQ. The appointee will interface with JCQ Board members and key external stakeholders, including regulators and government departments across the UK. The appointee will proactively lead, develop and implement JCQ’s data strategy and support JCQ members in delivering annual programmes of work. The role includes oversight of JCQ’s data related shared services involving data transfer and data protection helping to ensure activities are compliant with regulations and continuously improve. The Head of Data is key to our biannual results publications and will help deliver all JCQ research programmes. We are moving towards including more VTQ data in our results publications and creating informative data visualisations, to provide insight for stakeholders. The Head of Data will lead this project, supported by JCQ colleagues and technical experts in our member awarding organisations. The Head of Data and Technical Standards will be responsible for leading and developing JCQ’s approach to data with stakeholders, media and the public. They will be an inspirational ambassador for JCQ and represent JCQ at external conferences and on different media channels. The ideal candidate will be highly skilled in data management, have excellent interpersonal and communication skills, be resilient and able to secure support on new initiatives with an outcomes based and creative approach to drive forward JCQ’s data services. As a leader at JCQ you will champion and model JCQ’s values-based competencies. Ideally the candidate will have experience of working with national qualifications and assessment data in an awarding body, test agency or government department type role. The role is home based, minimum salary is £60,000 plus – competitive level based on experience. For any queries please contact recruitment@jcq.org.uk Interviews to be held on 19 and 21 February via MS Teams. To apply please email your CV and a cover letter to recruitment@jcq.org.uk, failure to do this will mean that your application will not be considered. For information about how to apply please see our website https://www.jcq.org.uk/about-us/work-with-us/ Closing date 5pm on Friday 31 January 2025.