Data Engineer

The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust is a centre of excellence for research, education, and care in the treatment of Cancer. The Trust has an outstanding reputation for information and has recently implemented a new digital health record, data warehouse and business intelligence solutions. The information team currently support management and clinicians throughout the organisation by providing information and analysis for planning, decision making, quality assurance and improvement. We are further developing our analytical tools and capabilities to rapidly increase the utilisation of anonymised clinical data to support research and to maximise the use of clinical data to increase understanding of the disease and treatment outcomes.

We are looking for motivated data engineer to join our team, to play a pivotal role supporting the Information Development Manager to shape, develop, and maintain the Trusts new data ecosystem. You will be educated to degree level and have experience and expertise in developing and maintaining Microsoft based SQL data warehouses and producing technical documentation to support a wide range of users. You must be self-motivated and possess excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to establish effective working relationships with all levels of staff within and external to the organisation.

Main duties of the job:

• To maintain and manage the corporate data warehouse and Trusted Research Environment. This will include monitoring databases, resolving performance issues, and testing system upgrades and patches.
• To pro-actively in conjunction with our cloud hosting provider optimise environment performance and explore and recommend opportunities of cost reduction.
• To develop complex data structures, data models and Extract Transformation and Load processes to support the trust Data warehouse at the direction of the Database Architect.
• Develop, implement, and assist in the maintenance of a data asset catalogue to facilitate data discovery.
• As part of the Performance and Information directorate, to work alongside information analysts, performance managers, data quality managers to develop data models to enable the creation of self-service analytics in a controlled and governed way.

Working for our organisation:

The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust is a world-leading cancer centre. Our role is to offer our patients the best cancer care available anywhere in the world, and to continue to make a global contribution to finding better ways of diagnosing and treating cancer. We employ over 4,500 staff in a diverse range of careers including nursing, medical, science, radiography, pharmacy, occupational therapy, finance and administrative services. We have two hospitals – one in Chelsea, London, and one in Sutton, Surrey – as well as a Medical Daycare Unit in Kingston Hospital. At The Royal Marsden, we deal with cancer every day, so we understand how valuable life is. When people entrust their lives to us, they have the right to demand the very best. That's why the pursuit of excellence lies at the heart of everything we do.

At the heart of the hospital is our dedicated team. We offer a stimulating and dynamic working environment, a wide range of staff benefits, learning and development opportunities and clear career pathways. There are opportunities to work flexibly across a range of areas and specialities and we welcome flexible working requests from point of hire to support employees work life balance. We are looking for employees who aspire to excellence, share our values and can play a crucial role in our on-going achievements.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities:

• To work as part of the Information Development team to build, manage, monitor, and develop the corporate data warehouse environment.
• Ensure the integrity of the data warehouse and design and build adequate back-up solutions.
• Contribute to business continuity and disaster recovery planning.
• Maintain an in-depth knowledge of Microsoft Azure and SQL Server, and provide expert advice regarding its application, act as a point of escalation for investigation and resolution of complex technical issues.
• Review requirements and specifications for the implementation, testing, deployment and maintenance of new data models.
• Monitor service component capacity, resource costs and initiate actions to resolve any shortfalls according to agreed procedures.

Person specification:

Education/Qualifications:

• Educated to degree level (or equivalent qualification/experience)
• Microsoft certified: Azure Fundamentals, Data Fundamentals, Database Administrator, Designing & implementing DevOps Solutions
• Evidence of on-going professional development

Experience:

• Significant experience in a database developer role in a multi-professional organisation
• Evidence of having developed complex database systems
• Evidence of having administered Azure data warehouses including but not limited to: SQL Server including SSIS, T-SQL, Data Factory/ Synapse Pipelines, Azure DevOps, including Repos & Test Plans, Azure Data Catalogue, Serverless application development
• Experience of working within an Agile and Continuous Integration environment
• Knowledge and experience of working with sensitive information within the NHS
• Knowledge and understanding of Machine Learning data pipelines

Skills Abilities/knowledge:

• A strong commitment to customer service delivery and excellent organisational skills
• Well-developed technical troubleshooting, problem solving and analytical skills
• Ability to negotiate with senior leaders and provide alternative solutions to complex issues as means to find a mutual agreement.
• An in depth understanding of schema creation for databases & management of permissions

Other Requirements:

• Self-motivated: generates ideas and carries them forward, keen to deliver results and take ownership of work
• Self-disciplined: able to work on own initiative, works to high standards
• Good communicator: able to communicate clearly and effectively, both verbally and in writing
• Good inter-personal skills: able to understand the needs of information users and build good relationships with other departments

The Royal Marsden values diversity and is committed to the recruitment and retention of underrepresented minority groups. We particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and minority ethnic candidates, LGBTQ+ candidates and candidates with disabilities. As a Disability Confident Employer, we are working to create a workplace that enables all staff to reach their full potential. We are committed to this because we know that greater diversity and inclusion will lead to an even greater positive impact for the people we serve.

Due to the high volumes of applications we receive, we reserve the right to close any adverts before the published closing date once we have received a sufficient number of applications. We advise you to submit your application as early as possible to prevent disappointment. Please ensure your information is accurate to avoid errors with processing your application. All applicants will be contacted by email to the address supplied on your application. Applicants are advised to check their email accounts regularly and to ensure that email filters are set to allow our emails.

Flu Vaccination – What We Expect of our Staff:

At The Royal Marsden we have an immune compromised patient population who we must protect as much as we can against the flu virus. Each year, seasonal flu affects thousands of people in the UK. Occurring mainly in winter, it is an infectious respiratory disease capable of producing symptoms ranging from those similar to a common cold, through to very severe or even fatal disease. The wellbeing of our staff and patients is of the upmost importance to us, and it is the expectation of The Royal Marsden that all patient-facing staff have an annual flu vaccination, provided free of charge by the Trust.