Job summary
Public Health Wales provides integrated health protection services to the people of Wales, through information, advice and taking action to protect people from communicable disease and environmental hazards. Services are delivered through health protection teams, a range of national health protection programmes, the Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre (CDSC), the environmental health protection team, and a national network of microbiology/ reference/ specialist laboratory services. CDSC is the epidemiology and surveillance branch of the Health Protection Division.
Main duties of the job
CDSC is looking for two data engineers to lead the improvement of data capabilities to support analysts, data scientists and epidemiologists to generate insights for communicable disease surveillance leading to public health actions. The postholder will join Statistics, Data Science and Genomic Epidemiology specialty group and work closely with other groups in CDSC, Healthcare Associated Infection, Antimicrobial Resistance and Prescribing Programme (HARP), Blood Borne Viruses, Sexual Health, Tuberculosis and Inequalities, Gastrointestinal Infections and Zoonoses, Vaccine Preventable Disease and Respiratory Infection, Field Epidemiology, Setting based surveillance, Environmental surveillance. The postholder will work collaboratively with other data engineering and informatics teams within PHW and other NHS organisations.
About us
Public Health Wales is the National Public Health Institute in Wales. Our vision is 'Working to achieve a healthier future for Wales'. We play a pivotal role in driving improvements in population health and well-being, reducing health inequalities, improving healthcare outcomes, protecting the public and supporting the development of health in all policies across Wales.
Never more has public health been so important as we come through the Coronavirus pandemic, face the challenges of the cost-of-living crisis and tackle and prevent the harmful effects of climate change. We are an organisation that places ourselves at the heart of supporting people, communities, partners, and the Welsh Government in addressing these major challenges and providing solutions for action.
The ability to speak Welsh is desirable for this post; Welsh and/or English speakers are equally welcome to apply.
Our organisation is guided by our Values, 'Working together, with trust and respect, to make a difference'. We are committed to creating an inclusive workplace that values equality, diversity and inclusion. We welcome applications which represent the rich diversity of the communities we serve and from those wishing to work part time or on a job share basis.
To find out more about working for us and the benefits we offer please visithttps://phw.nhs.wales/careers/
For guidance on the application process, please visithttps://phw.nhs.wales/working-for-us/applicant-information-and-guidance/
Job description
Job responsibilities
Duties and responsibilities
Technical
- Design, code, test, maintain, and document moderate-to-complex data systems and subsequent iterations using agreed standards and appropriate technologies.
- Automate existing manual data flows by building data pipelines to enable optimal data collection, processing, and analysis.
- Monitor and maintain data systems, resolving issues in a timely manner and identifying areas for optimisation.
Communication and Relationships
- Develop and maintain relationships with people across the organisation at all levels, building trust and adding to the team reputation as enablers.
- Work collaboratively in multi-disciplinary teams to bring together Public Health Wales specialisms.
- Communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders to gather requirements, providing guidance and advice where appropriate.
- Build and strengthen relationships with other NHS Wales organisations, Welsh Government, and other related professional bodies.
- Handle highly complex, contentious, and sensitive information in relation to Public Health Wales Data, Knowledge, and Research objectives and priorities.
- Treat all colleagues, customers, contractors, suppliers, clients and visitors with dignity and respect.
Planning and Organising
- Define, deliver, and contribute to the development of data management policies, procedures, projects, and organisational strategy.
- Implement Agile methodologies to project deliverables.
- Ensure compliance with relevant regulations and standards.
Analytical & Judgement
- Analyse complex data sets to provide insight and support decision making.
- Troubleshoot and resolve technical issues, including diagnosing problems with software and infrastructure.
Leadership
- Actively promote the data engineering profession alongside other Data, Digital and Technology roles.
- Facilitate and encourage continuous professional development and the sharing of knowledge, experiences, and best practices.
- Uphold and promote the values and behaviours of the organisation.
Freedom to Act
- Manage and prioritise your workload constructively as part of a team or individually.
- Demonstrate flexibility in your approach, challenge conventional practices and act within your defined scope of authority.
- Seek guidance from senior management for complex issues or major decisions.
- Take responsibility for own actions and those of line managed staff.
Responsibility for Patient Care
- Ensure data security and governance standards, and data protection regulations are adhered to.
- Work collaboratively with other clinical and non-clinical staff to improve patient outcomes using data.
Financial and Physical Resources
- Safe use of equipment other than equipment used personally. For example: servers in data centres and laboratories, and colleagues devices.
- Manages delegated budget for a PHW data service.
- Installation and/or repair and maintenance of physical assets.
- Responsible for the proper and safe use of IT equipment by users.
- Responsible for expensive software and purchasing of services.
- Comply with standing financial instructions.
- Develop and carry out tenders as required using approved frameworks to ensure best value for public money when procuring licenses or digital outcomes using GCloud or DOS frameworks or OJEU.
- Ensure all projects incorporate a comprehensive benefits plan to maximise achievement of the expected benefits of investments.
- Responsible for the care and safe use of office equipment and security of office premises, reporting faults/failures to responsible person.
Responsibility for Human Resources
- Provide managerial support to the team in the absence of your line manager.
- Potential to manage staff in the future, including personal and professional development of staff, reporting, and monitoring all types of leave and completing all relevant documentation and updating information within ESR.
- Participate in self-development to continually improve performance and undertake development activities identified.
- Responsible for training other staff in Data Engineering practices.
Responsibility for Information Resources
- Define and document data workflows across systems and operations, including capturing complex data definitions and business rules.
- Ensure compliance with Information Governance policies and procedures.
Responsibility for Research and Development
- Continuously evaluate data systems and infrastructure to identify opportunities for improvement and optimisation.
- Stay up to date with the latest advancements in Data Engineering.
Responsibility for Policy/service development implementation
- Contribute to the development of an improvement mind-set and the application of improvement in practice across NHS Wales and partner organisations to achieve performance targets and policy implementation more efficiently.
- Operate within NHS governance policies, guidelines, and protocols.
- Develop and implement systems guidance, sharing of information for best practice.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Duties and responsibilities
Technical
- Design, code, test, maintain, and document moderate-to-complex data systems and subsequent iterations using agreed standards and appropriate technologies.
- Automate existing manual data flows by building data pipelines to enable optimal data collection, processing, and analysis.
- Monitor and maintain data systems, resolving issues in a timely manner and identifying areas for optimisation.
Communication and Relationships
- Develop and maintain relationships with people across the organisation at all levels, building trust and adding to the team reputation as enablers.
- Work collaboratively in multi-disciplinary teams to bring together Public Health Wales specialisms.
- Communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders to gather requirements, providing guidance and advice where appropriate.
- Build and strengthen relationships with other NHS Wales organisations, Welsh Government, and other related professional bodies.
- Handle highly complex, contentious, and sensitive information in relation to Public Health Wales Data, Knowledge, and Research objectives and priorities.
- Treat all colleagues, customers, contractors, suppliers, clients and visitors with dignity and respect.
Planning and Organising
- Define, deliver, and contribute to the development of data management policies, procedures, projects, and organisational strategy.
- Implement Agile methodologies to project deliverables.
- Ensure compliance with relevant regulations and standards.
Analytical & Judgement
- Analyse complex data sets to provide insight and support decision making.
- Troubleshoot and resolve technical issues, including diagnosing problems with software and infrastructure.
Leadership
- Actively promote the data engineering profession alongside other Data, Digital and Technology roles.
- Facilitate and encourage continuous professional development and the sharing of knowledge, experiences, and best practices.
- Uphold and promote the values and behaviours of the organisation.
Freedom to Act
- Manage and prioritise your workload constructively as part of a team or individually.
- Demonstrate flexibility in your approach, challenge conventional practices and act within your defined scope of authority.
- Seek guidance from senior management for complex issues or major decisions.
- Take responsibility for own actions and those of line managed staff.
Responsibility for Patient Care
- Ensure data security and governance standards, and data protection regulations are adhered to.
- Work collaboratively with other clinical and non-clinical staff to improve patient outcomes using data.
Financial and Physical Resources
- Safe use of equipment other than equipment used personally. For example: servers in data centres and laboratories, and colleagues devices.
- Manages delegated budget for a PHW data service.
- Installation and/or repair and maintenance of physical assets.
- Responsible for the proper and safe use of IT equipment by users.
- Responsible for expensive software and purchasing of services.
- Comply with standing financial instructions.
- Develop and carry out tenders as required using approved frameworks to ensure best value for public money when procuring licenses or digital outcomes using GCloud or DOS frameworks or OJEU.
- Ensure all projects incorporate a comprehensive benefits plan to maximise achievement of the expected benefits of investments.
- Responsible for the care and safe use of office equipment and security of office premises, reporting faults/failures to responsible person.
Responsibility for Human Resources
- Provide managerial support to the team in the absence of your line manager.
- Potential to manage staff in the future, including personal and professional development of staff, reporting, and monitoring all types of leave and completing all relevant documentation and updating information within ESR.
- Participate in self-development to continually improve performance and undertake development activities identified.
- Responsible for training other staff in Data Engineering practices.
Responsibility for Information Resources
- Define and document data workflows across systems and operations, including capturing complex data definitions and business rules.
- Ensure compliance with Information Governance policies and procedures.
Responsibility for Research and Development
- Continuously evaluate data systems and infrastructure to identify opportunities for improvement and optimisation.
- Stay up to date with the latest advancements in Data Engineering.
Responsibility for Policy/service development implementation
- Contribute to the development of an improvement mind-set and the application of improvement in practice across NHS Wales and partner organisations to achieve performance targets and policy implementation more efficiently.
- Operate within NHS governance policies, guidelines, and protocols.
- Develop and implement systems guidance, sharing of information for best practice.
Person Specification
Qualifications and/or Knowledge
Essential
- Educated to degree level in computer science or related field. Will also consider equivalent work experience. Excellent knowledge of programming and scripting languages such as SQL, Python, Java, and Spark. Good understanding of data architecture, data modelling, ETL processes, and metadata management concepts. Familiarity with cloud platforms (Azure/GCP/AWS) and on premises infrastructure. Knowledge of data security, governance, and compliance regulations.
Desirable
- Knowledge of the technical and legislative environment specific to the NHS in Wales. Familiarity with NHS data sets and applications is advantageous.
Experience
Essential
- Significant relevant experience working as a data engineer, developer, computer scientist, or similar. Proven track record of developing effective data solutions using appropriate technologies. Experience with SQL and NoSQL databases and data warehousing concepts. Experience using Git, and tools such as GitHub, to version control code and develop collaboratively. Experience in Agile software development methodologies.
Aptitude & Ability
Essential
- Communicating between the technical and non-technical. You can communicate effectively with technical and non-technical stakeholders. You can support and host discussions within a multidisciplinary team, with potentially difficult dynamics. You can be an advocate for the team externally and can manage differing perspectives. (Skill level: working) Data analysis and synthesis. You can undertake data profiling and source system analysis. You can present clear insights to colleagues to support the end use of the data. (Skill level: working) Data development process. You can design, build, and test data products that are complex or large scale. You can build teams to complete data integration services. (Skill level: practitioner) Data innovation. You can understand the impact on the organisation of emerging trends in data tools, analysis techniques and data usage. (Skill level: working) Data integration design. You can select and implement the appropriate technologies to deliver resilient, scalable, and future-proofed data solutions. (Skill level: practitioner) Data modelling. You can produce relevant data models across multiple subject areas. You can explain which models to use for which purpose. You can understand industry-recognised data modelling patterns and standards, and when to apply them. You can compare and align different data models. (Skill level: practitioner) Metadata management. You can design an appropriate metadata repository and present changes to existing metadata repositories. You can understand a range of tools for storing and working with metadata. You can provide oversight and advice to more inexperienced members of the team. (Skill level: practitioner) Problem resolution (data). You can respond to problems in databases, data processes, data products and services as they occur. You can initiate actions, monitor services, and identify trends to resolve problems. You can determine the appropriate remedy and assist with its implementation, and with preventative measures. (Skill level: working) Programming and build (data engineering). You can use agreed standards and tools to design, code, test, correct and document moderate-to-complex programs and scripts from agreed specifications and subsequent iterations. You can collaborate with others to review specifications where appropriate. (Skill level: practitioner) Technical understanding. You can understand the core technical concepts related to the role and apply them with guidance. (Skill level: working) Testing. You can review requirements and specifications and define test conditions. You can identify issues and risks associated with work. You can analyse and report test activities and results. (Skill level: working)
Desirable
- A commitment to Welsh and English bilingualism
Values
Essential
- Reliable, trustworthy, creative, collaborative, and resilient. High-level attention to detail, being well organised, and having the ability to prioritise workload. A demonstrated ability to embrace, drive, and lead change. Able to lead and direct others to achieve organisational goals and objectives. The ability to flexibly adjust plans and workloads to meet the requirements of the role. Demonstrates an eagerness to improve performance and deliver better services.
Other
Essential
- Willingness and ability to travel between sites.
Person Specification
Qualifications and/or Knowledge
Essential
- Educated to degree level in computer science or related field. Will also consider equivalent work experience. Excellent knowledge of programming and scripting languages such as SQL, Python, Java, and Spark. Good understanding of data architecture, data modelling, ETL processes, and metadata management concepts. Familiarity with cloud platforms (Azure/GCP/AWS) and on premises infrastructure. Knowledge of data security, governance, and compliance regulations.
Desirable
- Knowledge of the technical and legislative environment specific to the NHS in Wales. Familiarity with NHS data sets and applications is advantageous.
Experience
Essential
- Significant relevant experience working as a data engineer, developer, computer scientist, or similar. Proven track record of developing effective data solutions using appropriate technologies. Experience with SQL and NoSQL databases and data warehousing concepts. Experience using Git, and tools such as GitHub, to version control code and develop collaboratively. Experience in Agile software development methodologies.
Aptitude & Ability
Essential
- Communicating between the technical and non-technical. You can communicate effectively with technical and non-technical stakeholders. You can support and host discussions within a multidisciplinary team, with potentially difficult dynamics. You can be an advocate for the team externally and can manage differing perspectives. (Skill level: working) Data analysis and synthesis. You can undertake data profiling and source system analysis. You can present clear insights to colleagues to support the end use of the data. (Skill level: working) Data development process. You can design, build, and test data products that are complex or large scale. You can build teams to complete data integration services. (Skill level: practitioner) Data innovation. You can understand the impact on the organisation of emerging trends in data tools, analysis techniques and data usage. (Skill level: working) Data integration design. You can select and implement the appropriate technologies to deliver resilient, scalable, and future-proofed data solutions. (Skill level: practitioner) Data modelling. You can produce relevant data models across multiple subject areas. You can explain which models to use for which purpose. You can understand industry-recognised data modelling patterns and standards, and when to apply them. You can compare and align different data models. (Skill level: practitioner) Metadata management. You can design an appropriate metadata repository and present changes to existing metadata repositories. You can understand a range of tools for storing and working with metadata. You can provide oversight and advice to more inexperienced members of the team. (Skill level: practitioner) Problem resolution (data). You can respond to problems in databases, data processes, data products and services as they occur. You can initiate actions, monitor services, and identify trends to resolve problems. You can determine the appropriate remedy and assist with its implementation, and with preventative measures. (Skill level: working) Programming and build (data engineering). You can use agreed standards and tools to design, code, test, correct and document moderate-to-complex programs and scripts from agreed specifications and subsequent iterations. You can collaborate with others to review specifications where appropriate. (Skill level: practitioner) Technical understanding. You can understand the core technical concepts related to the role and apply them with guidance. (Skill level: working) Testing. You can review requirements and specifications and define test conditions. You can identify issues and risks associated with work. You can analyse and report test activities and results. (Skill level: working)
Desirable
- A commitment to Welsh and English bilingualism
Values
Essential
- Reliable, trustworthy, creative, collaborative, and resilient. High-level attention to detail, being well organised, and having the ability to prioritise workload. A demonstrated ability to embrace, drive, and lead change. Able to lead and direct others to achieve organisational goals and objectives. The ability to flexibly adjust plans and workloads to meet the requirements of the role. Demonstrates an eagerness to improve performance and deliver better services.
Other
Essential
- Willingness and ability to travel between sites.
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
Additional information
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
