Job vacancy: Data Engineer (Data Manager), NHS England, Exeter

Job summary

Main area

Administration

Grade

NHS AfC: Band 7

Contract

Permanent

Hours

Full time
Flexible working

37.5 hours per week

Job ref

990-TDD-TA-EC559-E

Employer: NHS England
Employer type: NHS
Site: Hexagon House
Town: Exeter
Salary: £47,810 - £54,710 per annum
Salary period: Yearly
Closing: 19/02/2026 23:59

Data Engineer (Data Manager)

NHS AfC: Band 7

Our Organisation

The NHS is building a culture that is positive, compassionate and inclusive – and we all have our part to play.

As employers we are committed to protecting and promoting the physical and mental health and wellbeing of all our colleagues. This underpins our values as set out in the NHS Constitution and supports us to be an Employer of Choice, while helping our colleagues to deliver high quality services for our patients and communities.

As a flexible employer, we want to support you to work in a way that is best for the NHS, our patients and you. Talk to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement whether that’s a job share, part time, hybrid working or another flexible pattern. In addition, although the role advertised may have a ‘home’ office base indicated, we remain committed to supporting flexibility around workplace locations. If it works for the service, we will do our best to make it work for you.

We are an accredited Living Wage Employer which means that every colleague working for our organisation and third-party contractors will earn a real Living Wage. We are one of over 15,000 organisations, who voluntarily chose to pay the real Living Wage.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

You can find further details about the role, including key responsibilities and accountabilities, alongside the organisational structure and person specification in the attached Job Description and other supporting documents.

Experience of, and an interest in, reference data and how it is fundamental in supporting health and care systems, and therefore enabling frontline delivery of patient care, would be advantageous.

It would also be of huge benefit if the applicant understood the complexities of how the NHS and related stakeholders fit together both from an operational and technical perspective.

For full details please see the attached assignment brief and person specification.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

Educated to Master’s degree level, or equivalent specialist experience, backed up by additional and continual professional development. Data Scientist    Educated to Master’s degree level in a technical subject, such as Statistics, Mathematics or Computer Science, and / or equivalent experience and specialist knowledge across a number of data science areas.

Knowledge

Essential criteria

Significant data management and optimisation expertise, covering: process design; code development (using languages such as R, Python, SQL or SAS); data architecture; testing and assurance; and reference/ master data management.

Skills

Essential criteria

Proven ability to communicate complex and technical concepts and issues to non-technical colleagues, customers and stakeholders at all levels.
Demonstrable strong influencing skills, with the ability to work with others across organisations to achieve agreed strategic and operational objectives.
Ability to work effectively on your own or as part of a team and contribute innovative ideas and knowledge to your colleagues
Able to develop solutions and processes for data science and data management.
Ability to deliver high quality work under pressure and tight deadlines.
Ability to develop clear process documentation, based on customer requirements, against which a developer could build a technical process.
Commercially astute and able to analyse options to identify best fit and value for money for the organisation and its stakeholders.

Experience

Essential criteria

Proven experience in the assessment and reporting of data quality issues to both suppliers and to senior management.
Experience in the day-to-day management and coordination of staff including the allocation and prioritisation of work to staff.
Extensive experience in the collection, analysis, interpretation and prioritisation of customer requirements.
Experience of developing effective data optimisation and management strategies and processes to manage large, diverse data flows.
Extensive experience of managing multiple simultaneous demands to tight timescales and budgetary constraints.
Demonstrable experience and a proven track record in a leadership/ management role.
Experience of managing complex and sensitive issues in organisations.
Strong experience in gathering requirements from customers for complex, technical processes.
Experience of producing design plans and associated documentation, including experience in carrying out business analysis of existing processes.
Proven experience of communicating highly complicated, difficult to explain issues to technical and non-technical contacts.  Experience of input into the development of policy or a service, with an impact beyond own area; the changes and redesigns of local policies and procedures
Experience in assisting people with complex data management issues and resolving queries.

Our commitments to you

We are passionate about creating an inclusive workplace that promotes and values diversity. We know that different ideas, perspectives and backgrounds create a stronger and more creative work environment that delivers better patient outcomes. We strive to ensure our people feel trusted, valued and empowered. We’re passionate about nurturing and developing people. When you join us, we want you to grow and excel, and we offer many opportunities for you to do that. We welcome your talent and enthusiasm irrespective of age, disability, neuro-divergence, sex, gender identity and gender expression, race or ethnicity, religion or belief, sexual orientation, or other personal circumstances. We have policies and procedures to ensure that all applicants are treated fairly and consistently at every stage of the recruitment process, including the consideration of reasonable adjustments for people who have a disability and/or who are neuro-divergent.

We welcome applications from disabled candidates. If you meet all the essential criteria, you will be guaranteed an interview.

Your application is your opportunity to demonstrate to us how you meet the requirements of the role. Whilst we appreciate that you may have had support with your application (e.g., using AI technology or guidance from a trusted individual), it’s important that the information contained within your application reflects your own knowledge, skill, and experience and we trust that you apply on that basis.

If applying for this role on a secondment basis, please make sure you have obtained prior agreement from your current line manager to apply for this position.

Please note that we currently do not accept applications via recruitment agencies.

Please note that we cannot offer visa sponsorship for any of our vacancies.

To comply with the HM Government Functional Standard GovS 007, and specifically the Personnel Security Standards 2024, individuals employed or contracted by NHS England may be required to undergo a Baseline Personnel Security Standards check, dependent on the role.

The NHS Business Services Authority is responsible for the processing of your application; a privacy notice can be accessed directly on the application page when you select to apply.

If you have applied via NHS Jobs, your submitted application will be imported into our preferred third-party recruitment system. All subsequent information regarding your application will be generated from apps.trac.jobs. If you are appointed to a post, information will also be transferred into the NHS Electronic Staff Records system.

You will not be able to track the progress of your application or receive messages through NHS Jobs, and furthermore, as an employer, we will not be able to respond to any emails sent to us via NHS Jobs. If you have a query relating to your application, please contact the recruitment team on [email protected] or 0300 330 1369.

NHS England