Data & Insights Manager

Expires: Expires at any time - latest being 5pm Tuesday 13th May
Start Date: Immediate start available
Term: Permanent, full-time (40 hours per week - Monday to Friday)
Salary: £70K - £80K
Location: Oxygen House in Exeter, Devon. 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 hands-on data leader to help us make a difference!

This Data & Insights Manager 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 a measurable impact as you help us leverage our leading educational dataset to improve the lives of millions of learners across thousands of schools.

2. You’ll have ownership and influence. You will lead and mentor a talented team, whilst also rolling up your sleeves and using your strong technical expertise to work directly with our data, shaping our data infrastructure, and delivering impactful insights that drive meaningful decisions across the organisation and for our external stakeholders.
   
   

3. 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 and helping to unlock new opportunities for innovation and 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 a hands-on Data & Insights Manager 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: Get hands on with the data, transforming 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, increasing data literacy across Sparx, and enabling teams  to self serve their data needs and use data to support new innovations

• Drive data strategy and innovation::  Provide strategic thinking and steer on how we manage and utilise our data, keeping abreast of new technologies and looking for opportunities 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

• Broad data experience: A deep understanding of data science, data engineering and insights with a broad skillset and a proven ability and enthusiasm to apply your technical data skills hands-on everyday. 

• Strong technical expertise: Advanced skills in R and/or Python, SQL, and familiarity with ETL/data warehousing, along with a degree in a quantitative discipline and experience of using source control (e.g. Github). Experience with Google’s ecosystem (BigQuery, Dataform, Looker Studio, Composer) is a plus.

• Hands-on problem-solving skills: Proven experience navigating and manipulating real-world data, optimising workflows, and ensuring data quality and accessibility.

• Inspirational Management / 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.

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. Technical task: An opportunity to bring your technical skills to life. 

2. Video Interview: We’d like to get to know more about you and understand your skills and experience. 

3. In person interview: You’ll meet some of the team and undertake a technical task.

4. 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 575 729.