Head of data quality

The Commissioner and Management Board have determined that the Met will be a data driven organisation. This means treating our data in the same way we treat our people, methods and technology, as a strategic asset.

The data office is the single place of accountability across the Met that:

• owns and drives the data compliance and analytics agenda
• brings together the accountabilities that are currently dispersed across the Met business areas
• consolidates and further develops existing Met data and insight services
• enables data sharing and collaboration to serve the public and external partners

Job purpose

Operating within a complex organisational and political environment as head of data quality, your primary focus will be to support the head of data foundations to adopt a data-enabled approach across the Met. You will play a crucial role in driving an improvement programme across the organisation to ensure our data is of the best quality and allow data to be utilised as a key enabler to operational delivery.

Your efforts will ensure that the Met can achieve its strategic ambition of being a data-driven organisation, making a significant impact on the way decisions are made. You will do this through the development and execution of a pan-Met data-quality strategy, managing stakeholders using strong negotiation, influencing and partnership skills and making best use of a range of formal and informal communication channels.

The delivery and maintenance of data quality is imperative to ensure accurate data analysis, insight and operational outcomes, contributing to the Met's mission of 'More Trust, Less Crime, and High Standards'. As head, you will be instrumental in developing strategic and implementing tactical plans to boost the Met's data quality standards in line with the College of Policing data quality principles, monitoring and reporting on progress and leading key data quality projects.

This will enable our officers and staff to make precise decisions, ensure our analysts, engineers and scientists have access to the highest quality data so we can shift toward a more precise and proactive approach.

You will lead a large team, focusing on the main Met system which holds our intelligence, custody and investigation data, providing data quality performance updates and leading improvement initiatives which may focus on both improving understanding of data quality, and technical changes to make data entry easier (including the use of robotics and automation).

Our New Met for London strategy is a two-year plan on how the Met will deliver more trust, less crime, and high standards. Engaging with our Transformation directorate, you will identify opportunities for ensuring data quality and data standards are factored into, delivered and embedded in relevant projects and programmes.

For both, your ability to articulate and evidence the data quality challenge as well as successfully influencing a suitable outcome will be essential.

Key responsibilities

In this role you will:

• own, develop and articulate the overall data quality strategy for the organisation
• monitor and manage the data quality improvement plan for the organisation and address any shortfalls through a variety of intervention methods
• set the strategic standards for the organisation to ensure data entry is of the standards needed and monitor through ongoing performance returns
• engage with and build effective internal relationships with communication, performance and learning and development leads to ensure a joined up and collaborative approach
• engage and build up a network of external stakeholders including but not limited to, College of Policing, other police forces, and government departments
• manage key perfomance indicator (KPI) development across all data quality services in order to track improvements to data accuracy acting on any new trends quickly and efficiently reporting to senior governance boards via the head of data foundations
• manage national reporting requirements to the Home Office, such as Met returns to the National Data Quality Improvement Service (NDQIS) and Police National Database (PND). This will involve reporting, planning, and applying initiatives to boost Met compliance
• designing and leading the approach to cleansing of legacy data before disposal decisions are made
• negotiate and influence continuous improvements to ensure the Met continues to improve the quality, integrity and validity of data
• provide strategic advice on the procurement of new data capabilities to ensure Met investment is made with robust data standards in mind as well as advising on retrospective tools and techniques to ensure best practice
• advocate data governance and data management standards and guidelines within your team’s products and services

The Met's Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) team is committed to creating an inclusive working environment. We support blended working, and the hiring manager will be happy to discuss arrangements for this role.