Archival Data Analyst

The National Archives, UK; Richmond; Hybrid; GBP 40,000; Full time

Job description

As the living, growing home of our national story, The National Archives is already a special place to work. We’re an institution nearly 200 years old with a collection spanning 1,000 years of history. But it’s where we go next that makes things really interesting.

In our strategic vision: Archives for Everyone, we set ourselves the challenge of becoming the 21st Century national archive - a different kind of cultural and heritage institution: Inclusive, Entrepreneurial, Disruptive. We won’t become this overnight. It will take time, focus, effort and daring.

That’s where you come in. Because we can’t do this without you.

Job Overview

Salary: £40,000 per annum

Contract type: Fixed Term Appointment for 22 months

Band: F / Senior Executive Officer

Closing date: Thursday 24th April 2025 at midnight

Be part of our transformation.

Archives matter. Without records, we could not hold government to account, carry out pioneering research or learn from the past. The National Archives is the archive of UK Government and the courts. Our business strategy, Archives for Everyone, describes our vision to become an inclusive, entrepreneurial, and disruptive archive that harnesses emerging technology to reaffirm and transform our historic mission for the digital age. The Cataloguing, Taxonomy and Data department’s role is to deliver the control, quality, currency and ongoing development of our catalogue records and the systems in which they reside. We specialise in manipulating and enhancing at scale the metadata which lies at the heart of activities across the organisation.

This is a full time post. However, requests for part-time working, flexible working and job share will be considered, taking into account at all times the operational needs of the Department.

A combination of onsite and home working is available and applicants should be able to regularly travel to our Kew site for a minimum of 60% of their work time.

To submit your application please click the 'Apply' button on this page. You will be asked to provide details of your work experience and write a personal statement, not exceeding 1200 words. In your statement please explain, using examples, how you meet the essential criteria below. You may draw on knowledge, skills, abilities, experience gained from paid work, domestic responsibilities, education, leisure interests and voluntary activities. Please note selection for interview will largely be based on the information you provide in this section.

SC-level Security Clearance or willingness to obtain SC clearance is mandatory for this role and requires that you have lived in the UK for the last 3 years. The length of required residency may depend on individual circumstances.

Job Description

Archives are the homes for our collective memories, past and future. The National Archives is the archive of government, archives sector lead and one of the world’s leading national archives. Archives for Everyone, our business strategy, sets the ambition to become an inclusive, entrepreneurial and disruptive digital archive, and sets our priorities for sustaining the custodianship of our historic collections and increasing opportunities for people to connect with them.

In the coming years, the infrastructure and methods for processing our collections metadata will change significantly as we update our technology to handle ever-increasing amounts of data about our physical and digital collections. This process of transformation is already in train with new workflows being developed to manage the metadata associated with the transfer of over 10 million service personnel files from the Ministry of Defence and the relocation of the Parliamentary Archives.

Purpose

As our Archival Data Analyst, you will be responsible for supporting existing and developing new data transformations, workflows and integrations to allow for more automation in respect of business priorities including; a) the processing of the metadata associated with the current transfer of service personnel records, b) the integration into The National Archives’ systems of metadata relating to relocated Parliamentary collections and c) the regular export of metadata about collections held at The National Archives for submission to the Archives Portal Europe.

You will thrive in an open, transparent and collaborative environment, engaging with internal and external communities to share your work and learn from others. You will have the opportunity to develop your expertise in existing and emerging technologies that can be applied to enhance archival content and enable the re-use of public data.

Role and Responsibilities

This role corresponds to the DDaT Data Analyst role, with elements of the Data Engineer and Data Scientist roles.

Data Analysis:

1. Develop models and structures (for example, schemas or ontologies) that describe TNA’s archival data.
2. Develop code, scripts and tools to automate routine textual data processing, including data cleansing, standardisation, enrichment and enhancement.
3. Develop and implement tools and approaches for data validation, error checking, migration and transformation.
4. Research and implement tools for entity extraction and semantic tagging to improve the usability and findability of archival data.

Programming to prepare and load data:

1. Create scripts, programs and applications to validate and manipulate datasets.
2. Contribute to the development of systems and services to process and publish data received into the archive.

Technical consultancy:

1. Develop relationships with, support and influence archivists, subject specialists and senior staff responsible for data standards, schemas and archival data policies, across the UK and international government and archives sectors.
2. Take a wider view of sources for solutions beyond TNA.

Ways of working:

1. Work in the open, contribute to code review, produce clear and relevant documentation, and share code internally and externally as appropriate.
2. Share your work internally and externally through blog posts, ‘show and tells’, papers and presentations.

Working Conditions

1. Normal office environment.
2. Possible exposure to distressing material.

Person Specification

1. Data technologies: Excellent skills in pattern analysis with a broad knowledge and experience of relevant technologies for encoding, cleansing, manipulating and analysing complex structured and unstructured data. For example, data encoded in XML, CSV, JSON; programmatic techniques in Python, Shell scripting, XSLT, SQL.
2. ETL Processes: Knowledge of how to extract data from various sources, including databases, APIs, and flat files. Demonstrable ability to clean, format, and transform data to meet the requirements of the target system. Skills in loading transformed data into target destinations or data models and vocabularies. Familiarity with relevant tools (for example, Talend, Informatica, Stitch, Pentaho) or willingness to learn.
3. Data Governance: Understanding of data governance practices, including data quality; reference and master data; data interoperability. An appreciation of how data governance works with other governance structures within the organisation.
4. Problem-Solving: Ability to identify and resolve issues that arise during the ETL and data migration processes. Experience in debugging and optimising ETL workflows for better performance, demonstrating a proactive and solutions focused approach to problems.
5. Communication and relationships: Strong communication and relationship building skills, suitable for working with multidisciplinary stakeholders at all levels; able to lead and facilitate work to gather user requirements from non-technical colleagues and to explain technical concepts clearly to non-technical staff.
6. Approach to work: Highly motivated to work independently and as a project team member. Ability to prioritise tasks and deliver high quality work to agreed deadlines. A commitment to developing new skills and sharing your expertise with others.
7. Good understanding of the value of records and archives.
8. A strong focus on meeting user needs.
9. Experience or awareness of Agile methodologies.
10. Experience of working with data standards relevant to digital archiving and archival description.

Generous benefits package, including pension, sports and social club facilities, onsite gym, discounted rates at our on-site cafe and opportunities for training and development. Annual leave entitlement of 22 days per calendar year (rising to 25 after the first year, and incrementally to 30 days after six years) and 10½ days public and privilege holidays per annum.

Any move to The National Archives from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax-Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/

Reasonable adjustments

If a person with disabilities is put at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:

1. Contact The National Archives via [e-mail] as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.
2. Complete the ‘Reasonable Adjustments’ section of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.