BI Analyst
BI Analyst
Power BI Development
- Deliver enterprise‑grade Power BI solutions, including advanced DAX, Power Query transformations, semantic modelling, and performance optimisation
- Build interactive dashboards and reports aligned to user needs and NatCen UI/UX standards
- Implement and optimise DirectQuery/Lakehouse patterns and integrations with Databricks
- Ensure visualisations meet accessibility, clarity, and interpretability principles for research and operational users
Databricks & Analytical Engineering
Databricks & Analytical Engineering
- Use Databricks to transform curated datasets into analytics‑ready semantic tables/datasets.
- Write high‑quality SQL; familiarity with PySpark and Databricks is desirable
- Work closely with the Data Architect, who owns core Databricks platform design, to ensure analytical datasets align with enterprise models and standards
Stakeholder Engagement & Requirements Management
Stakeholder Engagement & Requirements Management
- Partner with colleagues across Research, Operations, Finance, HR, and Data Services to define, document, and validate reporting requirements
- Facilitate workshops, walkthroughs, and feedback sessions to ensure outputs meet organisational and research needs
- Translate business questions into analytical designs, KPIs, and executive‑ready reporting outputs
Data Governance & Standards
Data Governance & Standards
- Maintain data lineage from source systems through Databricks to Power BI datasets.
- Own and contribute to data glossaries, data dictionaries, and KPI definitions
· Support secure data access through appropriate roles, row‑level/object‑level security and sharing practices
- Champion transparency, documentation, reproducibility, and data quality across BI solutions
- Contribute to developing NatCen BI and Databricks standards, conventions, and best‑practice guides
- Validate outputs using reconciliation checks and test scenarios and support UAT and regression testing of key measures and reports.
Communication & Collaboration
Communication & Collaboration
- Communicate technical concepts clearly to non‑technical colleagues
- Present analytical findings in ways that are easy to understand and act on
- Work collaboratively with Data Architect, researchers, and organisational leads to deliver shared outcomes
Key Responsibilities
Essential
Significant experience delivering enterprise PowerBI solutions
Strong DAX, Power Query, and semantic model design skills
Proven experience integrating Power BI with Databricks or similar platforms
Excellent SQL capabilities and practical experience with large‑scale data pipelines
Strong grounding in dimensional modelling and analytics best practice
Experience turning ambiguous requirements into well‑defined specifications
Ability to document requirements, manage changes, and maintain traceability throughout delivery Strong communication skills and the ability to influence and collaborate effectively#
Desireable:
Experience using Databricks in research, public sector, social statistics, or financial analytics contexts Exposure to PySpark or Python in a data engineering or analytics environment
Familiarity with research data structures, survey data, or longitudinal datasets
Experience contributing to organisational data governance frameworks
Experience working in Agile/Kanban delivery environments
Benefits
EMPLOYEE BENEFITS
Holiday
25 days’ holiday (three of which must be taken during Christmas closure) plus 8 bank holidays. Leave increases to 30 days after 3 years’ employment.
Holiday
Pension
All new employees will be automatically enrolled on the pension scheme 3 months from their start date unless stated otherwise. The minimum employee contribution is 3% and the maximum employer contribution is 5% of salary. If the employee does not wish to contribute to the pension scheme, there will be a process that will be in place for them to follow to opt out of the scheme for a limited period.
Staff can also join our defined contribution pension scheme. The minimum employee contribution is 4% and the maximum employer contribution is 7.5% of salary. You can join this pension from when you start working with us.
Life Insurance
All employees are eligible for a lump sum benefit payable to the named beneficiary (this does not have to be a spouse, partner or dependent, and can be split between beneficiaries) on the employee’s death of 5 times their annual salary. Beneficiary form must be completed – further details can be found when you start working with us.
NatCen Rewards
This is an online employee benefits scheme featuring discounts at over 800 retailers and service providers in the UK, both online and in store.
Health Cash Plan
Employees can sign up to healthcare cash plan which lets you claim back the cost of treatments, such as laser eye treatment, dental treatment, physiotherapy, hospital scans etc. You can pay as little as £1.20 per week, and when you receive treatment, you send the details to the provider and it reimburses you, depending on the terms of your cash plan.
Professional Subscriptions
We will pay the cost of one professional membership subscription per individual per annum, where that subscription is required for the job.
Cycle to work scheme
This is a government initiative which allows NatCen to provide bikes and associated safety equipment to employees to use as a means of transport for work purposes.
Season ticket loan
We offer an interest free loan to buy annual season tickets for travel to work. This is available once you have completed your probation period.
Eye care vouchers
NatCen will contribute up to £30 per year for an eye test. If the glasses/contacts are solely for VDU use then NatCen will contribute up to £100.
Flexible working
Flexible working is supported where it helps to meet the aims of the company, as it increases motivation and reduces the level of stress. Examples of this include home working and job sharing. Some flexibility in working hours may be possible. Core hours of work are 10am – 4pm.
Parental leave
Employees who meet the qualifying criteria can claim up to 18 working weeks unpaid leave per child under 5, or up to 18 years of age if the child has a disability. Employees can take parental leave in blocks of one week and no more than 4 weeks per year.
Employee Assistance Programme (EAP)
EAP is a confidential helpline designed to help you deal with personal and professional problems that could be affecting your home life or work life, health and general wellbeing.
Career Development
We are passionate about learning and the value it brings to the organisation and our clients.
Everyone has access to training and development which supports them in the work they do and personal learning & development plans are tailored to help develop individuals and teams achieve our goals. We aim for a culture of continuous improvement which includes active reflection on development needs and goals.
About the National Centre for Social Research
At The National Centre for Social Research we believe that social research has the power to make life better. By really understanding the complexity of people’s lives and what they think about the issues that affect them, we give the public a powerful and influential role in shaping services that can make a difference to everyone. And as an independent, not-for-profit organisation we’re able to focus our time and energy on meeting our clients’ needs and delivering social research that works for society.
Our Hiring Process
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