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About the Role
As a Student Data Analyst & Developer (know internally as Analyst, Developer, HESA Data Futures), you will work with colleagues in the Digital and Insights Returns system team to develop and maintain the systems used to manage the preparation of the University’s statutory returns to the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) to meet HESA’s requirements. You will be involved in the design, build, test and implementation phases of the returns process in accordance with technical and quality standards.
The Returns system team support and develop the systems required to create the student and staff statutory returns to HESA and other UK funding bodies. Our vision is to support, align to, and proactively drive the recruitment and student success strategy through continuous innovation in analytics. Statutory returns form a significant and essential part of this strategy.
Key Responsibilities
• Contribute to concepts, specifications and designs for the HESA returns process.
• Design, build and test software components in accordance with the HESA returns process specifications, designs and standards using a variety of programming languages and tools.
• Provide technical expertise within a small development team.
• Perform unit, integration, system and operational testing.
• Champion common approaches and re-usable code.
• Apply appropriate project management and systems development methodologies.
• Engage with HESA and with other HE providers in the HESA process to share approaches.
• Engage with the other university projects and product owners.
• Provide support for existing systems used to create Statutory returns and ensure they are kept in step with changes to external data requirements.
• Undertake other duties, as required, within the Returns System team and other Digital and Insight teams.
About You
Essential:
- Undergraduate degree with strong engineering, mathematics or computing elements or equivalent professional experience.
- Recent, demonstrable experience of developing in T-SQL and Python.
- Experience of relational database connectivity (Oracle, SQL Server, etc.) and transaction processing.
- Familiarity with rapid prototyping and more structured systems development techniques.
- Proficient with Microsoft Office tools.
- A self-starter, being able to rapidly transfer development skills across platforms and programming languages.
- Aptitude for careful analysis and systems development, striving for highest level of product quality.
- Work to high personal standards of accuracy, own issues and see them through to resolution.
- Able to work under pressure to manage competing demands for time and to meet demanding deadlines.
- Able to communicate appropriately with peers, business colleagues, internal and external stakeholders, and managers.
- Committed to ongoing learning and personal development.
Desirable:
- Programming training or certificate in high level language.
- Knowledge of cloud-based technologies such as Azure Fabric.
- Knowledge of Higher Education systems and data.
- Knowledge of statutory returns in the Higher Education sector.
- Knowledge of source control and development management systems such as GIT and Azure DevOps.
- Knowledge or experience of writing PowerShell scripts or another modern scripting language.
Support with your application
If you have any questions, or need support or adjustments relating to your application, the recruitment process, or the role, please contact us on 01908 541111 or email careers@open.ac.uk quoting the advert reference number.
What's in it for you?
At The Open University, we offer a range of benefits to recognise and reward great work, alongside policies and flexible working that contribute towards a great work life balance. Get all the details of what benefits we offer by visiting our Staff Benefits page (clicking this link will open a new window).
Flexible working
We are open to discussions about flexible working. Whether it’s a job share, part time, compressed hours or another working arrangement. Please reach out to us to discuss what works best for you.
It is anticipated that a hybrid working pattern can be adopted for this role, where the successful candidate can work from home and the office. However, as this role is contractually aligned to our Milton Keynes office it is expected that some attendance in the office will be required when necessary and in response to business needs. We’d expect this to be on average once per month.
Next steps in the Recruitment process
We anticipate that we will be conducting interviews for this role online via Microsoft Teams during the week commencing 20 April 2026.
Early closing date notification
While most roles will remain open until the advertised closing date, applications may be reviewed on an ongoing basis. In some cases, vacancies may close earlier if a sufficient number of suitable applications has been received and equality impacts have been appropriately considered. All roles will remain advertised for a minimum of one week before any early closure is implemented.If you have started an application or were in the process of applying when the advert closed, we encourage you to get in touch. We are committed to understanding individual circumstances and can offer further support where needed, including reasonable adjustments for applicants with protected characteristics.
How to apply
To apply for this role please submit the following documents:
- CV
- A personal statement of up to 1000 words. You should set out in your statement why you are interested in the role and provide examples of where your skills and experience meet the criteria for this role as detailed above within the job description.
You can view your progress and application communications when you are logged into our recruitment system. Please check your spam/junk folders if you do not receive associated email updates.
