Data Architect

Interim Opportunity: Data Architect – Thurrock Council (Outside IR35) Location: Essex Contract Type: Temporary Duration: 12 Weeks Hours: 37 per week Start Date: 15 December 2025 Rate: • PAYE: £51.42 per hour • Limited/Umbrella: £70.40 per hour About the Role Thurrock Council is seeking an experienced Data Architect (Interim) to support critical organisational initiatives. This position plays a key role in enhancing data quality, strengthening governance, and informing strategic decision-making across the authority. The successful candidate will collaborate widely across ICT, service areas, and senior leadership, ensuring data structures and intelligence products enable service improvement, policy development, and operational excellence. Key Responsibilities Data Analysis & Synthesis • Analyse complex datasets from internal and external sources. • Consolidate findings to support service improvement, strategic planning, policy design, and organisational development. • Engage data professionals and subject-matter experts to validate insights and present clear, actionable outputs. Communication & Stakeholder Engagement • Communicate effectively with technical and non-technical audiences. • Build strong relationships across frontline services and senior leadership. • Facilitate discussions that uncover needs, drive insight generation, and promote data literacy and culture. • Confidently manage differing perspectives and challenging dynamics. Data Management & Governance • Apply data governance principles aligned with organisational frameworks. • Maintain data standards and data dictionaries while ensuring compliance with relevant legislation. • Identify and mitigate privacy-related risks. Data Modelling, Cleansing & Enrichment • Produce, maintain, and evaluate data models using recognised industry standards. • Support development of the council’s BI architecture in partnership with Data Engineers and Data Architects. • Reverse-engineer existing system models and produce appropriate schema documentation. • Implement data cleansing and enrichment processes with minimal oversight. ✔️ Data Quality Assurance & Validation • Define methods for collecting, preparing, and validating data. • Contribute to front-end system design and user surveys to optimise data accuracy. • Develop auditing mechanisms to monitor and improve data quality. Data Visualisation & Reporting • Create compelling data visualisations aligned with organisational priorities. • Present insights to varied audiences including operational teams, managers, senior leaders, and strategic partners. • Utilise tools such as Excel, Qlik, SQL, R, Python, QGIS, and Tableau. IT, Mathematical & Problem-Solving Skills • Apply robust IT and mathematical techniques to support data solutions. • Resolve data process and system issues, identify trends, and initiate corrective actions. Candidate Requirements • Eligibility to work in the UK • Criminal Convictions Declaration • Confidentiality Agreement • Up-to-date CV • Desirable: Data Protection Level 1 Training Target Interview Date: 8 December 2025 (Online) Submission Deadline: 5 December 2025