Head of Data Stewardship

CompanyUK Research and Innovation

LocationSwindon, England, United Kingdom

Posted At3/11/2026

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Description

UKRI

Salary: £70,752.

Band: UKRI Band G.

Contract Type: Open ended.

Hours: Full-time/ Part Time (Minimum of 0.8 FTE) (Flexible working available).

Location: Swindon, Wiltshire.

Closing Date: Sunday 29th March 2026

About the role

UKRI is building a modern, cloud native, AI ready data ecosystem to improve data quality, discoverability, and use across the research and innovation landscape. The Head of Data Stewardship is responsible for leading UKRI’s enterprise data stewardship function, improving data quality, reference data, metadata standards, and enabling consistent stewardship practices.

This role operates as an enterprise leader for UKRI’s data system — shaping behaviours, enforcing standards, and driving adoption across all UKRI Councils, corporate platforms, organisational units, and programmes. The role is outward-facing and focused on end-to-end processes, ensuring that UKRI functions as a coherent, interoperable, federated data organisation. You will be accountable for the definitions, quality standards, metadata, and stewardship model that ensure UKRI’s data is trusted, usable and consistently governed.

Your responsibilities

Acting as the design authority for, and owning enterprise-wide adoption of data definitions, metadata standards, data quality rules, lineage, and lifecycle governance.
Matrix managing and driving capability uplift across federated council data and analysis teams.
Translating strategic data governance decisions into operational implementation, working closely with federated resources through project delivery.
Establishing and maintaining technical processes and documentation, tools, standards, and frameworks that enable federated data stewardship across councils, including contributing to Data Community of Practice literacy initiatives.
Accountable for ensuring that governance decisions translate into sustained organisational practice across a federated environment.
Interpreting relevant Government functional standards for UKRI (e.g. HMG Digital, Data and Technology Functional Standard (GovS 005)[i], Data Quality Framework[ii] and other recommended Government standards[iii]) and embedding them across all Councils and corporate platforms through enforceable policies, controls, and minimum viable standards.

Enabling cross-UKRI programmes through shared definitions, reusable data products, consistent governance, and early engagement with programme directors. UKRI programmes through shared definitions, reusable data products, consistent ‑UKRI programmes through shared definitions, reusable data products, consistent.

Outcomes/impact

UKRI seeks to continue to improve its data maturity, which includes, but is not limited to:

Alignment to and measurable compliance with Government functional standards.
Consistent, quality data management services across UKRI's federated structure.
A reduction of key data quality issues for the most critical data assets.
Expanding and driving use of proactive data quality tooling such as the Business Glossary and well-governed Reference Data to enhance usability of data.
Technical implementation of data standards, data contracts, and data service performance reporting.
Improvements to data maturity as formally assessed using the UK Government’s data maturity framework[iv].

Working relationships

Reports to the UKRI Head of Data Practice to deliver improvements across the UKRI data community.
Supervises 4-6 data stewards, data analysts, and technical specialists. Mix of full and part-time team members.
Works closely with data colleagues, including UKRI data warehouse project delivery, Data champions across UKRI, the data warehouse Data Services team, CIO Group technical teams, and Data Community of Practice members.

Cultural & Behavioural Change

This role drives the move from individual, inconsistent data practices to shared stewardship, common standards, and reliable data quality. You will embed minimum metadata, quality gates, and lifecycle governance, helping teams shift from reactive data “cleanup” to proactive, accountable stewardship. They will build stewardship capability across UKRI and promote a consistent, standards-led data culture.

Personal Specification

The below criteria will be scored during Shortlisting (S), Interview (I) or both (S&I).

Essential

An experienced data manager/data steward that has documented and maintained standards, demonstrated process improvements and scaling of stewardship capabilities, you will have evidenced success in improving data quality (S).

Proven technical leadership with experience in reference and metadata management processes and controls, establishing acceptance criteria for governance improvements, data profiling and metrics, and building dashboards and reporting. You will have skills in SQL, Talend Data Catalogue, and familiarity with quality frameworks. (e.g. DAMA-DMBOK) (S&I).

Collaborative approach that builds trust with data champions and technical teams across councils (I).

Understanding of governance frameworks with ability to translate policies into operational practice, and ability to navigate federated governance structures such as in UKRI where Councils have significant autonomy (S&I).

Strong facilitation and communication skills suitable for leading working groups, requirements gathering, understanding business priorities, conflict resolution, managing stakeholder expectations and building consensus across councils (S&I).

Consistent track record of managing technical teams of 4+ people, with evidence of developing high performing individuals (S&I).

Benefits

We recognise and value our employees as individuals and aim to provide a favourable pay and rewards package. We are committed to supporting employees' development and promote a culture of continuous learning!

A list of benefits below:

An outstanding defined benefit pension scheme.
30 days' annual leave in addition to 10.5 public and privilege days (full time equivalent).
Employee discounts and offers on retail and leisure activities.
Employee assistance programme, providing confidential help and advice.
Flexible working options.

Plus many more benefits and wellbeing initiatives that enable our employees to have a great work life balance!

For further information on our benefits please see:

Benefits of working at UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)

Please apply online, if you experience any issue applying, please contact Recruitment@ukri.org

Please note, if you will require sponsorship to work in the UK, as part of your sponsorship application, you and any dependants travelling with you, will be required to pay costs directly to The Home Office for the application before you start your role with us. UKRI is normally able to reimburse some, or all of these fees after you have become an employee and this can be discussed with the Hiring Manager. For more information, please visit https://www.gov.uk/skilled-worker-visa/how-much-it-costs or contact Recruitment@ukri.org.