Job Description

About QS

QS Quacquarelli Symonds was founded in 1990 and has established itself as the leading global provider of specialist higher education analytics and solutions. At QS we want to ensure candidates have access to our independent insight-led services, so they can make the right choices for them, and for their future.

Our activities span 50 countries, working with over many of the world's leading higher education institutions and employers. We're famous for the QS World University Rankings, the world's most popular source of comparative insight into university performance. It's from our detailed research, and this depth of understanding of all things education, that we seek to show leadership and be a lifelong decision partner for students and institutions alike.

QS is a multi-cultural organization, with more than 25 languages spoken by our team members. We are known for our entrepreneurial spirit and actively encourage employees to initiate and develop ideas and share the rewards of our success. You should be comfortable with the challenges of a dynamic environment.

QS Quacquarelli Symonds is proud to be a fair and equal organization where everyone has the same opportunity to achieve their full potential, irrespective of their background or personal attributes. We celebrate our diversity and believe through sharing our experiences we can learn from one another, be stronger together, and enable our business to thrive.

Position Summary:

The newly created role is a key appointment within the newly created Data & Analytics function, contributing to the company's longer-term growth strategy. This role reports directly to the Chief Data & Analytics Officer and will form part of the Data & Analytics leadership team.

This newly created role is fundamental to the future success of QS, working alongside senior management and offering a high degree of autonomy.

The purpose of this role is to be own and run the Centres of Excellence (CoE) for Data & Analytics, including the Data Science CoE and the Data Visualisation CoE. The role will entail working with the business through the data and analytics business partners (the Directors of Data & Analytics) to identify projects for the CoEs to deliver, managing the successful delivery of those projects and the ongoing growth and development of the CoE teams. On a day-to-day basis the role will focus on using data and analysis to improve the performance of QS, as well as including the supervision of junior resource, defining and managing projects and pieces of work, and building relationships across the business.

Responsibilities:

Some of the key responsibilities for this new role are:

Use analysis to solve business problems, including:

• Prepare presentations, reports and case studies for the business to understand performance trends or communicate trials;

• opportunities for the development of dashboards using key data, and managing the development of those dashboards by engineers in the Data Visualisation Centre of Excellence;

• Identifying opportunities for application of advanced analysis and machine learning and managing the development of those use cases by data scientists in the Data Science Centre of Excellence;

• Support the wider business through deep dives or other bespoke analysis to help drive improved profitability;

Be a leader within the Data & Analytics function:

• Ensure development processes are followed within the data & analytics team (including Agile, Waterfall as appropriate), in line with wider IT policies;

• Ensure quality processes are maintained within the team (including code, analysis and report revenue etc. as appropriate);

• Ensure the day-to-day activities of the team are tracked and reported (using suitable tools e.g. JIRA boards etc

• Oversee, manage and develop analysts, including carrying out performance management in line with HR policies

Own the operation and development of the Data & Analytics Centres of Excellence:

• Establish ways of working for the Centres of Excellence, including links to the business, processes for the creation and prioritisation of projects, feedback loops so that the business understand progress and ways of demonstrating value to the business through the work of the Centres of Excellence;

• Lead recruitment for the pool, including identifying recruitment needs and liaising with HR to run recruitment processes;

• Creating and running an intern programme to bring graduate resource into the pool on a temporary or project basis;

• Work with the rest of the Data & Analytics Leadership Team to identify opportunities for delivery by the Centres of Excellence;

• Be capable of representing QS as an analyst at external events;

Be a member of the Data & Analytics Leadership Team:

• Support the CDAO in developing and taking forward the Data & Analytics strategy for the Group;

• Attend regular Data & Analytics leadership team meetings;

• Look for opportunities to extend the knowledge of the wider Data & Analytics team, particularly around advanced analytics and the use of Off the Shelf tools to improve CoE performance;

• Assist in providing advice, guidance and mentoring to the wider Data & Analytics team;

• Supporting in maintaining the data dictionary, ensuring all KPIs and data points are defined within the business and used consistently;

Requirements:

You will have a strong academic record to degree level or higher in a related field (eg Maths, Economics or Computer Science) and ideally ten to fifteen years' experience in an analytics role. You will be keen to develop and grow your expertise in the area of analytics, and looking to take ownership of an area of analytics across the business.

You will be resilient and adaptable. Our business is a fast growing, privately owned business with ambitious plans. Whilst exposure to this environment would be advantageous, the flexibility and resilience to thrive in it is essential.

You will be a strong communicator, being able to confidentially present your work to colleagues.

You will have a passion for understanding the key drivers within a complex business, being able to assimilate multiple data points to diagnose complex problems and deliver practical solutions and recommendations.

You will be working with complex, large datasets spanning millions of records and therefore possess a comprehensive knowledge of statistics (eg sampling, distributions etc) and the tools (eg SQL/R/Python) to be effective.

Whilst being a great team player is important to deliver the requirements above, the individual will need to be able to demonstrate an ability to work autonomously.

Given the complexity of our business and our desire for high quality output the individual will also need to possess:

• SQL Skills
• R or Python (ideally)
• Advanced MS Excel skills
• Intermediate MS PowerPoint and Word skills
• High standards of accuracy
• Ability to work to deadlines

The individual will therefore need to be flexible, both in terms of hours worked in peak periods and also the ability to travel to sites (both in the UK and Internationally or work from home.