Liaison and operations analyst (12 month Fixed term contract)- Hybrid

JOB TITLE:  Liaison and operations analyst -  HYBRID

Closing date: 28/02/2025

Jisc Grade: CSS2

Salary: £25,750 per annum negotiable depending on experience

Hours: 35 hours per week - 9 am to 5pm

Contract: 12 month Fixed term contract 

Reports into: Liaison and operations manager

Location: Hybrid - A blend of working from home and your nominated hub office, we have hubs in London, Bristol, Manchester and Oxford. Specific patterns for working in the office are not mandated, and the frequency of time worked in the office is agreed with your manager. Meeting in person is something we value so you may need to travel on occasion to any of our hub offices.

About the role:

You will be responsible for delivering outstanding customer support to our HE provider customers involved in the collation and submission of HESA data requirements. You will develop and maintain good working relationships with HE providers and other external stakeholders as well as other staff within Jisc.

About Jisc:

Jisc is the UK digital, data and technology agency focused on tertiary education, research, and innovation. We are a not-for-profit organisation with a big ambition to improve lives through education and research by providing hardware, software, and networking solutions. Our talented people bring their own unique skills and experience to empower our members and customers with the technology they need to succeed. Take your next career step with us and you can make a real difference to the education and research sectors.

About the team:

This fantastic roles sits within the Liaison team in Data Collections and Statistics, and provide a helpdesk function supporting providers with their queries on all HESA data collections. We are experts at understanding the data requirements and we maintain the guidance that exists to underpin this. We manage the data collections, reporting on providers progress to external stakeholders and reviewing data quality.

The Liaison team are committed to delivering outstanding customer service and ensuring providers return timely and accurate data. We pride ourselves on our professional, yet personal approach.

Responsibilities will include:

• Delivering outstanding support to our customers and ensuring issues are dealt with efficiently and effectively. We take our time to understand the customer to ensure the response given is suitable for the audience, as well as having the ability to convey complex information.
• Developing and maintaining a high level of knowledge of HESA’s (Higher Education Statistics Agency) records and systems, including the specification of data collections.
• Having oversight of data collections including ensuring adherence to the data collection schedule, supporting providers progress during the collection, quality assurance and supporting the delivery of data to external users in a timely manner.
• You will work with other staff across the organisation; to keep abreast of system developments and keep the sector informed, as well as benefiting from the knowledge of colleagues to assist in resolving providers queries.
• You will use your understanding of the sector to initiate and influence change within the company; acting as the voice of the provider to ensure that the change is to the benefit of the sector.
• Maintaining up-to-date guidance for all HESA collections and making improvements to guidance following feedback from the sector. This can involve working with external stakeholders to understand data requirements. Support the change process to implement agreed changes to data collections, as well larger review activity that can result in fundamental changes to the data specification.
• Liaison are an outward facing part of the company and therefore, we help to maintain our reputation in the sector. You will build relationships with providers and as well as being involved in the onboarding of new providers to ensure that they understand their data requirements.

Key Skills and Experience: 

• As you are liaising with colleagues and external contacts, it is important that you have excellent communication skills and you’re able to confidently deal with customers at all levels of seniority
• Demonstrable experience of delivering excellent customer service is essential
• Knowledge of the HE sector and HESA data would be advantageous
• Proficient in the use of products in the Microsoft Office suite, particularly Word and Excel
• Problem solving – the ability to assimilate information from various sources and use reasoning skills when conducting analysis
• You will be a highly organised individual, who can plan work and ensure tasks are completed within timescales
• Self-directed, proactive, able to prioritise own workload and work on own initiative; know to escalate when necessary
• Minimum A-Level (Grade A-C) or equivalent, or relevant work experience is required

Don’t meet every single requirement?

We know that sometimes people can be put off applying for a job if they think they can’t tick every box, so we encourage you to apply even if you do not meet 100% of the requirements, but you feel this role is perfect for you. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles!

Why work for us?

At Jisc, everyone plays a key role and gets the chance to feel part of it, that to us is the definition of a meaningful career. We want to create a culture of lifelong learning. You can look forward to a rewarding job with opportunities to develop and make a real difference to the education and research sectors.

We believe a balance between your personal and professional life is essential to your happiness and fulfilment. We work flexibly at Jisc and focus on outputs rather than presenteeism and are open to a whole range of ways of working.

It isn’t about how many hours you spend at home or at work; it’s about the flow you establish that brings energy to both parts of your life. Our hybrid working policy is flexible, and the frequency of time spent in your nominated office will vary across teams and job roles.

Take a look at our fantastic benefits! We offer:

• Flexible work pattern, which can adapt to suit your schedules and personal commitments
• 31 days annual leave (plus bank holidays) that includes an additional three closure days over Christmas plus the opportunity to buy up to an additional 5 days
• Generous flexible pension schemes
• Protection benefit – life cover
• Annual Jisc performance award
• A range of wellbeing lifestyle benefits including company paid health care cash plan, employee assistance programme, mental health first aiders and support
• A generous budget to support you with external learning and continuous professional development
• Allocated allowance of up to £250 to equip your home office
• Financial well-being support including access to preferential loan and savings plans, mortgage advice, will writing tools and support and resources to help you make the most of your money
• The opportunity to donate to charity tax-free with our Payroll Giving benefit
• Electric Car Lease Scheme and option to purchase SmartTech – spreading the cost of your everyday white goods and technology
• A wide range of discounts from retailers and big-name high-street stores and CSSC membership
• Family friendly policies including enhanced parental, maternity and paternity leave and opportunity for career breaks
• Support your volunteering with up to 3 days volunteer leave
• Cycle to work scheme and eye care scheme including free eye test vouchers and £70 towards new glasses for VDU use
• Free flu vaccinations
• Employee recognition awards and travel loans
• A company culture which supports and promotes personal learning and development, including access to thousands of courses on LinkedIn Learning

Equity, diversity and inclusion:

At Jisc, we don’t look for ‘sameness’, but to truly include people who can add unique perspectives and experiences to our culture, and we are working hard to achieve progressive change. ‘Always inclusive’ is one of our six guiding principles which actively encourages us to bring our whole authentic selves to work. We believe that our commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion is fundamental to our success.

Jisc believes our people make all the difference in cultivating an inclusive culture that welcomes ideas, encourages innovation, and values belonging. We work with passionate colleagues to strengthen knowledge and awareness, provide learning and development opportunities, and foster multiple employee networks which create a sense of community and influence our policies and practice.

We work hard to create an equitable experience for our candidates and workforce which embraces all aspects of their identity including race and ethnicity, religion and belief, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, trans identities, age, class, disability, neurodivergence, or veteran status.

Application process:

We are committed to supporting your success. Please let us know how we can best accommodate you throughout the recruitment process, in your role, and during your time at Jisc. Your unique skills and experiences are valuable to us, and we want to ensure you have everything you need to thrive.

Just so you know, we review CVs as soon as we can and aim to provide an update on your application within 4 weeks of receiving it.  However, you may hear from us a lot sooner, so please keep an eye out for our emails or calls! 

If you are currently a Jisc employee, please apply through your Dayforce Employee profile.

Jisc has an active sponsor licence to recruit on a Skilled worker visa basis. Candidates wishing to apply who require sponsorship should determine the likelihood of obtaining a Certificate of Sponsorship for the role by assessing their circumstances against the relevant Home Office criteria and the Skilled Occupation Code eligibility. Jisc does not offer any financial re-imbursement towards the applicant costs, such as re-location, skilled worker visa and dependant costs or the immigration health charge.

No agencies please.