Head of Technology and Insight

The Access Project
The Head of Technology and Insight is a role in the leadership team within the Strategy, Finance and Operations (SFO) department. You will ensure that through all we do, we are achieving high impact for young people in delivering our work at The Access Project.

This role and its teams work across the organisation, so it is essential the person has a well-rounded business partnering approach to delivery. The Access Project has ambitious plans to grow and is looking for a senior manager to build on good work done to date with key platforms by strategically developing these platforms such that usage is optimal, and data insights form the foundation of demonstrating impact. Working closely with the COO and Executive, this role will be crucial in supporting delivery of strategic plans over the next five years.

Given the relative size of the organisation, this is a broad role, encompassing many different aspects of technology and data insights that requires an ability to get stuck in with detail, whilst having the ability to operate strategically to ensure a proactive forward-looking approach to solutions.

Key responsibilities

• Support organisational decision making across the organisation, helping teams to build problem solving, change management and execution skills.
• Take an active role in ensuring the organisation is making the right decisions to achieve our corporate objectives, through bringing a strategic and integrated lens, informed by data insights, to decision making forums.
• Role model our behaviours and values at all times and demonstrate your commitment to our mission.

Departmental and Team Leadership

• Lead, develop and line manage the Technology and Data Insights sub-teams (5 staff, including own role), fostering an inclusive, collaborative and high-performance culture based on achieving high impact outcomes for young people.
• Ensure the Technology and Data Insights team are fully briefed on strategic plans and that their team and personal objectives are linked to delivering desired organisational outcomes to maximise impact.
• Oversee the day-to-day activities of the Technology and Data Insights teams, ensuring effective coordination and communication within SFO and across the organisation to deliver actionable insights that inform strategic and commercial analysis for the organisation.
• Responsibility to manage Technology and Data Insights budgets successfully.
• Manage and optimise use of IT support service providers in close collaboration with the Senior Finance and Operations Coordinator.

Strategic Technology and Data Insights projects

• Work collaboratively with all teams across the organisation to identify changes to The Access Project’s data insights processes across systems, through current state analysis, problem identification and solution mapping.
• Develop a roadmap of system development required to deliver The Access Project’s strategy, prioritising resources, ensuring teams are equipped to drive quick wins and long-term changes, supporting them to unlock necessary resources as required.
• Collaborating closely with the Head of Strategic Projects to embed a culture of continuous improvement regarding use of technology across the organisation, providing training, resources and guidance on how to simplify processes and ensure efficient ways of working with technology.
• Utilise systems and data to support the Executive team and Senior Management Group (the Leadership Team) in setting corporate objectives, key results, risk identification and budget/target setting.
• Accountable for technology and data insight processes maintaining set-up documents for the coming academic year, building dashboards that forecast organisational resource needs against our pipeline of sales and renewals, providing clear sight across the leadership team of targets for external resource requirements (e.g. coaches), income projections and student numbers, and providing updates against our corporate objectives.
• Maintain and expand our competitor and ecosystem benchmarking, showing a clear picture of The Access Project performance against others in the sector, and helping to deliver strong differentiation from the widening participation market in the education sector.
• Oversee the insight and programme evaluation process, ensuring that we deliver an impactful and continuously improving programme for the schools and young people we support.
• Play an active role in shaping and articulating The Access Project’s impact messages, working closely with colleagues in the Sales and Partnerships team. Support with fundraising bids and pitches as required.
• Oversee IT infrastructure, cybersecurity risk management and hardware requirements, end-to-end from process and systems design to procurement and delivery and collection (utilising third party support in place).

Person specification

• Experience of developing and delivering organisation and team strategy and strategic technology development and integration projects, with experience of converting strategy into detailed operational plans and the ability to breakdown problems and develop solutions.
• Demonstrable leadership of development and management of online learning management platform as a benchmark in its field, ensuring it is integrated with other systems and usage is optimised – ultimately this is needed to enable delivery of organisation strategy.
• Evidence of overseeing and managing a complex CRM system, preferably Salesforce, optimising effective data usage and streamlining process.
• Experience in managing system integrations and managing relationships with third party providers.
• Evidence of developing tactical and strategic data insights from key technology platforms and in close collaboration with the insights team and key stakeholders.
• Strong evidence of cross-organisational collaboration to turn user needs into system requirements, including an effective training plan for all platform users (internal and external).
• Experience of managing external providers contracts to design and implement system development plans to meet organisational needs, within budget and required timeframe. Utilising external resource appropriately (e.g. Accipio and Impact Box development support).
• Proven track records of managing end user queries in a timely and collaborative manner, providing hands-on support as needed.
• Experience of managing IT/technology budgets, appropriate hardware / software evaluation and selection, including financial modelling, business case development and strategic analysis of technology and data insights solutions.
• Experience and insight into overseeing IT infrastructure, cybersecurity risk management and hardware requirements, end-to-end from process and systems design to procurement and delivery and collection.
• Demonstrable experience of leading, motivating and developing team effectively and collaboratively.
• Understanding and appreciation of the importance of Safeguarding & Compliance to ensure systems and processes are GDPR compliant and safe for end-users.

Skills and Abilities

• A business partner at heart who can work collaboratively with all teams across the organisation.
• Strong strategic thinking, analytical and project management skills, with the ability to set organisational goals and translate these into effective operational plans.
• Technical proficiency in system integration and strategic system/platform development.
• Excellent communication, listening and interpersonal skills, with the ability to collaborate with diverse internal and external stakeholders.
• Commitment to and evidence of driving impact through organisations, with strong ability to drive change and continuous improvement to deliver on organisational mission.
• Knowledge of current educational technologies and trends.

Personal Qualities

• A commitment to the mission and values of The Access Project, with a passion for making a positive impact through charitable initiatives.
• A commitment to delivering an equitable, diverse and inclusive organisation and services.
• Adaptable and proactive approach to problem-solving, with the ability to thrive in a fast-paced and dynamic environment.
• Strong ethical and integrity standards, with the ability to instil a culture of compliance and accountability within the team.

Other Requirements

• Flexibility to travel occasionally across the country, as needed, as well as regular attendance at events in London.
• Availability to work outside regular office hours from time to time, demonstrating a commitment to the success of the organisation.

About the organisation

We believe that every young person should have the opportunity to fulfil their potential and make the most of their education. We’re passionate about reducing the educational barriers our students face, helping them to pursue a career in their chosen field and follow their dreams.

Our mission is to support students from disadvantaged backgrounds to access top universities, through a unique combination of tuition and in-school mentoring. We work with them to make good applications, get the grades and transition to university.

The programme combats educational inequality and improves social mobility by raising students’ grades and supporting them to understand the pathway to a top university . click apply for full job details