Data Management and Ethics Officer

Cheshire West and Chester Council is a place where everyone can Thrive – through our core values of Teamwork, Honesty, Respect, Innovation, Value for Money, and Empowerment.

Cheshire West and Chester Council brings a fresh and energetic approach to providing top quality services for its many customers and communities. West Cheshire is a place where everyone can THRIVE – through our core values of Teamwork, Honesty, Respect, Innovation, Value for Money, and Empowerment.

Cheshire West and Chester Council's Digital, Data and Technology (DDAT) department is looking to recruit an experienced and motivated Data Management and Ethics Officer to support the Council in its' fair, legal and appropriate use of data and support the creation of a data ethics approach which is embedded into all aspects of the data strategy and operations of the Council. This is an exciting opportunity to join a newly created and progressive team with big ambitions for the future. This role is a Grade 8, £34,434 - £39,152 (as of April 2025 pay band figures).

For more information on the role and the DDAT department, please visit the Digital, Data and Technology recruitment site

www.cwcrecruitment.co.uk/digitaldatatechnology-external

Closing date for applications: Midnight on 7th September 2025

Role responsibilities include:

• Develop and implement a council data management and ethics framework which covers all important ethics risk areas including: consent to use data, compliance with legal frameworks, data security, data privacy, data validity, inadvertent bias and inequality, and public good tests.

• Advocate for data governance and data management standards, continual communication and improvement of data management practices, and development of processes to enable good data management practices.

• Lead the implementation of data best practice, communicating opportunities to improve data maturity, and monitoring and improving areas of data maturity.

• Ensure that the collection, access, use and sharing of data takes account of the council’s data lifecycle management framework, is ethical and benefits all council stakeholders and communities.

• Lead on the promotion of data lifecycle management and ethics assessment frameworks with senior officers across the Council, ensuring new council initiatives, programmes and projects adopt an ‘ethical by design’ approach to their use of data and are underpinned by robust data lifecycle management policies and processes.

• Drive data management and ethics awareness across the Council and promote opportunities to improve data maturity, ensuring it is interwoven in all aspects of data science, analytics, management and intelligence gathering, policy making, public consultation, performance management, service and corporate planning activities.

• Ensure the approach to data lifecycle management and ethics is seamlessly linked with wider Council information governance practice, policies and guidance and it is as easy as possible for council officers to apply both sets of guidance in their work

The ideal candidate will a degree level qualification in related field or equivalent experience in information management, information governance or data science role. They should also have experience of data management and information governance best practice, experience of data science and/or data analysis to support organisational insight and learning, an understanding of data ethics challenges (ideally in a public sector environment), the ability to understand how data ethics could be appropriately applied to the generation of data intelligence at an operational level and an understanding of the legal framework around the use of data.

For more detailed information on what the role involves and person specification requirements, please review the job profile.

By joining Cheshire West and Chester Council, you will be part of a GOLD Investors in People (IiP) organisation which is focused on building a stronger future where we all play our part in thriving, caring and sustainable communities.