About Research Data Scotland
At Research Data Scotland (RDS), we’re on a mission to unlock the potential of public sector data—securely, responsibly, and for the benefit of everyone in Scotland.
We have some excellent data in Scotland, an excellent research community, and the ability to bring people together from Government, academia, industry and public bodies, to make real change happen. Working in partnership, we’re widening the range of data available, creating new data assets and providing a single point of contact for researchers to provide safe, secure and effective access to public data in a trustworthy manner.
Our focus is on providing a streamlined service for researchers, as well as extending the range of data available through the service, particularly in the areas of Covid-19, NHS imaging, geospatial data, children and justice services.
Our partners include: Scottish Government, Public Health Scotland, National Records of Scotland (NRS), and the Universities of Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow. We work closely with the national and regional safe havens. And we are in contact with other organisations in Scotland and across the UK in the data research sector, including public sector, research and commercial bodies.
As we embark on this search for a Chief Data Officer, we are reaching out to individuals who are as passionate about this work as we are. They will hold our values of Transparency, Collaboration, Integrity, Humility and Courage. And they will bring leadership, subject expertise and a commitment to helping RDS work closely with partners and forge ahead in its work to improve outcomes for the people of Scotland through better use of data.
About the job
The Chief Data Officer is part of the RDS Leadership team, with responsibility for establishing and overseeing the range of programmes that source the portfolio of datasets available for use in research. They will lead a cross-functional team to develop and execute the tactics that broaden and maintain a collection of research data. They’ll work closely with senior leaders and colleagues across the public sector to drive system-wide operational efficiency and demonstrate trustworthiness in how data is used.
About you
This is a senior leadership position and central to the delivery of a wide-ranging data transformation agenda. Collaboration is vital in this role, so you’ll feel confident to build strong enduring relationships and have natural skills to influence others and bring people on the change journey with you. You are ambitious, resilient and pragmatic, understanding the complexity of our environment means change is rarely linear!