Information Architect - Head of Taxonomy

Overview

The Home Office works to build a safe, fair, and prosperous UK. We achieve this through our work on counterterrorism, policing, crime, drugs policy, immigration, and passports. The Migration and Borders Group is responsible for policy, legislation and reform of the immigration systems and acts as a centre for excellence to deliver international interventions and engagement. This work touches many of the most high-profile policy areas for the Home Office, including asylum, migration, nationality, extradition, citizens’ rights, borders, and international criminality.

The Data Excellence Capability (DEC) is a cross Migration and Borders function to provide data leadership, direction, and drive collaboration across the key system enablers. DEC leads on co-ordinating and directing system wide efforts and data improvements and provides enduring expertise to support the systems immediate needs along with building long term sustainable solutions.

As Head of Taxonomy, you will play a critical role in structuring, organising and governing information to ensure it is easily discoverable, consistent, and aligned with the Migration & Borders (M&B) System Outcomes. You will develop, implement, and advance the strategic approach to a Taxonomy service for M&B System, developing taxonomies and establishing the service offering to support data driven decision making across the department.

We are recruiting for the Head of Taxonomy for Migration and Borders (M&B) in the Data Excellence Capability (DEC), as part of the M&B System Leadership Directorate. This role is pivotal in setting how M&B approaches taxonomy, one of the most complex and highest profile parts of the UK Government.

This is a strategic and stretching role. The successful candidate will lead delivering taxonomies and embedding taxonomy best practice in projects across the M&B System, including resolving inconsistencies in terminology, reframing classification structures, identifying and rationalising overlapping hierarchies inherited from legacy systems or siloed business units and aligning / mapping classification standards between internal and external bodies to enable coherent data sharing and reporting.

Responsibilities

You will design, implement and manage taxonomies, glossaries, definitions and other metadata for data projects across the M&B system, performing a consultative function to support the varying needs, understanding the complexity of the wider departmental structure and providing stakeholders with guidance, training, lessons learned and recommendations.

You will address complex, multi-layered challenges that span digital and data services, information management and data standards across M&B. Problems are often novel, and require balancing technical accuracy, user needs, with operational realities.

You will support data owners in adopting good data management practices by integrating a system-wide taxonomy and reference data service, ensuring consistent classification, improved discoverability, and secure data exchange across the M&B System, generating improvements in data quality.

You will lead engagement both internally and externally. Internally, you will collaborate with various teams, requiring a high level of diplomacy and the capacity to manage complex relationships effectively to align teams towards common goals. Externally, you will engage with other departments, stakeholders, and the public, facilitating constructive dialogue.

You will shape the taxonomy strategy and service model for M&B. Our ambition is that working with taxonomies should be a core part of the skills needed in a data-literate organisation.

Travel

Occasional travel may be required to other work locations within the UK. All related costs will be reimbursed in line with Home Office policy.

Line Management

At present, there is no line management responsibility, but this may change over time.

Working Pattern

This role is available on a full-time basis with the option of compressed hours working, with a minimum requirement to work 37 hours per week due to business requirements. Applications from job share candidates are welcome, but any job offer is conditional upon a viable job-sharing arrangement being available.

MBG locations

MBG is currently prioritising recruitment to our Places for Growth locations. However, MBG operates a ‘right to remain’ policy for existing MBG staff currently working at a location outside those listed above. While ‘right to remain’ requests are contingent upon reasonable business need and existing terms and conditions, we will aim to ensure there is no need to move office while supporting your career and development within MBG.

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