Analyst - Data & AI

Location: Bristol or Manchester hybrid (regular travel to partner sites across the UK and Ireland as needed)

Role Type: Permanent (full-time preferred, flexible working considered)

About PACT Solutions:

PACT Solutions is a specialist management and digital transformation consultancy working exclusively with higher education institutions across the UK.

We help universities solve complex challenges across strategy, student records, data, change and delivery. Our work often sits at the heart of major institutional transformation, helping partners improve the student journey, modernise operations and deliver change more effectively.

PACT has grown quickly and is now entering its next phase. We are moving from a founder-led boutique consultancy into a more scaled and structured business, while protecting the quality, culture and partner focus that have made us successful.

Our culture is crucial to our success. Each day, our team significantly contributes to our business and that of our partners.

We combine the agility and collaborative spirit of a close-knit consultancy with the credibility, structure, and professionalism needed to deliver meaningful digital transformation.

Our values sit at the heart of everything we do and are core to our business.

Partnership: We work with you, not for you.

Integrity: We do the right thing, even when it requires difficult conversations.

Inquisitive: We dig deeper to uncover what will truly deliver value.

Transformative: We focus on outcomes that create lasting, measurable improvement.

The Role

We are looking for an Analyst to join our Data practice to support the successful delivery of transformation across our higher education partners.

This is a hands-on, delivery-oriented consulting role for someone who is analytical, organised and curious, and who wants to build their career in data and transformation within higher education.

You will work closely with senior colleagues across student records, data, change, delivery and partner teams to support data analysis, data quality improvement and data readiness activity. This will include helping partners understand the quality of their data, identify issues and remediation requirements, and prepare data for new systems, processes and ways of working.

This is more than a reporting role. You will contribute to building a stronger data culture, supporting improved ways of working, strengthening data governance, and enabling more confident, data-informed decision-making across the institution.

This role is ideal for someone who enjoys combining analysis, problem-solving and delivery in a consulting environment, and who is comfortable being both proactive and hands-on. You will support partner-facing work while also contributing to the continued development of PACT’s internal data capability, tools and ways of working.

Purpose of the role

To support the delivery of practical, insight-led data activity that helps PACT’s partners improve data quality, strengthen data readiness and make better-informed decisions during transformation.

Key Responsibilities

1. Data analysis and data quality assessment

Support analysis across key datasets to identify data quality issues, inconsistencies, trends and areas requiring remediation.

Help assess data across key student lifecycle domains, supporting the identification of risks, gaps and priorities.

Contribute to structured data quality reviews and support the definition and application of data quality rules.

Translate technical or data issues into clear, meaningful insights for project teams and stakeholders.

2. Data readiness and remediation support

Help coordinate data readiness checks to identify issues, risks and remediation requirements.

Support data cleansing activity, including standardising formats, resolving duplicates and addressing missing, invalid or inconsistent data.

Contribute to data validation and normalisation processes across multiple source systems.

Help ensure data improvement activity is aligned with wider project and programme plans.

3. Dashboarding and reporting

Support the development of dashboards and reporting to monitor data quality, readiness and progress across programme priorities.

Work with colleagues to produce clear, accurate and useful outputs that support decision-making and oversight.

Help maintain reporting artefacts and ensure outputs remain aligned to partner and programme needs.

Present findings in a way that is accessible to both technical and non-technical audiences.

4. Stakeholder engagement support

Support the planning and delivery of workshops, working sessions and follow-up activity relating to data quality, governance and readiness.

Work with stakeholders to understand data requirements, investigate issues and support resolution activity.

Maintain clear records of issues, actions, findings and follow-up items.

Build positive working relationships with a wide range of stakeholders across partner environments.

5. Project delivery support

Work alongside project managers, technical teams, business analysts and SMEs to ensure data activity aligns with wider delivery plans.

Communicate findings clearly and professionally, adapting your approach for technical and non-technical audiences.

Provide structured analysis and documentation to support decision-making, reporting and governance.

Support the smooth coordination of data activity across multiple workstreams where required.

Contribute to improved data governance practices and more consistent ways of working across partner environments.

6. Internal contribution

Contribute to PACT’s internal methodologies, templates and knowledge base.

Participate in internal learning and development activity.

Support process improvement across the Data practice.

Contribute positively to PACT’s culture, standards and ways of working.

Requirements

Essential experience

Evidence of training, study or strong interest in data analysis, data management, business intelligence or related disciplines

Experience in a data analysis, reporting or data quality-focused role in a complex environment

Experience developing dashboards and reports using tools such as Power BI, SSRS or similar

Experience working with SQL and analysing datasets to identify issues, patterns and insights

Experience identifying and resolving data quality issues

Experience producing clear documentation, analysis outputs or reporting for stakeholders

Strong analytical skills and attention to detail

Understanding of data structures and relationships across systems

Ability to interpret data issues and communicate them clearly to different audiences

Strong written and verbal communication skills

Strong organisational skills, with the ability to manage multiple tasks and priorities

Ability to work with both technical and non-technical stakeholders

Collaborative and able to build strong working relationships

Sound judgement, resilience and a pragmatic approach to problem-solving

Proactive, adaptable and comfortable operating in a delivery-focused environment

Curious and improvement-oriented, with a genuine interest in how data can drive better outcomes

Able to communicate clearly and professionally with colleagues and partners

Comfortable taking ownership of defined tasks and seeing them through to completion

Commitment to high-quality work and continuous learning

Hunger to learn, progress and take increasing responsibility over time

Commitment to self-development, including actively seeking feedback and development opportunities

Desirable

Experience within higher education

Experience supporting digital transformation or system implementation projects, such as Student Records, ERP or CRM

Experience supporting data cleansing, validation or migration-related activity

Exposure to consultancy environments

Relevant qualification, certification or formal training in data analysis, SQL, Power BI or related tools

Exposure to data governance or data quality management practices

Experience using version control tools such as GitHub

Knowledge of student lifecycle processes or university operations

Familiarity with student systems from vendors such as Tribal, TechnologyOne, Ellucian or Thesis

Experience working with agile or project-based delivery approaches

Benefits

You will have the opportunity to:

Build your consulting and data delivery capability across a range of university transformation programmes

Develop stronger ownership of partner-facing work, deliverables and analysis activity over time

Learn from experienced colleagues across Data, Delivery, Change and wider consulting teams

Strengthen your consulting toolkit through mentoring, feedback, structured development and relevant training

Progress within the Data career pathway as your capability, judgement and delivery responsibility grow

At PACT, we value people who are proactive about their growth, open to feedback, and motivated to keep developing their skills, judgement and impact.

This role sits at the Analyst level within PACT’s consulting career pathway (Analyst Consultant Senior Consultant Lead Principal), providing a strong foundation to develop core consulting and delivery skills.