senior planning data officer

Job Title: Senior Planning Data Officer
Location: Hertford / Stevenage
Salary Range: £30,151 with the opportunity to progress to £32,909 per annum - Pay increase pending
Hours: 37 per week
Contract: Permanent

Diversity: We are an inclusive employer and value a diverse workforce

The Technical Support team, within the county council’s Growth & Infrastructure Unit, helps facilitate growth and development across Hertfordshire through the collection and maintenance of county wide planning data.

To further support ongoing database management, and the provision of high-quality database reporting, we are recruiting a Senior Planning Data Officer. Role holders will help to manually input, validate, and collect planning data for planning applications across Hertfordshire.

Job Duties:

This is a new data-focused post within the Technical Support Team, with role holders reporting directly to the Technical Support Manager.

Role holders will support growth-related workstreams by supporting the use of Hertfordshire County Council’s SMART (Spatial Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology) planning database. Role holders should understand fundamental data literacy concepts and will be expected to engage in data entry, cleaning, validation, and reporting.

Role holders will also be expected to respond to internal and external queries on data or the SMART database itself.

The Senior Planning Data Officer will:

• Assist in the on-going development, maintenance and management of Hertfordshire County Council’s planning database known as SMART
• Prepare outputs from the SMART database in the form of database reports, assisting in the delivery of Local Plans and other planning-related workstreams
• Provide guidance and support to internal and external users of the SMART database, helping to answer user queries in both a written and verbal capacity
• Participate in and help to organise the annual monitoring survey, lasting approximately 12-weeks, inspecting planning applications on location across the county council

We are looking for an individual with a degree-level qualification in a relevant subject such as data analysis, data science or planning. Or, for any individual who has acquired equivalent experience in a professional setting (minimum 2-years).

We are also looking for individuals who have:

• Experience of data analysis, including the writing of structured queries within a database environment
• Experience in data analysis, on-going administration, and operational management of planning-related information monitoring systems
• An introductory understanding of local planning system and / or district planning application processes

This is a new role and opportunity to help develop and maintain the county council’s SMART database, which records planning data for planning applications across Hertfordshire.

Role holders will work with databases and planning data daily. They will engage with officers across Hertfordshire County Council and our local planning authority partners to provide data support and outputs, with opportunities to learn new skills in GIS and computer coding.

Closing Date: Thursday 5th October 2023
Interview Date: Tuesday 24th - Friday 27th October 2023 via Microsoft Teams