Lead Data Support Analyst

About us

Our purpose is simple: to save lives at sea. For 200 years, our lifeboat crews and lifeguards have shown selfless courage to rescue those in peril on the water. Behind them is a dedicated, talented team making it all possible. This is your chance to join that team and use your skills to help save lives every day.

The role

We’re building a dependable, modern data service so RNLI data users can trust the information they use to make decisions quickly and safely. As Lead Data Support Analyst, you’ll own the day-to-day run and operation function for our data estate. You’ll lead our L1/L2 Data Service Desk, set service standards and SLAs, and drive continuous improvement so outages reduce and recoveries are faster. You’ll steward major incident recovery for data services and turn lessons into robust runbooks, knowledge articles, and platform improvements—working closely with Engineering, Integration, BI, IT Service Management, and key suppliers.

You’ll oversee reliability and support for a modern stack that includes Power BI, Databricks, Azure Service Bus, SnapLogic, Gravitee, and observability tooling—ensuring monitoring and alerting are effective and common tasks are automated.

Working pattern

This is primarily an on-site role at our Support Centre in Poole (minimum three days a week) and shift-based. Shifts rotate between:

• 07:00 – 15:00
• 09:00 – 17:00
• 11:00 – 19:00

Due to the 24/7 nature of our lifesaving service, flexibility is essential. We’ll work with you to accommodate personal circumstances where possible.

What you’ll do

• Lead the L1/L2 Data Service Desk to meet or exceed agreed SLAs, ensuring disciplined incident, request, and problem management.
• Own and improve monitoring, alerting, and recovery procedures for Databricks jobs, Azure Service Bus queues/topics, SnapLogic pipelines, Gravitee gateways, and Power BI.
• Partner with Engineering, Integration, BI, Governance, Information Security, IT Service Management, and vendors to remove root causes and prevent recurrences.
• Drive automation of common tasks and improvements to observability tooling.

About you

You’re a practical service leader who enjoys solving operational data challenges and making things better every week. You’ll bring:

• Experience leading data or IT service desks, ideally with ITIL or similar frameworks.
• Strong understanding of incident, problem, and change management in complex environments.
• Hands-on knowledge of data platforms such as Power BI, Databricks, Azure Service Bus, SnapLogic, and API gateways.
• Ability to write clear documentation and communicate calmly under pressure.
• Familiarity with scripting or automation tools is a bonus.

What we offer

• Competitive pension scheme
• Flexible working and a culture that values work-life balance
• 26 days’ annual leave plus Bank Holidays
• Life assurance
• Excellent health and dental cash plan

Safeguarding

The RNLI is committed to safeguarding; protecting a person’s health, wellbeing, and human rights, enabling them to live free from harm, abuse, and neglect. We expect all employees and volunteers to share this commitment and have a zero-tolerance approach. The suitability of all prospective employees and volunteers will be assessed during the recruitment process in line with this commitment. This will include relevant criminal record checks being carried out dependent on the eligibility of the role. (England & Wales; DBS check, Scotland; Disclosure Scotland PVG, Northern Ireland; Access NI, Republic of Ireland; Garda Vetting; International, International Child Protection Certificate process).

Diversity at the RNLI

Our staff and volunteers have been saving lives at sea without prejudice for 200 years. We respect and value diversity of background, skills and perspectives within our teams, and consider it essential to help us deliver a world-class lifesaving service. We are an inclusive organisation and welcome applications from everyone. In addition to having the skills needed for the role, we also look for applicants who share our commitment to living our RNLI values (trustworthy, courageous, selfless, and dependable), and helping us work towards Our Vision: To save Every One.