Ross’ story

I started off here in the Clinical Trials Unit as part of research and development (R&D). NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) saw I had potential and recommended me to the assistant director of R&D. Long story short, I became the programme manager for a number of big data projects that we were running in R&D at the time.

As part of that role, I started delving into the intricacies of NHSBT’s data estate, which helped NHSBT see that they needed a data architect. I developed the role, and in 2020 it was formalised and I was hired into my current role. In 2022, I also took on the role of Product Owner of NHSBT’s data platform, to develop out the strategic reporting capability for the whole organisation.

As a Data Architect, I spend my time inputting on a range of projects with the strategic head, and as a Product Owner, I guide the development of NHSBT’s data platform.

There currently aren’t many data people working as strategic leads, so I represent that strategic viewpoint to make sure we have a good direction for what we decide to record, how we store it, and what we can then do with that data in terms of analysis. The data platform is a logical data warehouse that we’re collating, a reporting copy of all our datasets across the organisation for reporting purposes which allows all the directorate’s analysis teams to access the data, so they can report, analyse, and gain insights.

NHSBT’s mission is critical to saving lives, and that drives me forward. I want to continue to develop the data platform to encompass all the datasets that business users would like to report and analyse on, and develop data literacy and skills throughout the organisation.