Specialist, Education Specialist

Specialist, Education Specialist - this role aligns to industry-level titles such as Assessment Data Analyst.

Business unit / team: Pearson School Qualifications – Assessment

Location: Manchester or London, with hybrid working and occasional travel between Pearson offices as required.

Contract type: Permanent, full‑time

PURPOSE

The purpose of the Specialist, Education Specialist (Assessment Data Analyst) role is to support assessment quality, innovation and operational effectiveness through timely, accurate and insightful analysis of assessment data. The role enables evidence-based decision-making across assessment operations by providing analytical support during live series and post-series activity, identifying risks, trends and improvement opportunities. This is delivered through the development and continuous improvement of scalable data products and insight reporting that maximises the value of assessment data for stakeholders.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Deliver timely quality-assurance reporting for assessment creation, marking quality, grading and awarding, post-results activity, and customer/competitor insights, ensuring issues are identified, documented and routed to the appropriate owners.
• Provide accurate and insightful analysis to PSQ stakeholders to support operational decision-making, including rapid-turnaround analysis during live series and deeper post-series evaluation.
• Interrogate a broad range of assessment datasets to identify trends, anomalies, and risks/opportunities; produce clear findings, root-cause hypotheses and recommended actions for review and decision.
• Maintain up-to-date knowledge of assessment processes, products and stakeholders, and apply this understanding to interpret data correctly, anticipate operational impacts, and tailor insights to audience needs.
• Design, build, document and maintain dashboards, reports and analytical outputs, including defining metrics, assuring data quality, and implementing improvements based on user feedback.
• Partner with stakeholders to capture business questions and reporting requirements; translate these into clear analytical approaches (e.g., definitions, data sources, logic, validation) and deliver fit-for-purpose outputs to agreed timelines.
• Act on insight by escalating risks and exceptions through agreed governance routes, proposing interventions, and tracking outcomes to support continuous improvement and auditability.
• Use appropriate analytical tools (e.g., Excel, SQL, Tableau) to extract, transform, validate and analyse complex datasets, creating efficient, automated and well-controlled analytical processes.
• Promote data literacy across assessment teams by providing guidance on interpretation of dashboards/metrics, defining standards for reporting and documentation, and supporting stakeholders to use data confidently in decision-making.

SKILLS, KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

ESSENTIAL

• Data analysis: able to explore and analyse assessment datasets using appropriate analytical techniques to draw defensible conclusions.
• Problem solving: able to define the problem, form testable hypotheses, identify the right data, and validate results under time pressure.
• Insight communication: able to translate analysis into clear narratives for non-technical audiences, including key messages, assumptions/limitations and recommended actions.
• Data quality: able to apply robust validation and maintain high standards of accuracy, version control and documentation.
• Technical capability: advanced Excel; SQL (BigQuery, MS SQL Server); Tableau Desktop, Tableau Prep and Tableau Server.
• Stakeholder management: able to gather requirements, agree definitions/metrics, and work collaboratively across teams to deliver to fixed assessment timelines.

DESIRABLE

• Automation/advanced analytics: working knowledge of Python or R for data manipulation and repeatable analysis; and/or Alteryx for building reproducible data workflows.
• Assessment operations knowledge: understanding of end-to-end assessment delivery (e.g., question paper creation, marking, grading/awarding, post-results), and the key quality measures used to monitor performance.
• Data protection and security: practical experience handling confidential/personal data in line with policies and controls (e.g., access management, secure storage/sharing, data minimisation and retention).
• Experience in standardising data practices to ensure consistent documentation and sustainable analytical outputs.
• Experience working in a high-stakes and heavily-regulated environment, ensuring compliance with both external and internal policies & procedures.

Your rewards & benefits

We know you’ll do great work, so we give a lot back with some of the best benefits in the business. We know one size doesn’t fit all, so our workplace programs meet the different needs of our diverse teams, and their families too.

Please see our attractive UK benefits here: Pearson Jobs – Benefits

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Who we are

At Pearson, our purpose is simple: to help people realize the life they imagine through learning. We believe that every learning opportunity is a chance for a personal breakthrough. We are the world's lifelong learning company. For us, learning isn't just what we do. It's who we are. To learn more: We are Pearson.

Pearson is an Equal Opportunity Employer and a member of E-Verify. Employment decisions are based on qualifications, merit and business need. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, ethnicity, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status or any other group protected by law. We actively seek qualified candidates who are protected veterans and individuals with disabilities as defined under VEVRAA and Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act.

If you are an individual with a disability and are unable or limited in your ability to use or access our career site as a result of your disability, you may request reasonable accommodations by emailing TalentExperienceGlobalTeam@grp.pearson.com.

Job: Learning Subject Matter Experts

Job Family: LEARNING_&_CONTENT_DEVELOPMENT

Organization: Assessment & Qualifications

Schedule: FULL_TIME

Workplace Type: Hybrid

Req ID: 26438