Job Title: Data Analyst

Department: National Office of Clinical Audit (NOCA)

Tenure: One temporary and one permanent opportunity available

Location: St. Stephens Green, Dublin 2

Reporting to: Head of Data Sciences NOCA

Closing date for applications: 7th of December 2025

About National Office of Clinical Audit (NOCA)

The National Office of Clinical Audit (NOCA) was established in 2012 to create sustainable national clinical audit across the Irish healthcare system. NOCA is funded by the Health Service Executive Office of the Chief Clinical Officer (CCO), governed by an independent voluntary Board and operationally supported by the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI). Internationally, clinical audit is a recognised approach to improving the quality of patient care and improving outcomes. Working with the HSE and the Department of Health (DoH) through its National Clinical Effectiveness Committee (NCEC), NOCA designs, establishes and supports a portfolio of national clinical audits based on national priorities that include burden of care, variation of care, availability of clinical standards and economic benefit. NOCA advocates for change at a national level, arising from key findings in our audits. We do this by working with senior decision makers at both policy and operational levels within the Irish healthcare system. NOCA promotes transparent reporting and publishes national annual reports for each of its audits well as providing regular reports to health service providers.

NOCA Audit Portfolio

NOCA is the largest national clinical audit provider in Ireland. It has a growing number of national clinical audits and registers. Broadly the audit portfolio can be summarised into four key areas including: Trauma and Surgery, Critical Care, Paediatrics and Chronic Disease.

Purpose of the role

The postholder will work within the NOCA Data Science team to provide analytical support to audits across the NOCA audit portfolio

Role and Responsibilities:

Data Quality

• Perform data validation checks on data
• Implement strategies to improve data quality
• Provide feedback on data quality to audit managers and data providers
• Support audit managers and audit coordinators to achieve high quality data
• Contribute to ongoing audit and evaluation of data quality

Analysis

• Liaise with internal and external personnel to ensure that analytical requirements of clinical audit are captured
• Provide statistical outputs and responses to data requests from stakeholders and data providers
• Complete descriptive epidemiological and statistical analysis including calculations of derived variables
• Transform raw data into insights (eg reports, charts, visualisations)
• Assist with writing annual reports, research papers, journal articles, trend papers as appropriate

Quality Control and continuous improvement

• Maintenance of data science documentation (eg data dictionaries, analysis plan)
• Contribute to quality control checks of outputs from data science team
• Check/test code and outputs for data validation, analysis and visualisation
• Contribute to the enhancement/redevelopment of analytical tools as appropriate
• Contribute to automation of data analytical processes and presentation of outputs

Participate in NOCA clinical audit teams

• Contribute to NOCA meetings
• Participate in audit governance committee meetings as required

Contribute to Data Science team

• Actively participate in the implementation and improvement of NOCA data science policies, procedures, processes and guidelines
• Participate in teams as requested to contribute to the development of NOCA data science compliance with emerging standards under the European Health Data Space

Essential Requirements/Qualifications for the role:

• Hold a relevant primary degree in a relevant field of study with a strong data element (mathematics, computer science, statistics, data analytics, biological sciences, social sciences, etc)
• Has practical experience using a statistical analysis package (Stata/SPSS/SAS) and data analysis tool (SQL/R/Python)
• Professional experience with clinical data management/handling/analysis of Irish health-related data
• Demonstrable understanding of datatypes and descriptive statistical methods
• Excellent eye for detail, with a curious mindset and attitude for data discovery
• Ability to independently manage your own time and deliverables
• While hybrid working is accommodated, the ability to work from the NOCA office at least 3 days a week is a must
• Availability to start within one month of job offer

Desirable Requirements/ Qualifications for the role:

• Strong communication and documentation skills
• Statistical qualification
• Data analytics qualification
• Use of health domain data standards
• Experience analysing and reporting health information
• Interest in clinical audit and quality improvement

We are all too aware that imposter syndrome and the confidence gap can sometimes stop fantastic candidates putting themselves forward, so please do submit an application — we’d love to hear from you.

Eligibility to Work in Ireland

Please note that we are unable to offer visa sponsorship for the permanent role. Applicants must have unrestricted right to work in Ireland.

For the temporary leave cover position, applicants must have the legal right to work in Ireland for the full duration of the contract.