We currently have two vacancies for IC-ENC Data Validators in our team and so we thought this blog would be a great opportunity to spread the word about our team. IC-ENC stands for the International Centre for Electronic Navigational Charts, which is a Regional ENC Coordination Centre (RENC) and not-for-profit organisation operated by UKHO. We are a team of 14 at present, split into a management team and validation team.

The IC-ENC Data Validator role is fundamental to delivering IC-ENC’s Validation Service, and focuses on the quality assurance of S-57 ENC data from 48 Hydrographic Offices (IC-ENC members) around the world to ensure that their data is safe to be released to market.

The Validation Team is a global team with the main office located here in the UK, and three regional offices located in Australia, Brazil and Washington, USA. Each regional office provides support to the members in their region, including validation and production support, and members also benefit from a language and time zone perspective. UKHO remains the operator of IC-ENC and those here at UKHO are UKHO staff.

The Validators use a variety of software tools to analyse each ENC against the S-57 and S-58 standards, as well as IC-ENC policies which are based on user experience. The Validators then analyse and interpret the output software logs, categorising each error message and then deciding whether improvement action needs to be taken in the ENC. They also conduct a set of consistency checks which look at consistency between adjacent ENCs as well as overall safety and usability of the products. These checks are performed both within the validation tools and on ECDIS (Electronic Chart Display and Information System) systems. Lastly, the Validators produce a detailed validation feedback report for each validation which offers guidance on how correct any issues identified and recommended improvement action, as well as providing an overall picture of the ENC’s quality and suitability for release.

I spent just under five years as a Validator. Before this, I had worked in the HDB (Hydrographic Database) Datafill team for around a year, so I had some experience with ENCs already, but it wasn’t essential to have that experience as I was given extensive on-the-job training when I joined the team. I really enjoyed my time as a Validator as I got to work with 48 different Hydrographic Offices’ ENC data. This was really interesting to me because some nations have national policies which mean that their data is captured in a slightly different way to other nations, so although the validation process is the same each time, my work was still quite varied in that sense. I also enjoyed working as part of a close-knit team in the UK office, as well as with the regional office teams and wider management team. We are an interesting bunch of characters, but we all get on well and have fun when we’re all in the office together! We’ve also recently started having monthly psychological safety sessions which is having a positive impact in encouraging open communication amongst the team and bringing both the management team and validation team closer together.

One of the best things about the Validator role is that there are opportunities to get involved with other projects and tasks. I was fortunate to have had many such opportunities which helped with my development and helped me to focus in on the key areas of work I enjoyed. For example, I became heavily involved with organising the Steering Committee and Technical Conference events and became secretary for these events. I was also involved with the development of the new Data Management Database, our key workflow tool. These opportunities provided me with a broader skillset and provided me with good examples to use for job applications.

After my time as a Validator, I spent three years in the Digital Chart Production Team creating and updating GB ENCs. My Validation experience was very beneficial for this role as I already had a good understanding of how features and attributes should be captured, albeit now I was purely focused on UKHO specific capture policies. I really enjoyed this role, especially where I got to update the database and re-digitise whole areas of an ENC. When I began to hear S-100 mentioned more around the office, I became interested in learning more and so when my current role came up on the vacancies page, I knew I wanted to apply, not just because of what I’d be doing but because of the positive experience I’d had in the IC-ENC team previously.

My current role as S-100 Support Officer is focused on building knowledge of the S-10x standards and developing our IC-ENC S-100 Services. My knowledge and understanding of ENC Validation, ENC Production and the key IHO standards has been really useful in my current role, particularly with a project we have been focusing on for the past year to enhance the Data Management Database workflow tool for our current S-57 Service as well as build in S-100 functionality. Again, in this role I have had some excellent opportunities to get involved with other projects, some of these include an IC-ENC brand and website refresh project, becoming reverse mentor to James (IC-ENC General Manager) and leading on the psychological safety sessions alongside Ruth (Production Support Officer). I will also soon be starting another project alongside Ruth and Su (S-100 Manager) around Empowering Women in Hydrography which we are looking forward to.

For more information, please contact Tom Richardson or Aaran Champion. The closing date for the roles is Sunday 12th February.

— Laura Tyzack, S-100 Support Officer