Head of Data Strategy

 Location: UK - Hatfield, UK - London, UK - Manchester, UK - Milton Keynes, UK - Nottingham | Job-ID: 213406 | Contract type: Standard | Business Unit: Information Technology

Life on the team

You will be overseeing the development and implementation of a comprehensive data strategy, encompassing data governance, data management, data quality, and data analytics ensuring high quality data outcomes, data leading to insight and insight leading to action, maximizing the value of information, and treating data as an asset.

What you’ll do

A Head of Data Strategy, you will be responsible for the definition and implementation of our Data Strategy; this includes all aspects of data governance, data management, data quality, master data management and reporting / analytics / insight outcomes – and should be regarded as a subset of our Technology Strategy. 

You will:

• Own, define and develop the Data Strategy working with the Technology Office and other teams (inside and outside GIS) to develop and implement a data strategy that meets our current and future needs including a vision of the future (Incorporate the vision for data management, data governance, data analytics, and data-driven decision-making across the organization into the strategy); developing and prioritising a 3-year roadmap for deployment and adoption; and an enterprise architecture that describes the current and future state. As part of this, identify new services and capture them in the service catalogue, ensuring existing services are reviewed regularly and refreshed or retired.
• Work closely with the Technology Office to make sure that Portfolio Management outcomes are met; actively drive definition and sponsorship of new data-related initiatives to make sure that these align with strategic principles / strategic lessons learned – managing the data-related initiatives in line with and as part of the broader portfolio
• Drive establishment of data standards, data policies and procedures that secures and assure data is processed in line with all relevant compliance requirements
• Define and secure agreement, sponsor and drive the execution of investments (~tbc per annum at its peak), initiatives and improvements ensuring they are delivered to the required time, cost and quality and they deliver the anticipated outcomes and benefits (by following agreed methodologies, processes, & governance):
  • For Technology related topics this includes:
    • Identifying value, creating visions, and planning inc. EPICs & user stories; PI planning, backlog prioritisation, Kanban boards, etc
    • Establish a continuous delivery pipeline (exploration, integration, deployment):
    • Design thinking, solutions architecture, and detailed design.
    • Build of solutions and their testing (unit, system, integration, performance, user acceptance, operational acceptance)
    • Transition into production inc. agile release trains.  Where relevant, drive the development of specific strategies to support clear onward initiation and execution of work required to achieve, which includes defining the strategic approach and working across other parts of Group is to understand the business / investment case; and work with the Technology Office to support the selection and implementation of appropriate technologies to support the data governance framework
• Sponsor and drive the execution of investments, initiatives and improvements ensuring they are delivered to the required time, cost and quality and they deliver the anticipated outcomes and benefits (by following agreed methodologies, processes, & governance).
• Deliver a cohesive Group Data Model assuring consistent master data, reference data, metadata and optimised data pipelines to assure alignment of master data across processes and systems.
• Work with market analysts and stay close to vendors, partners as well as the broader Computacenter proposition set to determine opportunities that can be exploited using technology; provide thought leadership both inside and outside of Computacenter relating to the Data Strategy, and data related topics

What you’ll need

Essential:

• GIS operating model
• Frameworks and processes, etc., e.g. ITIL, SAFe, DevSecOps, etc.
• 3 + years’ experience in a strategy definition role
• Data Management specific concepts:
  • Familiarity with data modeling, data architecture, and data integration concepts.
  • Experience with data warehouse data lake and data science tools.
  • SQL and C#, Phyton and AI experiences are highly desirable.
  • Strong understanding of data delivery, data science, data quality management, and data security practices.

Leadership responsibilities:

• Responsible for elements to the profit and loss of the individual or contributing to commercial definition / analysis
• Accountable for the management of their capabilities & team, where direct reports 
• Accountable for the team / area keeping in line with the Design authority within the IT Operating Model 
• Owns the business interface, enabling the Strategic Partnering function, for the department building creditability and relationships with senior stakeholders.  Taking the technical knowledge, assessing, and translating into business language
• Accountable for driving effective communication within the department.
• Developing, coaching, and supporting a team of functional specialists / peers and individuals across a matrix organisation
• Accountable for driving urgency and commitment to high standards of ethics, regulatory compliance, customer service with business integrity.  With an unyielding focus on customer service excellence.
• Priority setting
• Organising
• Process management
• Perseverance and resilience
• Problem solving

About us

With over 20,000 employees across the globe, we work at the heart of digitisation, advising organisations on IT strategy, implementing the most appropriate technology, and helping our customers to source, transform and manage their technology infrastructure in over 70 countries. We deliver digital technology to some of the world’s greatest organisations, driving digital transformation, enabling people and their business.