The Director of Analytics has a primary responsibility of leading the data analytics and data warehousing departments, overseeing all activities and ensuring alignment with the business’s vision and objectives. The Director of Analytics aligns and directs the management, development, and integration of data analytics and business intelligence necessary for supporting the mission, vision strategies, objectives, and goals of business.
The Director of Analytics organizes and assembles the man-power, technology, processes, and financial resources necessary to address the current and future analytics needs of the business. The Director of Analytics understands that information and data are key business asset and operationalizes the application of data and information in order to deliver optimal performance. The Director of Analytics, is also a member of the business’s executive committee and will participate in various committees meetings as necessary to influence data capabilities and competencies within the business.
Leadership/Supervisory Role: This is the most prominent role of the Director Analytics and in this position he oversees and monitors all activities of the data analytics and data warehousing departments and personnel. The Director of Analytics provides thought leadership and acts as a subject matter expert in the designing and recommending of appropriate analytical approaches and methodology in addressing key issues within the business. The Director of Analytics leads the data analytics and data warehousing teams in research, development, and implementation of appropriate data systems that lead to improved business performance and achievement of overall business goals.
The Director of Analytics is also responsible for driving departmental culture and promoting data-driven decision-making, consumer-driven analytics, marketing, and investment planning across the business. The Director of Analytics additionally builds a profile of data and analytics by providing clear data and analytics stories and spreading them across the business. This is in regard to why data work is important, the insights revealed by data analytics, and actions that should follow the data analyses. In this capacity, the Director of Analytics will also play a mentorship role to key data analytics and data warehousing personnel, ensuring constant improvement in their professional skills, guiding in the execution of their duties upon request, and essentially readying them for taking up his position in the future.
Strategy: The role of the Director of Analytics is also a strategic one and in this position, the Director of Analytics provides management visibility into data-driven insights that inform the business’s strategic direction and KPI’s. In this position, the Director of Analytics also determines the adoption of suitable modular tool-sets that drive innovation and create an advantage for the business. He also supports other business executives and departmental leaders in making strategic, data-driven decisions, in regard to new products, additional use cases, customer segments, investments, among other subjects.
Collaboration: The role of the Director of Analytics is also a highly collaborative one. The Director of Analytics will work closely with the internal departmental heads and executives in an effort to guarantee the delivery of high-quality execution of the diverse array of project deliverables. In this collaboration, the Director of Analytics also participates in the formulation of data-driven departmental/business decisions (how, where, when, which channels, and so forth) and demonstrates delivery against the business’s overall objectives.
The Director also works closely with the Director Data Science, ensuring alignment of strategies within the Data and Analytics department. The Director of Analytics, in his collaborative capacity, also partners with the HR department in determining the criteria of recruitment for data analytics and data warehousing personnel in order to guarantee constant and efficient execution of duties within these departments.
Analytics: The Director of Analytics also has analytical role to play, and in this position, he builds, maintains, and improves the existing business intelligence and analytics tools across the department and across the business. The Director of Analytics additionally leads measurement framework development and defines the business KPIs alongside senior data and analytics leadership. He also drives and oversees initiatives to meet and even exceed performance expectations, key metrics, and enable overall profitability of the business. It is also the Director of Analytics’ role to assess the commercial value and risks of growth opportunities as well as provide analytics that will position the business for dynamic growth.
Knowledge and Opportunity: The Director of Analytics also has the responsibility to stay informed and keep up with the latest industry trends and best practices that he subsequently imparts on the data warehousing and data analytics personnel for constant growth and optimal departmental and business performance. In this capacity, the Director of Analytics establishes the business as an industry leader by actively participating in data conferences, workshops, seminars, and so forth.
Other Duties: The Director of Analytics performs similar duties as he deems fit for the proper execution of his duties and duties as assigned by the Chief Data Officer or the Employer.
Education: The Director of Analytics has to have a master’s degree (Phd preferred) in Data Science, Computer Science, Information Technology, Economics, Statistics, Information Systems, Applied Math, Business Administration, or any other related field. An equivalent of the same in working experience is also acceptable for the position.
Experience: A candidate for this position will have had at least 10 years of working experience in a data analytics or data warehousing department, preferably working as a Head of Analytics. The candidate will also have had vast and successful experience in bringing together diverse functions and building teams that include data analytics and warehousing personnel, guiding them through successful data analytic projects.
The candidate will also demonstrate experience in business process analysis, data architecture design and development as well as the implementation of workflow enabled solutions. A suitable candidate will also have experience working in market/business intelligence, strategic planning, project management, and cross-functional business experience as well as vast experience working with large data-sets and computing systems such as Hadoop.
Communication Skills: The Director of Analytics must have excellent communication skills in both verbal and written form. Being the head of the data analytics and data warehousing departments, the Director of Analytics will need to be able to clearly communicate instructions and sensitive information down the line for data analytics and data warehousing personnel to effectively execute their duties. Communication skills will also be needed in the collaborative capacity of the Director where clear communications will be needed to facilitate smooth interaction and efficient execution of collaborative duties.
The Director will also report to the Chief Data Officer and relevant stakeholders on the performance of the data analytics and warehousing departments as well as drafting and presenting proposed strategic approaches for departments across the business. These reports and presentation must be clear, concise, convincing, easy-to-understand, and tailored to suit the audience at hand.
Computer Skills/Ms Office/Software: The Director of Analytics must also have excellent computer skills and be highly proficient in the use of Ms Word, Ms Excel, PowerPoint, which will be necessary in the creation of visually and verbally engaging reports and presentations, for departmental heads/management, senior analytics leadership, and key stakeholders. The Director of Analytics must also be skilled in Salesforce, SQL server reporting services, Tableau, analysis services, or any other data visualization tools.
Analytical Skills: The Director of Analytics must also be passionate and highly skilled in research and data analytics. A candidate for this position must, therefore, be skilled in transforming data and affecting business processes in order to support data governance and integrity. The candidate will also be highly knowledgeable in the use of emerging open source tools while conducting analyses on large and unstructured data-sets.
He will additionally have technical experience with enterprise data warehouse solutions, statistical analysis tools, database systems, and data visualization applications. The candidate must also be skilled in the use of SQL and be highly proficient in the workings of data technologies, for example, Hadoop, Teradata, among others. He will additionally have a deep understanding of A/B testing and be highly knowledgeable in key metric identification for driving and maintaining healthy business performance.
Interpersonal Skills: A candidate for this position must also have certain personal attributes that make him more suited for the position. The candidate must be detail oriented, be comfortable working in a collaborative setting, be comfortable working with business senior executives, be self-motivated requiring minimal supervision, be proactive, be a creative strategic and independent thinker, have superior problem-solving skills, have an ability to work on multiple projects and meet tight-deadlines, have a positive can-do attitude, and demonstrate calmness and composure in times of uncertainty and stress.
Leadership/People Skills: A candidate for the position must demonstrate exceptionally good leadership skills, demonstrating an ability to inspire and lead a large cross-functional group in a unified direction with a common vision. He will also demonstrate an ability to influence business leadership and executives. He must be a likable, approachable, and relatable individual who junior analytics personnel will readily follow and who will inspire trust in departmental heads/management across the department, senior analytics and warehousing leadership, and stakeholders who will give outright credit to his insights and judgments.