Associate Director, Data Analytics

Lead the Data Analytics department as the Associate Director, overseeing the critical function of translating raw data into structured, self-serve reporting capabilities here at Macmillan Publishers! Your leadership will focus on the strategic implementation and management of our analytics
framework within the Snowflake data warehouse, leveraging dbt as the core engine for data transformation and modeling. You will be directly responsible for shaping and governing our Data Architecture, strategically evolving it into well-defined, subject-area-focused Data Products.

Your role involves establishing processes to manage these Data Products effectively – ensuring their quality, consistency, and usability as independent yet related assets designed explicitly for self-serve reporting. This includes enforcing clear naming standards and maintaining a robust Data Glossary to facilitate user understanding and self-sufficiency. Data integrity and quality are paramount; you will guide the team in employing dbt testing, SQL, and Python for rigorous data validation, proactive issue resolution, and the creation of dependable database models and views that underpin these Data Products.

This role blends strategic oversight with hands-on technical understanding, requiring you to establish processes for sustainable and scalable data infrastructure development, treating data as a product. You will also manage all team hiring and development activities. Our ideal candidate combines strategic vision for data architecture (including experience organizing data into product-oriented domains) and governance, with strong technical proficiency in dbt, SQL, Python, and Snowflake, aiming to maximize data accessibility and reliability for business intelligence through well-managed data products.

What you'll do:

• Leadership:
  • Build, lead, and mentor a high-performing data architecture and analytics team focused on delivering structured, self-serve reporting capabilities.
  • Foster a culture of collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement.
  • Provide training and development opportunities to enhance data literacy across the organization.
  • Drive all recruiting and hiring processes for the department.
  • Oversee professional development initiatives, ensuring team members enhance their expertise in dbt, Snowflake, data modeling for self-serve consumption, Python, SQL, and data architecture best practices for all of our Data Products.
• Data Architecture, Management & Governance:
  • Develop, implement, and govern a scalable and efficient data architecture within Snowflake, strategically evolving it towards distinct, well-defined, subject-area-focused Data Products designed for self-serve reporting.
  • Establish and manage processes for the lifecycle of these Data Products, ensuring their quality, reliability, discoverability, and fitness for self-serve reporting needs.
  • Collaborate closely with the Data Engineering team to define requirements for raw data ingestion, ensuring data landed in Snowflake is timely, reliable, and structured appropriately for effective downstream transformation.
  • Establish best practices for data modeling, data warehousing, and data governance with a focus on creating and managing Data Products.
  • Manage data cataloging and lineage, ensuring up-to-date documentation and data models.
  • Develop and implement a robust process for enforcing Data Glossary Management with clear naming standards to facilitate user understanding and self-sufficiency.
  • Establish and enforce data quality standards and processes to ensure accuracy, completeness, and consistency.
  • Ensure data compliance and integrity, adhering to security policies and legal requirements.
  • Identify opportunities to integrate automated checks and tests within dbt to enhance data quality and consistency of the database models and views.
  • Enhance team knowledge across all aspects of the new architecture, including documentation best practices, dbt modeling techniques, style guides, and automated QA test cases.
• Data Analysis and Reporting:
  • Spearhead the transformation of raw data into well-structured Snowflake tables and views that serve as the foundation for self-serve reporting.
  • Conduct in-depth data analysis to drive decision-making and strategic planning across all parts of Macmillan.
  • Support the adoption of data visualization tools and self-service analytics platforms across the organization, empowering users to interact with Data Products independently
  • Define and standardize data transformation and curation processes using dbt (data build tool) to optimize data quality and usability.
  • Develop and optimize data marts to provide domain-specific data views, supporting reporting and analysis across business