SENIOR DATA LEAD (REMOTE)

Salary:  $130,000 - $140,000

 

We are CDAI—the data and artificial intelligence engine of Compass Group North America. We design and deliver custom, in-house solutions tailored to the unique complexities of food service and hospitality. Our work is grounded in strong data foundations, layered with AI to enhance forecasting, streamline operations, and enable better, faster decision-making across Compass Group. With deep integration into the business and a commitment to white-glove service, CDAI empowers associates, clients, and customers through innovative, future-forward technologies.

Job Summary

We are seeking a Senior Data Analyst who is passionate about understanding complex source systems and data structures and translating them into meaningful, well-governed master data. This role sits at the heart of our enterprise data strategy, enabling consistent, high-quality product, manufacturer, and distributor data that supports numerous business processes across the organization.

You will serve as a bridge between data engineering, architecture, product management, and business stakeholders, ensuring that data is modeled, governed, and trusted across the ecosystem. The ideal candidate combines deep technical proficiency in SQL and data profiling with a strong sense of how master data drives business outcomes.

Key Responsibilities

· Develop a deep understanding of multiple source systems and how their data supports master data and business processes.

· Serve as a subject matter expert and data champion within the product domain, guiding others in navigating and interpreting source and master data effectively.

· Profile, assess, and explore datasets to identify data quality issues, anomalies, and inconsistencies across systems.

· Partner with business stakeholders to translate data needs into clear, actionable data definitions, mappings, and requirements.

· Support and enforce data governance, standards, and normalization practices that improve consistency and trust in enterprise data assets.

· Collaborate with data modelers and database designers to maintain logical and physical data models aligned to master data principles.

· Define and document entities, attributes, relationships, and lineage, with primary responsibility for the logical mapping from sources to master targets.

· Distinguish between master, reference, and transactional data, ensuring each is properly structured and maintained.

· Validate and test master data outcomes to confirm compliance with business and quality rules.

· Conduct root cause analysis on data issues and work with IT and business teams to drive resolution.

· Partner with data engineers to ensure integrations, transformations, and pipelines align with defined data rules and standards.

· Define survivorship rules and golden-record logic for product/manufacturer/distributor entities; design and tune match/merge and deduplication strategies (deterministic + fuzzy)

· Lead source-to-master mapping design reviews and sign-off; maintain the canonical mapping/specs as the contract between source teams and MDM.

· Influence the MDM roadmap with requirements for new attributes, taxonomies, and mastering rules based on downstream consumer needs

Must-Have Qualifications

· 7–10 years of experience as a Data Analyst or in a similar analytical/data stewardship capacity.

· Expert-level SQL skills for querying, profiling, and validating data across large, complex datasets.

· Proven ability to explore, assess, and reconcile data across multiple platforms, identifying root causes of quality issues.

· Strong understanding of data modeling, normalization, and entity-relationship design.

· Experience defining and managing master vs. reference vs. transactional data boundaries.

· Demonstrated ability to translate business requirements into precise technical data definitions and mappings.

· Excellent documentation and communication skills; able to convey complex data concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.

· Demonstrated experience designing and tuning match/merge logic (exact, probabilistic, and fuzzy matching) and documenting survivorship rules.

· Proven ability to author precise source-to-target specs (entities, attributes, lineage) and hold cross-team design reviews to sign off.

Nice-to-Have Qualifications

· Hands-on experience with Master Data Management (MDM) systems or governance frameworks.

· Background in food service, purchasing, processing, or retail, particularly around product, manufacturer, and distributor data.

· Experience with MDM platforms (e.g., Informatica MDM/360, Reltio, Tibco EBX, Semarchy) or building bespoke mastering on