Data Strategy Manager

Data Strategy Manager

Job Summary

 

The Data Strategy Manager will serve a key role in the Flow Controls Business Intelligence and application development strategy from a data knowledgebase, business engagement, prioritization, and development facilitation perspective, in order to serve business analytics and application data needs.   

They will be responsible for developing strategy and managing the “grey area” between business analysts who don’t speak relational databases, and Power BI and App Developers who aren’t as familiar with business processes and needs.  The role will require someone who enjoys analytics and research, is organized, and sees the value in documentation such as Data Catalogs, and who feels that Data Quality and good stewardship are worthy endeavors.  They should be equally comfortable discussing EDW/ETL strategy with Power BI teams and interfacing with business teams in an advisory and requirements gathering role.

They will also be capable of designing and facilitating development of data solutions in the Azure and SQL Server ecosystems by ensuring quality requirements gathering, prioritization, and development execution by overseeing sprints, standups, and developer workflow.

The Data Strategy Manager gives input into the overall relational database strategy, owns the documentation around the various environments’ data flows, and as knowledge grows, develops the informational repository which will serve as a central resource for the how, where, why, and when, from a data perspective.  The PBI / RDBMS strategy, infrastructure, and technical staff work as a program to support Flow Controls (Fisher) North America manufacturing locations, corporate offices, as well as globally used EDW databases and systems.  The Data Strategy Manager is a member of the Global Business Systems IT group.

Essential Job Functions:

Curate, document, and integrate knowledge about the various data sources, flows, and consumption of critical Flow Controls business data systems.  Advise and liaise to various business and IT teams about the source, nature, availability, and value of various data sets.  Manage the EDW developers on how this data needs to be transformed, packaged, and delivered to the business community.   Act as a focal to the Flow Controls business community to support their business data needs. 

• Work with business to determine reporting / data analysis needs, identifying opportunities for local processes to be used regionally / globally, or inversely to educate users on already existing solutions that already meet their needs.
• Work with DW architects / developers to determine data sources for reporting or request new projects for obtaining missing data and participate in project execution representing the needs of both business and IT communities.   
• Make recommendation on where to embed business logic, either in the ETL, views, or reporting layer.
• Support business users / analysts and Intelligent Automation teams to identify proper sources for localized reporting and processes. 
• Monitoring data access patterns and user opinions to highlight opportunities for improvement in the user experience.
• Be familiar with and provide input on optimum data delivery and assembly options:
  • Views.
  • Materialized views / data tables.
  • Scheduled (snapshot) reporting.
• Maintain a comprehensive data catalog / dictionary for business user / ad-hoc user, IT analyst, developer, and management consumption.
• Serve as a liaison between data consumers (business users) and Power BI / EDW developers in other orgs.
• Direct work for Enterprise IT and other contract and project resources as needed through Agile methodologies (requirements definitions, user stories, backlog grooming, standups, etc.)

• Identify, prioritize, and manage internal “must-do” projects (life cycle replacement, etc.) and business initiatives.  Steer all projects toward policy compliance, adherence to standards, cost containment, and value, while guiding the business towards realistic expectations of performance, uptime, and risk.

• Relationship management of the various RDBMS vendors & support tool vendors (Microsoft, Red Gate, Quest, etc.) 

Education / Experience Required:

• BS/BA degree plus 8-10 years’ experience
• 3+ years managing people
• Experience with relational database and reporting services and teams in a corporate environment

• Experience with an Enterprise class data center and cloud computing
  
  

Knowledge / Skills / Abilities: 

• Some strategic and technical expertise of relational database systems and at least one end user reporting platform (Power BI, Cognos, Noetix, etc.)
• Comfortable exploring, reviewing, and interpreting TSQL, relational database table structure, views, and stored procedures.
• Basic familiarity with supporting enterprise class systems: server hardware, OS, SAN, networking, firewalls, Active Directory, virtualization, and cloud implementation, understanding the role these play in the EDW / PBI experience
• Some TSQL development experience
• Good interpersonal and written skills
• Good presentation and communication skills
• Good planning skills
• Ability to liaise with and influence corporate shared services teams
• Ability to negotiate system downtime and delivery timelines with business stakeholders
• Ability to communicate in business language
• Ability to manage multiple projects and priorities
• Ability to remain flexible and professional while under pressure
• Resource and project management within the data ecosystem
• Manage enterprise risk from an infrastructure, security, data loss, and downtime perspective
• Conflict management

Bonus Skills:

• ERP exposure, especially within a manufacturing business

• SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) development

• Advanced TSQL development

• Power BI / SSRS Report development

• Data Warehousing exposure and methodologies

  • Understanding data sources / types

  • Designing Data Marts

  • Recommending EDW Architecture changes

• Experience with documentation and information sharing systems such as Wikis, Confluence, SharePoint, Red Gate SQL Doc, or similar.

• Azure or other cloud experience (Azure DevOps, Data Factory, Synapse, etc.)

Work Environment / Conditions:Normal office environment, voluntary hybrid work model available.   Physical Locations: Marshalltown, IA or Sherman, TXPhysical Demands: Ability to work at computer for extended periods of time.  Occasional travel required.   

This job description is intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed; it is not intended to be construed as an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties, and skills required for the position.

All job requirements are subject to possible modification to reasonably accommodate individuals with disabilities. 

This job description in no way states or implies that these are the only duties to be performed by the employee occupying this position. Requirements are representative of the minimum levels of knowledge/skills/abilities and education/experience to perform this job successfully.

Experience Level

Mid Level