Head of Data

Job description

Own the employer's data function end-to-end strategy, team, platform and delivery, turning first‑party data into trusted decisions today and a monetisable asset within two to three years in a regulated environment (PDPL/GDPR/NCA ECC). Produce the first documented data strategy and a phased, costed roadmap within 60 days, define the target operating model, and decide on managed vs. self‑hosted platform with a cost‑control model within 90 days. Align every data initiative to measurable business outcomes and re‑prioritise quarterly. Assess, develop and strengthen the existing team, set performance bars, define quarterly OKRs, hold fortnightly 1:1s and monthly stand‑ups. Ensure reliable, tested pipelines and client‑facing dashboards, manage the modern data stack (ClickHouse, Superset, BigQuery, Snowflake, Databricks) with pragmatic build/buy decisions. Institute FinOps discipline with monthly budget alerts. Establish a single source of truth, governed metrics layer, and raise analytical quality. Build data products such as embedded analytics and insight services, and define the first paid data/insight product within 12 months. Ensure data handling meets PDPL, GDPR and NCA requirements, set up data catalog and quality standards, and coordinate with InfoSec and GDPR leads. Drive data monetisation, package and price data products, and build governance foundations for external monetisation. Serve as trusted data partner to the executive team, promote data literacy and a data‑as‑business‑enabler culture, and represent data credibly with clients.

Requirements

• 10+ years in data
• 3–5 years in a senior data leadership role (Head of Data/Director) at a technology, SaaS or consumer‑platform company
• proven track record building and leading high‑performing data teams across engineering, analytics and governance
• deep hands‑on understanding of modern data platforms and stack (warehouses/lakehouses, dbt, orchestration, BI, serving)
• experience with open‑source platforms (ClickHouse, Superset) AND major managed platforms (BigQuery, Snowflake, Databricks) with pragmatic build/buy decisions
• strong command of data engineering and analytics practice (pipelines, dimensional modelling, semantic/metrics layers, data quality, observability)
• demonstrated ability to turn data into business value, including data products or monetisation
• working knowledge of data governance and privacy in a regulated environment (PDPL/GDPR) a strong plus
• commercial fluency to translate technical work into business and board‑level language
• proven ability to meet deadlines with evidence
• preferred: experience monetising data or building external data products
• familiarity with KSA and EU regulatory context (PDPL, GDPR, NCA ECC)
• experience making data AI‑ready and enabling ML/analytics at scale
• FinOps/cloud cost‑management experience
• relevant qualifications in data, computer science or related field
• cloud or platform certifications (GCP/AWS/Azure, Snowflake, Databricks) a plus
• experience in events, ticketing, e‑commerce or marketplace businesses.

Skills