Deputy Director, Data Operations Strategy

Responsibilities

Develop and implement the strategic direction for improving data operations statewide

• Working with the Statewide Chief Data Officer, develop the direction and roadmap for the team in alignment with the Statewide Data Strategy and the ODI strategy.
• Develop and maintain relationships with other State leaders to help advance modern data operations in state departments.
• Collaborate with the Assistant Chief Data Officer and Statewide Data Programs Manager on identifying needs and gaps in departments and prioritizing development of relevant resources to address those gaps like playbooks, toolkits, or courses.
• In collaboration with the Assistant CDO and CDO, serve as a key executive champion and help identify ways to promote the adoption of tools and practices for data operations across departments in the state of California.
• Collaborate with the Assistant Chief Data Officer on developing standards and associated guides, toolkits, and decision aids for adopting modular data platforms and analytics engineering practices.
• Liaison with external data engineering leaders within and outside the state to shape their policies and approaches to meet their needs.
• Work with the team to develop strategies for client acquisition and engagement.
• Work with the team to define performance measures and tracking metrics for services, programs, and projects as needed.
• Advise the Chief Data Officer on the long-term data services roadmap in terms of platform and tooling needs, and broader capacity building strategies designed to accelerate adoption of the modern data stack.
• Provide expert guidance and consulting with leadership across the state to establish, enhance, or grow their analytic efforts consistent with statewide standards, requirements, and modern data practices.

Oversee ongoing development of data services and data platforms to ensure that data is available as a service via open data, apis, and warehouses to our teammates and partners

• Set the framework and prioritize resources for the continuous evaluation and assessment of new tools and technologies to support data engineering services and platforms.
• Ensure the team builds products and services that provide secure and reliable data as a service to meet various needs for digital, analytics, and data projects.
• Provide hands-on technical leadership to guide and mentor team in building scalable data services and platforms.
• Liaison with ODI’s software engineering team and IT-operations to ensure data services and platforms meet their needs and requirements.
• Build and promote an agile development culture.
• Establish strong security standards and protocols across data platforms and tools to appropriately protect and secure data.
• Ensure the creation of tools and materials for ODI team members to drive adoption and use of data services and platforms.
• Ensure self-service components to minimize staff overhead and to optimize adoption speed.
• Develop strategies with our department clients to ensure successful handoffs for implementation within client departments.

Manage data engineering and services team, including planning, budget, and operational needs and as needed manage external contractors and partnerships

• Build a high performance, high accountability team with high levels of psychological safety and respect for diversity and equity in our state work.
• Coach and develop data and analytics engineers and ensure that team members are appropriately engaged and focused on delivering client value with a strong user-centered orientation.
• Liaison with the Deputy Director of Advanced Analytics and Evaluation and other partner deputies and teams to align and ensure resources are appropriately allocated.
• Manage contracts and vendor relationships to support the work of the team.
• Work with ODI operations and CalData division leadership to identify resource needs and to shape budget requests as necessary.

Skillset

• You are passionate about improving analytics at scale.
• You enjoy managing a portfolio of programs and are adept at identifying opportunities to multiply impact across them.
• You can think both systematically about program structure and connect empathetically with the users of those programs.
• You enjoy working across entities to coordinate and align work.
• You thrive on managing complex meeting dynamics and stakeholder relationships.
• You have a successful track record of managing cross-entity work.
• You love getting hands-on data and analytics work to create change but love even more helping others.
• You are passionate about improving use of data across the state of California.