Job Title: Head of Data & Analytics

Location: Cardiff / Hybrid

What is Sonovate

We are a lending and technology company with a clear vision: to be The Funding Platform for the Future of Work. Our embedded payment solution empowers the new world of work. By offering flexible payments, it lets recruiters, consultants, and labour marketplaces place contractors and freelancers to unlock their cashflow to capitalise on the opportunities that flexible working provides. This means our customers can draw funds as and when they need them to pay their workers while waiting for end clients to pay them on their own terms.

Find out more about thestoryof Sonovate, checkout ourvaluesand here are somebenefitsif you were to join us!

Accountability:

The Head of Data and Analytics is accountable for the timely delivery of valuable, high-quality and robust data products and services to both internal and external stakeholders. It is a pivotal role in driving our data/AI strategy and for ensuring that the Data team is motivated and engaged.

Key responsibilities:

Strategic Business Alignment:

• Develop a prioritised roadmap aligned to business vision that drives growth, efficiency and risk mitigation through effective use of data across the organisation
• Establish and communicate a clear vision and strategy for data and AI that aligns with roadmap and business vision
• Own and ensure resolution of tasks assigned to any data team member in relevant cross-functional projects
• Serve as a data spokesperson for the company, communicating with various stakeholders, including customers, partners, and investors where necessary
• Regularly report to Leadership team on your team’s performance with any concerns, issues and recommended remediation where applicable

Team Leadership and Development:

• Manage, mentor, and support a multidisciplinary team of data engineers, analysts, scientists and governance professionals. Attend and engage in any training requested and/or provided to support your development as a senior manager
• Facilitate collaborative team meetings and individual assessments with direct reports such as one-on-one meetings and performance reviews to ensure that individual team members are supported in their career development
• Monitor and compare the team’s adherence to key performance indicators and take remedial action if improvement is required
• Regularly review the agile delivery models set out by each team to foster continuous improvement, learning and knowledge sharing
• Manage resource allocation, predict resource needs and oversee hiring process when required

Technical Governance:

• Design and oversee the scaling of our data infrastructure, ensuring it meets the growing demands of the business
• Ensure data platforms and pipelines are robust, secure, and optimised for performance and scalability, working closely with DevOps/Platform Engineering
• Mandate cross-team adherence to all essential non-functional requirements and ensure compliance with applicable industry regulations and standards; author and manage such requirements where appropriate
• Evaluate and implement modern data tools and technologies to enhance infrastructure and support business growth
• Stay ahead of industry trends, especially in fintech, ensuring that the company leverages cutting-edge data technologies and practices

Data Governance and Quality Assurance:

• Implement a scalable data governance strategy with the Data Protection Officer (DPO) that includes setting and adhering to data quality / regulatory standards, ensuring clear ownership of data assets and embedding quality practices
• Implement automated testing, validation, and monitoring processes to ensure data integrity, accuracy and compliance as initiatives are delivered
• Ensure consistent and up-to-date technical documentation, while tracking and prioritising the resolution of technical debt
• Establish engineering quality-scoring regime (i.e. a multi-variate analysis across factors such as levels of code coverage, static analysis, code reviews/inspections and automated regression tests) and have strategy to measure and improve quality as business matures

Data and AI as Products:

• Champion the concept of data as a product, ensuring clear ownership of data assets and alignment with business priorities
• Collaborate with business teams to define and deliver well-structured data products that meet the needs of internal and external stakeholders
• Drive initiatives to improve the accessibility, usability, and quality of data across the organisation, enabling data-driven decision-making at all levels
• Lead initiatives that explore AI/ML opportunities, integrating these into the data product roadmap to deliver predictive insights and innovative solutions

Attributes of the successful candidate

• A proven track-record of engineering commercial software applications (i.e. technology that is sold to customers); ideally B2B applications
• Technical proficiency – the team is relatively small and the role will still require hands-on assistance from time-to-time:
• Expert-level proficiency in SQL and Python, with strong experience in modern data platforms (Fivetran, dbt, Snowflake)
• Deep knowledge of cloud-based data architectures, particularly in Azure (Functions, LogicApps, etc.), experience in containerization (Docker) and Infrastructure-as-Code (Terraform, ARM templates)
• Familiarity with DevOps practices, including CI/CD pipelines and tools like Azure DevOps
• Experience with AI/ML tools and frameworks and familiarity with model deployment and MLOps practices
• A strong cultural fit: ability to solve problems and think creatively; willingness to be adaptable in a dynamic, competitive environment; resolute in taking ownership and being accountable
• Able to make timely and effective decisions, often under pressure whilst remaining calm and in control
• Emotionally-intelligent: able to be empathetic and understanding of cross-team dynamics, fostering a positive and inclusive work environment
• Excellent communication skills. This includes demonstrating the ability to guide stakeholder conversations in plain English, even when dealing with complicated business, product or technical concepts
• Excellent internal and external stakeholder management; whilst the role will initially be internally-focused, it is likely to extend externally as we develop Embedded Finance solutions for new class of technical customers and users
• Willingness to participate in the practical application of product discovery techniques (e.g. design sprints, experiments and prototypes, hackathons, workshops, interviews)

Benefits:

• 28 days holiday + bank holidays
• Private medical insurance with Bupa
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Techscheme with Apple and Currys PC World
• Cyclescheme
• Working with latest technologies and leading SaaS providers
• Eye care vouchers with Specsavers
• 50% discounted gym membership
• 50% off mobile apps (Calm, Duolingo, Audible, Les Mills)
• 2 days charity leave per year
• You’ll work for a company that is passionate about personal development and a strong community focussed culture

Sound interesting?

If your answer is ‘yes’ then please click apply!

We know that diverse teams are strong teams. We promote a diverse, inclusive and empowering culture and are committed to recruiting, retaining and developing all our employees. A copy of our Equal Opportunities is available upon request.

Please note: All successful applicants who are offered a role at Sonovate will be required to pass background screening checks before starting with us. These checks will include National ID Checks, Right to Work, Employment References, Adverse Financial History, Criminal Record, Global Sanctions, Bankruptcy checks. Our Talent Acquisition team will be able to run you through these in detail at the early stage of your application.