Senior Manager, Data & Analytics (Permanent – Hybrid – St. Paul, MN)

Senior Manager, Data & Analytics (Permanent – Hybrid – St. Paul, MN)

Our client, a prominent player in the Computer and Mathematical industry, is actively seeking a visionary Senior Manager, Data & Analytics. This permanent position, based hybrid in St. Paul, Minnesota (3 days a week onsite), offers a pivotal opportunity to lead their data and business intelligence strategy. This leadership role will drive enterprise-wide reporting and analytics, transforming complex data into actionable insights that empower crucial finance, sales, and operations teams. As the leader of a dynamic team of associates and contractors, you will mentor, guide, and inspire your team to deliver high-impact reporting solutions that directly influence strategic decision-making. Working at the intersection of technology and business, you will partner closely with stakeholders to design scalable data solutions, enhance performance metrics, and cultivate a thriving culture of data-driven innovation.

What You’ll Be Doing: Leading Data Strategy and BI Transformation

As the Senior Manager, Data & Analytics, you’ll be the architect of the company’s data strategy, guiding a talented team to deliver actionable insights that directly impact key business functions. Your role blends strategic vision with hands-on leadership in a hybrid environment.

• Define and Shape the Analytics Vision: You will meticulously define and shape the analytics vision for the organization. This involves collaborating closely with business and IT leaders to establish a comprehensive, long-term Power BI reporting and analytics strategy. Your vision will guide the development of data capabilities that directly support evolving business needs and foster a data-driven culture across the enterprise.
• Lead and Develop a High-Performing Team: You will be responsible for leading and developing a high-performing team of associates and contractors. This includes providing direct mentorship, strategic direction, and comprehensive oversight. You’ll conduct performance reviews, identify growth opportunities, and ensure that your team’s efforts are consistently aligned with overarching business objectives, fostering an environment of continuous learning and excellence.
• Drive Strategic Execution of Reporting Needs: You will translate complex Power BI reporting needs into a well-defined and actionable roadmap. This involves prioritizing initiatives, allocating resources, and overseeing the execution to ensure the timely delivery of critical insights. Your strategic leadership will bridge the gap between analytical requirements and practical implementation, maximizing the value derived from data.
• Lead Cross-Functional Collaboration: You will foster extensive cross-functional collaboration, working closely with various teams including finance, sales, and operations. Your leadership will ensure that analytics solutions are precisely aligned and prioritized with core business goals, facilitating seamless data flow and maximizing the impact of insights across departments.
• Establish Data Governance Best Practices: You will be instrumental in establishing robust data governance best practices. This involves defining policies, procedures, and standards to ensure the consistency, reliability, and scalability of data utilized in reports and dashboards. Your efforts will safeguard data integrity, promote data literacy, and ensure compliance with relevant regulations.
• Optimize Performance and Scalability of Power BI Dashboards: You will take a proactive approach to optimize the performance and scalability of Power BI dashboards. This includes designing dashboards with a strong focus on usability (intuitive interfaces, clear visualizations), efficiency (fast loading times, optimized queries), and adaptability to meet evolving business needs. Your expertise will ensure that reports remain responsive and valuable as data volumes grow.
• Champion Business Intelligence Adoption: You will serve as a passionate champion for business intelligence (BI) adoption across the organization. This involves actively mentoring teams on BI best practices, fostering a vibrant community of BI users, and promoting continuous innovation in analytics. Your leadership will empower users to leverage data effectively, driving a culture of data-driven decision-making.
• Explore AI & ML Integration in Reporting: You will partner closely with analytics leaders to identify and explore opportunities for AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML (Machine Learning) integration within reporting and analytics. This includes leveraging AI/ML for automating report generation, identifying complex trends, and performing predictive forecasting, thereby pushing the boundaries of traditional BI and delivering more sophisticated insights.
• Ensure Stakeholder Engagement through Communication: You will develop and manage a structured BI communication plan to ensure that key stakeholders are consistently informed and actively involved in data and analytics initiatives. This involves clear and timely updates on project progress, insights derived, and strategic decisions, fostering transparency and securing continued support for data programs.

What We Need From You: Essential Qualifications for a Data Leader

To excel as a Senior Manager, Data & Analytics, you’ll need a robust blend of extensive leadership experience in BI/analytics, deep technical expertise in Microsoft data platforms, and strong business acumen, especially within distributor models.

• Education: A Bachelor’s degree in MIS (Management Information Systems), CIS (Computer Information Systems), Business Analytics, or a related field is required. Alternatively, equivalent experience demonstrating comparable knowledge and skills will be considered.
• Leadership Experience in BI/Analytics: A minimum of 7 years of verifiable experience leading IT, analytics, or BI teams is required, with a distinct focus on Power BI solutions. This demonstrates your ability to guide technical teams, manage complex data projects, and deliver impactful business intelligence.
• Deep Expertise in Microsoft Data Platforms: You must possess deep expertise in Microsoft Power BI (for data visualization and reporting), Azure Cloud Data Storage (e.g., Azure Data Lake Storage, Azure SQL Database, Azure Blob Storage), MS SQL (Microsoft SQL Server), and Synapse BI tooling (e.g., Azure Synapse Analytics for data warehousing and analytics). Microsoft Fabric experience is a significant plus, indicating familiarity with Microsoft’s latest unified data platform.
• Strategic Business Acumen: You bring strategic business acumen, particularly a strong understanding of distributor models common in the CPG (Consumer Packaged Goods), retail, and beverage alcohol industries. This includes deep insight into their unique operational analytics needs, such as supply chain optimization, sales performance analysis, and inventory management.
• Expertise in Agile & Waterfall Methodologies: You possess expertise in both Agile and Waterfall methodologies, with practical experience managing BI projects in MS DevOps or Jira environments. This demonstrates your adaptability to different project management frameworks and your ability to leverage modern tools for effective project execution.
• Strong Analytical Mindset: You have a strong analytical mindset, coupled with the ability to translate complex data into compelling narratives that directly drive business decisions. Your insights will be clear, concise, and actionable, enabling stakeholders to make informed choices.
• Leadership in Business Intelligence Adoption: You have a proven track record of leadership in business intelligence adoption, including experience mentoring teams and actively fostering a data-driven culture across an organization. You inspire others to embrace analytics and leverage data effectively.
• Effective Communication and Stakeholder Engagement: You possess effective communication and stakeholder engagement skills. This includes the ability to clearly socialize complex analytical insights and align BI initiatives with executive priorities, ensuring strong buy-in and support for data strategies.
• Continuous Improvement Mindset: You are driven by a continuous improvement mindset, consistently focused on evolving BI capabilities and processes to meet changing business needs and embrace emerging technologies.

Desired Skills (Adding Further Value):

• Track Record of Multi-Project Delivery: A demonstrated track record of delivering on multiple projects simultaneously, while effectively managing the demands of daily support, is highly desired.
• Ability to Prioritize Workloads: The ability to prioritize multiple workloads effectively in a high-pace environment is crucial for managing competing demands.
• Strong Customer Service Skills: You possess strong customer service skills and staff management experience.
• Project Monitoring and People Leadership: The ability to develop and monitor project progress, coupled with strong organizational, project management, team building, and people leadership skills, is highly valued.
• Facilitation and Communication Across Levels: The ability to facilitate problem-solving among technical and business stakeholders with varying needs and priorities, and to communicate well with users, technical staff, and senior management, is essential.
• Collaborative Solution Development: The ability to work with a range of technical staff to develop joint solutions, fostering a collaborative approach to problem-solving.

Comprehensive Benefits: Supporting Your Success

The client offers eligible team members and their dependents comprehensive health benefits and programs, which include medical, dental, vision, life insurance, health savings and flexible spending accounts. Other benefits for eligible team members include 401(k) with an employer match, short-term disability coverage, company-paid long-term disability insurance, generous paid time off (PTO) plans, and paid parental leave.

If this Senior Manager, Data & Analytics role in St. Paul, MN, aligns with your leadership experience in BI, your deep expertise in Microsoft data platforms, and your passion for driving data-driven innovation in CPG/retail, we encourage you to learn more about this exciting permanent, hybrid opportunity.