Data Steward at Woolworths

Main Purpose:

To oversee the management of data across the Foods Group; while ensuring that data is fit for use, in accordance to the Data Management Body of Knowledge . The business Data Steward will operate in a cross-functional manner by engaging with technical specialists, business stakeholders and leaders to influence and enhance the use, quality, accessibility and understanding of data across the group. They will also be responsible for implementing data-oriented procedures and standards to ensure alignment and compliance with corporate governance policies and practices.

Key Responsibilities:

Data Governance & Security:

• Implementation of procedures, guidelines and standards to ensure alignment and compliance to corporate governance policies, protocols and practices regarding the responsible use and distribution of data
• Overseeing data access and ensuring usage policies are understood and approved
• Involvement in data integration, migration & data cleansing
• Engaging with data custodians and IT architects during data classification exercises
• Approval of data-retention and data archiving criteria

Data Quality:

• Establishing procedures for the detection, correction and prevention of data-quality issues
• Recommending solutions to data challenges and achieving compromises that enhance the use and management of data across the Foods group
• Collaborating with stakeholders to resolve issues or obstacles affecting the quality of data
• Engaging through Centres of Excellence (COEs) and leadership channels to define data quality control mechanisms (establishing KPI’s to drive data quality, for example)
• Establishing data management monitoring capabilities (incl. dashboards and/or reports) that can be used to monitor, measure and drive better behaviour
• Data profiling and validation of data in terms of the expected data quality requirements
• Data support during analysis and testing phases (where relevant)

Meta Data & Data Definition Management:

• Definition and maintenance of business measure definitions and rules; requiring engagement with stakeholders to agree on common definitions and calculations of analytic and reporting data
• Enhancing and maintaining a meta data repository for relevant/critical data elements
• Serve as the subject matter expert (SME) for Food to answer metadata requests (access and interpretation) for business metadata

Other Supporting Processes

• Project integration for data management assessment and risk (including data quality)
• Partner with our learning academy to train elements of data literacy related to understanding data
• Work alongside BI analysts and technical specialists to analyse, define, source and model the data required by the Food group for reporting and analytics
• Identify and understand gaps related to the availability/accessibility of critical data elements (current and future) and develop strategies to address
• Validation of business rule conformance in calculations and data aggregations
• Manage any changes to data definitions, usage, access, policies, and administration in compliance with data governance standards and practices across the Foods group

Key Competencies:

Technical Competence:

• Relevant qualification, i.e. B.Com or equivalent
• Strong SQL skills
• Advanced Excel
• Good understanding of Data Modelling & Data Warehousing concepts
• Excellent analytical skills and experience in data analysis
• BI Visualization tools (i.e. QlikSense) experience preferable
• Ability to work with large data sets and experience with integrating many data sources for reporting and analysis purposes
• Strong understanding of and sensitivity towards data integrity and cleanliness
• Understanding of processes and the systems development life cycle
• 3-5 years’ experience related to the above requirements

Behavioural:

• Ability to think strategically (display foresight)
• Ability to work in a cross-functional environment
• Curious about data and passionate about the retail industry and applying analytics to enhancing the retail experience
• Excellent attention to detail, in terms of numerical data as well as presentation precision and elegance
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment and comfortable working collaboratively
• Good verbal and written communication skills
• Strong business acumen
• An analytical approach to problem solving
• Good time management and the ability to manage multiple requests/tasks
• Planning and organising ability
• A strong customer service focus
• Passion for the brand and customers
• Making insightful business decisions