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SPARK Schools is a network of affordable private schools implementing Africa’s first blended learning model for primary school students. Students learn in both the traditional classroom setting and our innovative Learning Lab.
The SPARK Schools model combines highly engaging classroom teaching, individualised instruction in the Learning Lab, partnersh...
Requirements
Purpose of Role:
The Head of Data and Technology (Consultant) operates at an executive level and is responsible for developing and governing our information technology and data strategy in order to drive intelligent business decisions and build scalable systems to support the rapid growth of the SPARK network.
This role oversees the optimisation of current systems and critical business processes while also being accountable for the implementation of new technologies, ensuring that they meet the business requirements and that they are delivered on time and within budget.
The Head of Data and Technology (Consultant) develops data procedures and policies, and works closely with various functions within the SPARK business to collect, prepare, organize, protect and analyze data assets while ensuring that the company meets industry best practices. This will often require that they lead interdisciplinary project teams to improving and streamlining data systems SPARK Schools while ensuring compliance to the relevant regulations (POPIA, GDPR etc.)
A successful candidate will have a proven track record in data management, information technology systems and tools. A strong background in IT, mathematics, analytics, business leadership and will be advantageous.
Reports To: Chief Executive Officer
Responsibilities:
- Design and refinement of a future-fit technology and data strategy for SPARK Schools supported by a strong business case.
- Definition of systems integration and architecture requirements based on the data and technology strategy, with a particular focus on the Customer Journey and the alleviation of pain points therein.
- Development of best practice data migration processes and procedures to support the migration from existing systems, back-ups and archives to new ones.
- Impact assessment of data and technology changes ahead of implementation.
- Overseeing the change management for various stakeholders before, during and after systems and technology migration
- Designing risk mitigation initiatives for the data and technology work streams
- Feasibility assessments of projects aligned with the SPARK Schools technology and data strategy.
- Overseeing the collection, storage, management, quality and protection of data.
- Implementing data privacy policies and complying with data protection regulations.
- Delivering actionable insights derived from data for decision-making across the business.
- Overseeing maintenance and management of SPARK’s big data solutions and tools.
- Leading, motivating and managing technical teams.
- Updating functional job knowledge of technology and data teams by facilitating and encouraging participation in educational opportunities
- Training of existing and onboarding of new staff formulated with the professional development team as part of the relevant KPIs relative to the competency frameworks for the appropriate roles.
- Ongoing industry and functional research to ensure that SPARK aligns to best practices and to minimize project risks.
- Reporting to the Executive Committee and Board on key strategic projects to ensure alignment, buy-in and adequate return on investment.
Qualifications and Criteria:
The ideal candidate will possess the following qualifications and criteria:
- Bachelor’s degree Information Technology or related field. Masters degree, MBA or another aligned post graduate qualification preferred.
- 5 to 10 years' experience in a senior-level technology or data management role.
- 5+ years of P&L ownership
Competencies:
- Extensive experience in cloud computing (infrastructure, storage, platforms and data), working with a variety of technology systems, designing solutions, or developing business applications
- Experience working in a start-up or scale-up organisations would be advantageous
- Development experience
- ERP software experience and experience
- Cloud-based Enterprise Service Bus / Middleware layer and integration approaches
- Student Information System experience
- Payment gateway/billing
- Essential to have experience with the Google Cloud Platform
- Experience in Technology Project Management essential
- Stakeholder Management experience to include internal stakeholders, vendors, operational and executive committees
- Systems and data change management process design and execution
- Understanding of POPIA, GDPR, IT security and privacy regulations
- Knowledge of Business Processes relating to: Billing, Workflow, Customer Relationship Management, Procurement, Operations, Human Capital Management and Finance would be advantageous
Qualities:
- Strong verbal and written communicator with the ability to have analytical conversations with suppliers, implementation partners, as well as staff members during supplier vetting processes
- Analytical thinking
- Proven track record in the design and implementation of systems - particularly project management
- Excellent understanding of business operations
- Ability to create cross-functional team cohesion and foster collaboration
- Ability to position technology as an enabler of operational excellence among stakeholders at all levels
- Ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines
- Displays grit, high level of excellence, is mission & vision aligned and a high level of self-reflection (GEMS)
- Values: Service, Persistence, Achievement, Responsibility, Kindness
Benefits
SPARK offers:
- fair market linked remuneration
- performance-based annual bonuses and increases
- above average/good annual leave
- life, disability and funeral cover
- employee wellness support
- educational support & study leave
- individualised professional development, support and mentorship
- employee discount on school fees
- opportunities for career growth
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Requirements
Reports To: Business Intelligence Manager
Responsibilities:
- Solve new and challenging data problems in the SPARK Schools ecosystem including but not limited to establishing a single source of truth, master and reference data management, defining the data landscape and organisational data processes.
- Serve as an analytics domain expert: help the business intelligence team scope and and prioritize projects, identify required infrastructure, maintain existing infrastructure
- Be a thought partner to other departments and drive data-driven decision-making across SPARK Schools
- Build reports and dashboards that empower stakeholders to self-service data consumption, enabling them to access data and insights as needed
- Deeply understand users within the SPARK ecosystem and their actions (end to end) and champion features to enhance user experience - reducing pain points for all stakeholders
- Help develop data-driven products and services, such as client-facing analytics insights and personalized experiences
- Be able to simplify and communicate complex topics to non-technical audiences
- Elevate the entire business (Particularly Product Design, Sales, Marketing, Systems, Accounts and Customer Service teams) by analyzing and leveraging data to make recommendations and improvements
- Work with other analysts and data scientists to support business intelligence work from SQL pipelines and Power BI
- Ad-hoc data analysis.
- Mentor and support other analysts
Qualifications and Criteria:
The ideal candidate will possess the following qualifications and criteria:
- Completed relevant bachelor’s degree in mathematics, engineering, computer science or another relevant field
- Masters degree preferable
- 5 to 7 years of experience as a Data Analyst - 2 of which must be in in a Senior Data Analyst role
- Expert knowledge of SQL
- Expert level usage of BI tools (Power BI & Excel/Google Sheets)
- Analytics experience across multiple company domains such as Product, Sales, Marketing, Customer Service, and Finance
- Experience with web analytics and optimization tools (Mixpanel, Google Analytics, etc.)
- Experience in designing and setting up experiments to analyze the impact of new products and features a plus (hypothesis testing, multivariate analysis, or Bayesian)
- Experience working with developers
- Experience with databases
- Familiarity with version-control systems
- Strong interpersonal and communication skills are required
- Excellent command of the English language, both written and spoken
- Experience with a BI transformation tool is a plus
Competencies:
- SQL Server
- T-SQL
- SSIS
- SSAS
- SSRS
- Azure
- Power BI
Qualities:
- Grit: Persistence through challenges.
- Excellence: A track record of high expectations personally and professionally.
- Mission and Vision Alignment: Understanding of and passion for the SPARK Schools mission to provide excellent education at an affordable cost.
- Self Reflection: Finding the capacity to bring your best self to challenges and opportunities.
- Values: Service, Persistence, Achievement, Responsibility, Kindness
Benefits
SPARK offers:
- fair market linked remuneration
- performance-based annual bonuses and increases
- above average/good annual leave
- life, disability and funeral cover
- employee wellness support
- educational support & study leave
- individualised professional development, support and mentorship
- employee discount on school fees
- opportunities for career growth
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