Business Analytics Lead
Drive Data-Driven Manufacturing Excellence
We are looking for a Business Analytics Lead to play a pivotal role in transforming operational data into actionable business insight across our Paper Division.
Leading a small but highly capable data engineering team, you will build and develop the OT-to-business data infrastructure that underpins operational analytics, advanced analytics, and strategic decision-making. By connecting manufacturing systems with business platforms, you’ll help unlock performance improvements, optimise asset utilisation, and support critical 80/20 business priorities.
This is an exciting opportunity for a data leader who combines technical expertise with strong stakeholder engagement and a passion for delivering measurable business value.
What You’ll Be Doing
- Lead, mentor, and develop a team of Data Engineers, setting priorities and ensuring high-quality delivery.
- Design, build, and maintain scalable OT-to-business data architectures and ingestion pipelines, supporting both real-time and batch processing.
- Integrate operational technology platforms, including AVEVA PI, with ERP, maintenance, quality, and other enterprise systems.
- Develop and maintain standardised, granular datasets and data models that enable operational reporting, advanced analytics, and business intelligence.
- Establish and champion data governance best practices, including data quality, lineage, metadata management, and documentation.
- Create reusable analytics assets, KPI frameworks, and self-service data products that empower site and corporate teams.
- Partner with Operations, Asset Management, IT, and Business Leadership teams to identify opportunities, prioritise initiatives, and deliver impactful analytics solutions.
- Implement monitoring, automation, and CI/CD practices to ensure reliable and efficient data workflows.
- Translate complex data into clear insights, dashboards, and recommendations that support operational and strategic decision-making.
What We’re Looking For
- Proven experience leading data engineering, analytics, or business intelligence teams.
- Strong understanding of industrial data environments and operational technology (OT) systems.
- Experience working with platforms such as AVEVA PI, industrial historians, or similar manufacturing data systems.
- Demonstrated expertise in building data pipelines, data models, and enterprise analytics solutions.
- Strong knowledge of data governance, metadata management, data quality, and data architecture best practices.
- Experience integrating manufacturing, ERP, maintenance, quality, and other business systems.
- Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills, with the ability to influence at all levels of the organisation.
- A proactive, problem-solving mindset with a focus on delivering tangible business outcomes.
Why Join Us?
This role offers a unique opportunity to shape the future of manufacturing analytics within a large-scale industrial environment. You’ll work at the intersection of operations, technology, and business strategy, delivering solutions that directly influence performance, productivity, and long-term growth.
If you’re passionate about turning complex operational data into meaningful business value and leading teams that drive transformation, we’d love to hear from you
#LI-SP
Skills Required
- Proven experience leading data engineering, analytics, or business intelligence teams
- Strong understanding of industrial data environments and operational technology systems
- Experience working with platforms such as AVEVA PI or similar manufacturing data systems
- Demonstrated expertise in building data pipelines, data models, and enterprise analytics solutions
- Strong knowledge of data governance best practices
- Experience integrating manufacturing and other business systems
- Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills
- A proactive, problem-solving mindset focused on delivering business outcomes
DS Smith Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about DS Smith and has not been reviewed or approved by DS Smith.
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Fair & Transparent Compensation — Pay is considered okay to good across many roles, with some plants indicating competitive or above‑market hourly rates for operators and similar positions. This supports a broadly fair perception of base pay even as experiences vary by site.
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Healthcare Strength — U.S. offerings include day‑one medical/vision and dental, employer HSA contributions, and 100% company‑paid life and short/long‑term disability, alongside an EAP. Some role descriptions also highlight mental‑health and fertility options.
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Retirement Support — Packages commonly reference a 401(k) with company match and, in some locations, pension eligibility or company‑funded retirement contributions. This positions retirement benefits as a meaningful component of total rewards.
DS Smith Insights
What We Do
DS Smith provides innovative packaging solutions, paper products and recycling services with a commitment to sustainability and a circular economy. Our core purpose is to Redefine Packaging for a Changing World, and our expert teams work closely with like-minded partners to incorporate renewable resources for products that minimize our environmental impact, reduce complexity and increase profitability through supply chain optimization
