JOB DESCRIPTION
We are seeking a Director, Data Management to lead large-scale Analytics & Data Management programs for marquee clients in our Sports & Gaming practice. This role combines delivery excellence, stakeholder management, team leadership, and account growth, with a strong emphasis on best practices, innovation, and customer satisfaction.
The ideal candidate should bring deep experience in data & analytics delivery, strong analytical skills, and the ability to mine new opportunities within existing accounts while ensuring high team morale and predictable outcomes. The incumbent will collaborate closely with business stakeholders, and delivery teams to drive best practices, ensure consistently best quality output across the board, and endeavor to improve the current state.
ResponsibilitiesKey Responsibilities:
1. Delivery Leadership
- Own end-to-end delivery of analytics and data management engagements, ensuring scope, timelines, quality, and cost targets are met.
- Establish and enforce delivery best practices, governance models, and execution frameworks across programs.
- Manage complex, multi-workstream programs and projects involving data engineering, data platforms, and analytics solutions.
- Proactively identify risks, dependencies, and bottlenecks; drive structured problem-solving and mitigation plans.
2. Stakeholder & Client Management
- Act as a trusted advisor to senior client stakeholders, ensuring transparency, alignment, and value realization.
- Lead executive-level reviews, steering committee meetings, and roadmap discussions.
- Balance client expectations with internal capabilities to ensure sustainable delivery.
3. Team Leadership & Talent Development
- Build, manage, and scale large, globally distributed teams across geographies.
- Foster a culture of collaboration, ownership, continuous improvement, and high team satisfaction.
- Mentor delivery managers, tech leads, and high-potential talent; support career growth and succession planning.
4. Analytics, Data & Technology Oversight
- Provide delivery leadership for solutions involving:
- Data Management & Data Engineering
- Cloud-based analytics platforms
- Data warehousing and modern data stacks
- Demonstrate strong familiarity with:
- AWS Cloud, including AWS Redshift
- SQL and Python (hands-on not mandatory, but must be delivery-fluent)
- Collaborate with architects and engineering leads to ensure scalable, secure, and performant solutions.
5. Account Growth & Organic Business Development
- Drive organic growth within existing accounts by identifying white-space opportunities and unmet client needs.
- Partner with sales and leadership to support account growth targets, proposals, and solution shaping.
- Lead opportunity mining, effort estimation, and delivery approach definition for new initiatives.
- Contribute to long-term account strategy and roadmap planning.
Qualifications
Qualifications:
- 10-12 years of experience in delivery, program, or project management within analytics, data management, or data engineering domains.
- Proven experience managing large, global, cross-functional teams.
- Strong understanding of data management and data engineering ecosystems.
- Strong experience with AWS or other cloud data ecosystems (Azure, Databricks, Snowflake, GCP).
- Hands-on familiarity with SQL & Python
- Experience with Agile delivery and project management tools (JIRA, Azure DevOps, etc.).
- Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills with a structured, data-driven mindset.
- Experience with data clean room solutions, consent platforms, DataOps exposure (data observability, DQ frameworks, lineage, incident management, and SLO/SLA governance), software/application development delivery (frontend, backend, API management, and design/UX collaboration), SDLC practices (CI/CD)
- Outstanding communication and stakeholder management skills, including executive presence.
- Demonstrated success in account mining, organic BD, and supporting revenue growth.
Preferred Skills:
- Ability to balance strategic project management with technical understanding.
- Experience working with Fortune 500 or global enterprise clients.
- Passion for sports, fan engagement, or DTC business models.
Soft Skills:
- Excellent leadership, communication, and stakeholder management abilities.
- Strong problem-solving, analytical thinking, and decision-making skills.
Skills Required
- 10-12 years of experience in delivery, program, or project management within analytics, data management, or data engineering domains
- Proven experience managing large, global, cross-functional teams
- Strong understanding of data management and data engineering ecosystems
- Strong experience with AWS or other cloud data ecosystems (Azure, Databricks, Snowflake, GCP)
- Hands-on familiarity with SQL and Python
- Experience with Agile delivery and project management tools (JIRA, Azure DevOps, etc.)
- Experience with data clean room solutions, consent platforms, and DataOps (data observability, DQ frameworks, lineage, incident management, SLO/SLA governance)
- Experience with software/application delivery practices including frontend/backend, API management, SDLC and CI/CD
- Outstanding communication and stakeholder management skills, including executive presence
- Demonstrated success in account mining, organic business development, and supporting revenue growth
- Experience working with Fortune 500 or global enterprise clients
- Passion for sports, fan engagement, or DTC business models
What We Do
Choosing a digital partner is about more than capabilities — it’s about collaboration and character. Unrealistic overhauls and off-the-shelf products ignore what matters most — your unique needs, culture, goals, and your legacy data and technology environments. At EXL, our collaboration is built on ongoing listening and learning to adapt our methodologies. We’re your business evolution partner—tailoring solutions that make the most of data to make better business decisions and drive more intelligence into your increasingly digital operations. Whether your goals are scaling the use of AI and digital, redesign operating models, or driving better and faster decisions, we’re here to partner with you to help you gain—and maintain—competitive advantage with efficient, sustainable models at scale. Our expertise in transformation, data science, and change management helps make your business more efficient and effective, improve customer relationships and enhance revenue growth. Instead of focusing on multi-year, resource- and time-intensive platform designs or migrations, we look deeper at your entire value chain to integrate strategies with impact. We use our specialization in analytics, digital interventions, and operations management—alongside deep industry expertise — to deliver solutions that help you outperform the competition. At EXL, it’s all about outcomes—your outcomes—and delivering success on your terms. Share your goals with us and together, we’ll optimize how you leverage data to drive your business forward. For more information, visit www.exlservice.com.
