Data Operations Manager

London, England, United Kingdom

12/7/2024

The role

We are looking to hire a Data Operations Manager to join our Data team in London.

Working at WGSN

Together, we create tomorrow

A career with WGSN is fast-paced, exciting and full of opportunities to grow and develop. We're a team of consumer and design trend forecasters, content creators, designers, data analysts, advisory consultants and much more, united by a common goal: to create tomorrow.

WGSN's trusted consumer and design forecasts power outstanding product design, enabling our customers to create a better future. Our services cover consumer insights, beauty, consumer tech, fashion, interiors, lifestyle, food and drink forecasting, data analytics and expert advisory. If you are an expert in your field, we want to hear from you.

Role Overview
The Data Operations Manager will lead and oversee the acquisition of data from various 5S (show, social, search, shelf, sentiment) and STEPIC data sources, ensuring its quality, integrity, and timely delivery for business use. These data sets are foundational to WGSN’s trend forecasting process and input into different AI models that include computer vision and time series forecasting. This role requires a strong understanding of data management principles, data acquisition technologies, data analytics, and excellent project management skills.

The team

The data team is a diverse international team of data analysts, data scientists, and data engineers focused on owning and delivering best in class data analytics, products, and services. We encompass the quantitative side of WGSN partnering closely with business stakeholders such as content, consulting, product, engineering, marketing, and sales.

Key Accountabilities

• Develop and implement data acquisition strategies: Define and execute strategies for acquiring data from diverse sources, including internal systems, external vendors, public APIs, web scraping, and external journals and publications
• Manage data acquisition projects: Oversee the planning, execution, and monitoring of data acquisition projects, ensuring adherence to timelines, budgets, and quality standards
• Source and evaluate data vendors: Identify, evaluate, and negotiate with potential data vendors to acquire external data sources that meet business requirements
• Build and maintain data pipelines: Work with the data engineering team to design, develop, and maintain robust and scalable data pipelines to ingest, transform, and load data from various sources into target systems
• Ensure data quality and integrity: Implement data quality checks and validation processes to ensure the accuracy, completeness, consistency, and timeliness of acquired data
• Collaborate with stakeholders: Work closely with data engineers, data scientists, business analysts, and other stakeholders to understand data needs and ensure the acquired data meets their requirements
• Monitor and optimise data acquisition processes: Continuously monitor data acquisition performance, identify bottlenecks, and implement optimization strategies to improve efficiency and reduce costs
• Stay informed on industry best practices: Keep abreast of the latest trends and technologies in data acquisition and data management to ensure the organisation remains competitive
  
  
  
  
  

This list is not exhaustive and there may be other activities you are required to deliver.

Skills, Experience & Qualifications Required

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field or equivalent experience
• Solid, proven experience in data management or data operations, with a focus on data acquisition
• Strong understanding of data acquisition techniques, including ETL processes, API integration, web scraping, and database management
• Experience with data quality management and data governance principles
• Experience managing and working with external data vendors
• Proficiency in scripting languages such as Python or SQL
• Excellent project management skills with the ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
  
  
  
  
  

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with cloud-based data platforms such as AWS, Azure, or GCP
• Experience with data warehouses such as Snowflake, BigQuery, and MySQL
• Experience with big data technologies such as Databricks or Spark
• Familiarity with data privacy regulations such as GDPR or CCPA
  
  
  
  
  

What We Offer
Our benefits and wellbeing package offers flexible benefits you can tailor to your own personal needs, including:

• 25 days of holiday per year - with an option to buy/ sell up to 5 days
• Pension, Life Assurance and Income Protection Flexible benefits platform with options including Private Medical, Dental Insurance & Critical Illness
• Employee assistance programme, season ticket loans and cycle to work scheme
• Volunteering opportunities and charitable giving options
• Great learning and development opportunities
  
  
  
  
  

More About WGSN
WGSN is the global authority on consumer trend forecasting.

We help brands around the world create the right products at the right time for tomorrow’s consumer.

Our values

We Are Everywhere

The future is everything, it happens everywhere. WGSN is the world-leading forecaster because we track and analyse consumer behaviours, product innovation, design and creativity, everywhere.

We Are Future Focused

We utilise our global resources and intelligence to research, source and analyse quantitative and qualitative data to produce our forecasts. Everything we do is focused on working with our customers to create a successful and positive tomorrow.

We Are Rigorous

We source, review and assess quantitative and qualitative data to produce robust, actionable forecasts. To provide credible insights and design solutions for our clients, it is essential that rigour runs through everything we do.

Our culture

An inclusive culture is one of our key priorities. We want our people to truly be themselves and thrive. We love having a diverse team of people who bring new ideas, different strengths and perspectives & reflect the global audience we work with.

Inclusive workforce

We are committed to supporting the environment and sustainability, including ensuring our pension plan defaults to sustainable options and striving to be net zero by 2030.

Recognising great performance is a key part of our culture. Our Awards schemes recognise and reward the brilliant achievements of our people.

We have a truly flexible working environment with a wide range of flexible, hybrid and agile-working arrangements. Conversations about flexible working have always been - and will continue to be - actively encouraged here.

We want to ensure everyone has the opportunity to perform their best when interviewing, so if you require any reasonable adjustments that would make you more comfortable during the process, please let us know so that we can do our best to support you.