About LearnVest

LearnVest is redefining the American approach to personal finance. Our planners leverage financial technology to create simple, affordable, realistic plans for anyone who wants to feel confident about their money and optimistic about the future. 

Since launching in 2010, LearnVest has been one of the premier financial technology companies in the country, helping thousands of people make progress on their financial goals. LearnVest was acquired by Northwestern Mutual in 2015 and is now scaling its technology and personal finance approach to help millions of people across both the LearnVest and Northwestern Mutual brands.  

Summary:

• Seeking talented and experienced leader to build an industry leading data and analytics strategy and architecture practice with focus on operationalizing data, analytics, and insights to optimize business processes, operations, and drive amplified results and outcomes.
• A strategic leader with experience in business intelligence, advanced analytics, and data engineering. This role will establish policies and procedures for data governance across the organization and give voice to the value and role of data.
• Partnering with senior leaders and department heads to create, execute, and manage a portfolio of data & analytic capabilities. 

Primary Responsibilities:

• Key responsibilities as the head of data strategy and analytics architecture include developing the data strategy and framework for operationalizing analytics including the capabilities roadmap, mapping requirements to implementation, selecting technology, and evaluating nonfunctional attributes such as security, usability, and stability.
• Build and lead a team of highly talented and skilled data and analytics architecture specialists.
• Oversee the data and analytics assets, applications, infrastructures, tools, and leading practices that enable access to and analysis of information to optimize business decisions and performance.
• Establish and drive the operationalization of the data and analytics architecture strategy to amplify insights and outcomes via closed data-to-insight-to-action loop.
• Create and manage the strategic capabilities roadmap, managing and prioritizing requirements across a vast array of partners and strategic imperatives against conflicting needs and constraints while opportunistically accelerating opportunities.
• Develop architectural methods and techniques to deliver a robust, cost-effective platform that supports current requirements and that can evolve to support future requirements without costly rework and disruptions.
• Responsible for selecting and providing specialized expertise of appropriate technologies from the many open source, commercial on-premises, and cloud-based offerings to enable the data and analytics architecture to continuously and rapidly realize value.
• Plan, design, and monitor key non-functional attributes of platform quality such as security, usability, and stability characteristics of the analytics architecture to help ensure that it complies with enterprise standards and that it performs adequately as additional analytics solutions are implemented.
• Cultivate data and analytics architecture as a core highly specialized competency from existing talent pools of solution architects with analytics skills, or data scientists with engineering and technical skills.
• Produce agile ad-hoc analysis based on high-level requirements while working closely with partners to refine criteria based on continuous iteration of analytically based learnings.
• Work in a mixed engagement model where management consulting, product management, and agile/scrum engineering and delivery teams interact to drive execute initiatives. 

Additional Requirements:

• Able to handle multiple diverse engagements including business and product strategy discussions to solution design and architecture to portfolio management and planning to prototyping and hands on evaluation of technology.
• Requires ability to rapidly learn and deeply understand the business, processes, data and analytical assets, supporting applications, infrastructure, technology, as well as the broader industry landscape.
• Ability and desire to lead engagements independently from start to finish, working with internal and external teams to make decisions and maintain momentum.
• Excellent time and project management skills, with the ability to manage detail work and communicate project status effectively to all levels.
• Proven track record in meeting aggressive deadlines.
• Demonstrated experience in delivery and support of key data and analytics architecture frameworks, methodologies, tools, and technology:
• Expertise in Data Management strategies, architectures and platforms (ETL/ELT, MDM, DMP, DW, DM, Map Reduce)
• Expertise in Big Data, Big Math, and Big Iron tech (Hadoop, Hive, MongoDB, NoSQL)
• Internal & External Interactive platforms (QlikView, Tableau, Sisense, etc.)
• Internal/External Static coding & design platforms (R, Python)
• Data Analytics Tools (R, Python, SQL, Tableau, mapping such as ArcGIS)

Basic Qualifications

• Minimum of 12+ years of experience with relevant experience and a proven track record of architecting data and analytics strategy, capabilities, solutions, and frameworks to drive significant business impact or to develop data/algorithm based products.
• Background in data management, business intelligence, predictive analytics, support of information systems and information technology, direct management of a major IT operation.
• Experience in managing large organizations within complex functional environments and dispersed geographies.
• Proven track record in architecting operational databases and data stores, data warehousing, reporting, analytics platforms, tools, and technologies.
• Hands-on experience in data and business intelligence delivery.
• Familiarity with a range of data management, Business Intelligence approaches and the latest, tools, techniques and methodologies in data and analytics development management
• Deep understanding and appreciation for both business and technology components of information management in insurance and financial services industry
• A demonstrable history of influencing others through consensus building in a cross functional matrix environment.
• Excellent communication skills: Listening, verbal and written. Experience developing communications and presenting to senior management.
• Ability to analyze and resolve complex issues, both logical and interpersonal.
• Self-motivator, independent, cooperative, flexible, and creative.
• Team-building, recruiting, and talent management skills are essential. Vendor management skills a plus.
• Ability and desire to lead projects independently from start to finish, working with internal and external teams to make decisions and maintain momentum.
• Excellent time and project management skills, with the ability to manage detail work and communicate project status effectively to all levels.
• Proven track record in meeting aggressive deadlines.