Head of Data
On-siteRiyadh, Riyadh Region, Saudi Arabia
Job Summary
Own webook's data function end-to-end, producing a documented strategy and phased roadmap within 60 days while leading the team toward turning first-party data into a monetizable asset within two to three years. Establish the target operating model for engineering, analytics, and governance, then build and lead a high-performing team through quarterly OKRs, fortnightly 1:1s, and monthly standups. Ensure reliable, observable pipelines and accurate client-facing dashboards by owning the modern data stack, instituting FinOps discipline, and defining clear SLAs. Partner with commercial leadership to define and ship webook's first paid data and insight products within 12 months, ensuring all initiatives align with PDPL, GDPR, and NCA ECC requirements. Drive a "data as a business enabler" culture while translating technical work into commercial language for the executive team.
Required Qualifications
- 10+ years in data
- at least 3–5 years in a senior data leadership role (Head of Data / Director ) at a technology, SaaS or consumer-platform company
- Proven track record building and leading high-performing data teams across engineering, analytics and governance
- a genuine people and team leader, not only a technologist
- Deep, hands-on understanding of modern data platforms and the modern data stack: warehouses / lakehouses, transformation (dbt), orchestration, BI, and serving layers
- Experience with open-source platforms (ClickHouse, Superset) AND major managed platforms (BigQuery, Snowflake, Databricks)
- able to make pragmatic build/buy and managed/self-host decisions with cost firmly in mind
- Strong command of data engineering and analytics practice: pipelines, dimensional modelling, semantic / metrics layers, data quality and observability
- Demonstrated ability to turn data into business value
- A track record of delivering against deadlines — with evidence, not just intent
Desired Qualifications
- ideally including data products or monetisation
- Working knowledge of data governance and privacy in a regulated environment (PDPL / GDPR)
- Commercial fluency: able to translate technical work into business and board-level language
- Experience monetising data or building data products sold externally
- Familiarity with the KSA and EU regulatory context (PDPL, GDPR, NCA ECC)
- Experience making data "AI-ready" and enabling ML / analytics at scale
- FinOps / cloud cost-management experience
- Relevant qualifications in data, computer science or a related field
- cloud or platform certifications (GCP / AWS / Azure, Snowflake, Databricks)
- Experience in events, ticketing, e-commerce or marketplace businesses
Hiring someone like this?
Get your role in front of qualified candidates on Sorce.