Director of Data Science Practice

Job Description

How to Apply

A cover letter and resume are important submissions for the hiring team to get a sense of your experience. In the cover letter, in one page or less, please let us know how this role aligns with your career aspirations and skills. Submit both a cover letter and resume as one file.

Competitive salary available based on qualifications, experience and education of the selected candidate.

Summary

Information and Technology Services (ITS) at the University of Michigan has an exciting opportunity for a Director of Data Science Practice to join the Administration team within ITS. The Director of Data Science Practice will lead a wide array of data informed services.  This position will foster data science communities of practice to encourage citizen data science and drive collaboration between citizen data scientists and data science experts including: data science exploration, integration & api, data coordination and business intelligence. The position will develop and manage the strategic planning for the development and implementation of these services to the Ann Arbor, Dearborn and Flint campuses.  Reports directly to the ITS Assistant Vice President of ITS Administration and Operations and will lead or serve as a member on various activities and projects.

ITS is a large and complex organization that provides high-quality information technology and communication services for the U-M faculty, students, and staff to help them excel in teaching, learning, research and administration.

Who We Are

Information and Technology Services (ITS) supports U-M faculty, researchers, staff, and students in their use of technology to teach, learn, research, and work, and be leaders in their fields. We are dedicated to creating cohesive digital experiences and promoting university wide innovations. ITS's mission is to be trusted enablers of technology for the U-M community. ITS works together to provide cohesive digital experiences and seamless support to the U-M community.

For more information about ITS, visit: https://its.umich.edu.

Responsibilities

• Evaluate industry and trends. Collaborate with business partners and stakeholders across ITS and UM to understand, develop and set strategic priorities for the U-M research services including: application programming interfaces (APIs), system integrations, data sets and reports. Lead team and division in planning and priority setting.  Provide guidance to development staff.  Lead project management, including prioritization, resource and time estimates. 
• Lead and provide guidance to the team responsible for project management, including prioritization and resource estimates. 
• Lead and ensure that campus partners derive and deliver data solutions to support their needs for business processes and enable data-informed decisions. Ensure guidance to data consumers along a path to success in accelerating value realization from information quest services. Guide the team that serves as a resource for data solutions as they are about providing exceptional experiences for every customer.
• Establish and maintain a high level of success in delivering critical data, like the presidential/provost dashboards to exact specifications and timelines.
• Maintain the data-as-a service delivery model with the BI team that has a critical role in learning analytics, data integration, and data management solutions. Support and oversee the team responsible for reporting solutions, training and data visualization tool sets. 
• Take a leading role in creating strategic plans and visionary expertise in data delivery that enables and improves effectiveness and efficiencies in higher education business processes.
• Articulate and demonstrate the values and ethics of the organization.  Create and communicate a compelling vision of the future; inspire and mobilize the organization to achieve it.  Accountable for portfolio management and project delivery.  Implement new or modified integrated systems into the ITS service portfolio.  Collaborate with business partners and stakeholders across ITS and UM to execute strategic priorities in the context of the larger picture of ITS and University goals and strategy.  Build strong and cooperative relationships with staff, faculty and other IT leaders, interacting in an open, ethical, honest and accepting manner.
• Demonstrate effective leadership, flexibility, interpersonal and communication skills, and quality service as evident by: acting in and leading others to act in an ethical and accepting manner; leading the organization to deliver products and services that support the organization's mission and vision; and developing influential relationships, resulting in an organization aligned with the ITS culture and strategy.
• Effectively utilizes analytical and creative problem solving skills, interpersonal and communication skills, along with standard processes and methodologies to solve complex IT technical issues. 
• Recruit and select high caliber people from diverse cultures, backgrounds and experience.   Responsible for the performance activities of the department.  Develop salary planning and incentive proposals. 
• Demonstrates effective staff development and leadership skills as evident by: mentoring; providing accurate, specific, and timely feedback; effective delegation; providing financial and non-financial recognition; encouraging, identifying and supporting training; sharing knowledge and expertise, and providing opportunities for skill and career growth. 

Required Qualifications

• 10 years of experience in management
• Significant  experience in some or all the of  following: 
  • Data-science-adjacent skills
  • Enable the development of technical abilities 
  • Data sets,queries and data visualization tool sets
• Minimum of 5 years of progressively responsible technical and administrative experience in the strategic planning, development, and maintenance of information technology services/products. 
• Demonstrated current experience providing data based services in an environment with diverse research, technical and infrastructural needs.
• Demonstrated experience in managing large budgets and giving input for activity based costing. 
• Demonstrated ability and experience to: 
  • Write effective complex requests for information and purchase. 
  • Manage cross-functional teams. 
  • Discuss technical requirements and subjects to technical and non-technical audiences. 
• Demonstrated ability to develop and maintain positive and cooperative relationships with customers, vendors, staff, and other IT leaders, interacting in an open, ethical, honest, and accepting manner. 
• Demonstrated ability to effectively solve complex problems, using analysis, creative thinking, and input from others to improve processes. 
• Proven experience working with and enabling others to plan and implement change management strategies. Ability to advocate strongly for new ideas, processes, and services.  
• Demonstrated success in proposing, advocating for, planning, implementing, measuring, and communicating about effective change approaches within established and changing deadlines. 
• Demonstrated ability to develop specific action plans, achieve deadlines or milestones, accept accountability for mistakes, take corrective action, resolve conflicts with finesse, and manage effectively when an achievement is at risk. 
• Supervisory experience that includes functional and administrative supervision of staff at all levels from diverse backgrounds, recruiting, mentoring, career development, resource planning and scheduling, performance management, and team building.

Desired Qualifications

• Extensive experience with local, regional, and/or national networking infrastructure, cloud, virtualization, database, storage and server computing. 
• Familiarly with storage, cloud and database assets and providers available in the Midwest, particularly in the SE Michigan area. 
• Knowledge of higher education areas with researchers and research areas potentially needing access to very high-speed networking.

Additional Information

Benefits at the University of Michigan

In addition to a career filled with purpose and opportunity, The University of Michigan offers a comprehensive benefits package to help you stay well, protect yourself and your family and plan for a secure future. Benefits include:

• Generous time off
• A retirement plan that provides two-for-one matching contributions with immediate vesting
• Many choices for comprehensive health insurance
• Life insurance
• Long-term disability coverage
• Flexible spending accounts for healthcare and dependent care expenses
• Dental and Vision Insurance
• Parental and Maternity Leave

Application Deadline

Job openings are posted for at least seven calendar days. The review and selection process may begin as early as the eighth day after posting. This opening may be removed from posting boards and filled anytime after the minimum posting period has ended.

U-M EEO/AA Statement

The University of Michigan is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.

Interested in this position?

Click here to learn how to get in touch

Job Location

Ann Arbor, MI

Additional Job Details

Employment Type:
Full Time