Data Product Manager (Contractor) MNSITE-3838
About The Position
RESPEC is seeking an experienced, strategic Data Product Manager to champion a major state enterprise modernization initiative supporting the Minnesota Department of Information Technology Services (MNIT) and the Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF). In this role, you will lead the evolution of core human services data into scalable, secure, and governed data products that power the "Whole Family" approach. You will act as the key bridge between executive stakeholders, data engineering, data science, and operational teams, driving the transition from legacy mainframe platforms to cutting-edge cloud data lakes and modern curation architectures. Your leadership will directly impact public health and human services delivery by turning raw enterprise data into trusted, consumable assets for decision-makers and frontline personnel.
Requirements
- 4+ Years of Professional Data Experience: Proven background in data management, data engineering, data analytics, or technical product management.
- Data Systems & Modeling: Strong hands-on understanding of relational and non-relational database systems, SQL, ETL/ELT pipelines, data warehousing, and modern data lakehouse architectures.
- Product Leadership: Demonstrated experience managing digital or data products through the full development lifecycle, translating ambiguous business requirements into clear technical specifications and user stories.
- Stakeholder Management: Excellent verbal and written communication skills with a proven ability to translate complex technical concepts into business-friendly terms for executive leadership.
- Candidates must be physically located within the United States.
Nice To Haves
- Databricks Expertise: Extensive hands-on experience designing or managing workflows within the Databricks platform.
- Modern Analytics & Transformation Stack: Working familiarity with dbt as well as visualization tools such as Tableau, Power BI, Looker, or Google Analytics.
- Programming Literacy: Fundamental understanding of Python and/or Java for data processing and platform development.
- Public Sector / Regulated Industries: Prior experience working with large public sector agencies, healthcare, human services, or other highly regulated environments managing enterprise data sharing agreements and statistical reporting.
- Internal Platform Development: Proven success building developer-facing data products or enterprise data meshes.
Responsibilities
- Partner with Enterprise Architecture, technical leads, and agency leadership to define the product vision, prioritize backlogs, and link data capabilities directly to state business outcomes.
- Spearhead the migration of data pipelines from legacy mainframe environments to modern lakehouse platforms, ensuring robust data lineage, metadata cataloging, and automated data quality frameworks.
- Partner directly with data engineering and data science teams to build scalable pipelines, analytical models, and reusable data services in Databricks and modern cloud tools.
- Collaborate with analytics teams to implement interactive dashboards and KPI frameworks in Tableau, Power BI, and Looker while establishing metrics that quantify data product adoption and impact.
- Champion robust data privacy, governance, and ethical AI standards within a regulated human services framework, ensuring strict alignment with state and federal compliance policies.
- Lead structured knowledge transfer sessions and documentation to ensure internal teams maintain long-term operational excellence.
Benefits
- RESPEC is 100% employee-owned
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
Education Level
No Education Listed
