Director Data & Analytics

Medline • Northbrook, IL

3d

About The Position

The Director, Enterprise Data Products & Decision Intelligence Center of Excellence (COE) defines and leads Medline’s enterprise approach to building, governing, and scaling reusable data products and decision intelligence capabilities. The role provides strategic and operational leadership for the COE, establishing the standards, frameworks, operating model, and talent needed to turn enterprise data into trusted, certified products that support analytics, AI, and decision-making at scale.

Partnering with leaders across Supply Chain, Manufacturing, Finance, Sales, Quality, Procurement, and other functions, the Director shapes how data is sourced, modeled, productized, and activated. The role advances the organization from descriptive reporting toward predictive, prescriptive, and AI-assisted decisions, balancing immediate business needs with long-term enterprise data and AI innovation.

The Director owns the enterprise data product portfolio and its lifecycle, develops data product and decision intelligence strategies, establishes COE standards and adoption practices, and leads a team of data product managers, BI leaders, data architects, and analysts. The role also partners with governance and security teams and oversees Service Integrators and delivery partners.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Data Science, Business Administration, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• 10+ years of experience in data engineering, business intelligence, analytics, or data management.
• 4+ years in leadership roles managing data and analytics teams.
• Proven experience building or leading a Center of Excellence or similar enterprise capability.
• Demonstrated experience owning and scaling enterprise data products or data platforms in large, complex organizations.
• Strong background managing Service Integrators or large-scale delivery partners.
• Deep understanding of data product management principles, including product thinking, data contracts, lifecycle management, and value measurement.
• Working knowledge of modern data platform architecture, including data warehouse and lakehouse patterns, medallion/layered architecture, ETL/ELT design, dimensional modeling, and semantic models, sufficient to evaluate and challenge technical design decisions.
• Understanding of decision intelligence, advanced analytics, machine learning, and generative AI concepts and their application to business decision-making.
• Working knowledge of business intelligence and visualization platforms such as Power BI or equivalent, including semantic model and workspace governance.
• Strong understanding of enterprise data in the context of business goals and the ability to connect data capabilities to measurable outcomes.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to adapt to executive, functional, and technical audiences.
• Experience leading change management and adoption efforts in large organizations.

Nice To Haves

• Master’s degree.
• Hands-on familiarity with Microsoft Fabric, including OneLake, Lakehouse, Data Engineering, Real-Time Intelligence, and Power BI, and Azure data services such as Azure Data Factory, Synapse, ADLS, Azure Databricks, and Azure Machine Learning.
• Experience with data governance and catalog tools such as Microsoft Purview, Collibra, or Alation.
• Experience leading modernization from legacy on-premise platforms to cloud data platforms.
• Domain experience in healthcare, medical products, manufacturing, distribution, or supply chain.
• Experience with process, organizational, and architectural constructs such as data mesh, AI integration, and ROI metrics.
• Certifications in Azure, Microsoft Fabric, data management (CDMP), product management, or change management.

Responsibilities

• Define and own the multi-year vision, strategy, and roadmap for enterprise data products and decision intelligence, aligned with enterprise and business unit objectives.
• Establish and lead the Data Products & Decision Intelligence COE, including its charter, operating and engagement models, funding approach, and success metrics.
• Lead enterprise demand intake, qualification, and prioritization; sequence work against capacity and communicate trade-offs to executive sponsors.
• Develop business cases, expected benefits, and value measures for data product and analytics investments; report portfolio progress, adoption, and value realization to senior leadership.
• Own the enterprise data product portfolio, including product vision, roadmaps, prioritized backlogs, and lifecycle management from ideation through deployment and retirement.
• Build and scale reusable, governed, certified enterprise data foundations, including data products, conformed dimensions, and semantic models.
• Establish data product standards for ownership, SLAs, data contracts, documentation, quality thresholds, and certification criteria.
• Promote reuse of certified data products and identify and eliminate duplicative solutions across business units and functions.
• Partner with Data Governance and Information Security on data quality, stewardship, metadata, lineage, access management, and compliance requirements.
• Lead the evolution from descriptive reporting to diagnostic, predictive, and prescriptive analytics embedded in business decisions and workflows.
• Identify and deliver high-value decision intelligence use cases in partnership with business and data science teams.
• Enable AI-ready data, including feature-ready datasets, semantic layers, and governed data for machine learning, generative AI, and agentic AI solutions.
• Define frameworks to measure decision outcomes and connect insights, actions, and business results.
• Establish COE standards, frameworks, reference architectures, templates, and best practices for data products, semantic models, BI, and analytics delivery.
• Promote data literacy and self-service analytics through training, communities of practice, workshops, and certification programs.
• Drive adoption through change management and communication, including retirement of legacy and duplicative reporting.
• Govern Service Integrators and delivery partners, ensuring delivery quality, cost effectiveness, and alignment with architecture standards.
• Lead recruiting, retention, performance management, and career development for data product managers, BI leaders, data architects, and analysts.
• Mentor and coach leaders and team members, fostering a collaborative, high-performance, and innovation-driven culture.
• Allocate internal and partner resources to support timely delivery and minimize business disruption.
• Review, challenge, and enhance departmental policies, standards, and methodologies.

Benefits

• Competitive total rewards package.
• Continuing education and training.
• Health insurance for eligible employees.
• Life insurance for eligible employees.
• Disability insurance for eligible employees.
• 401(k) contributions.
• Paid time off.
• For employees working less than 30 hours per week, access to the Employee Assistance Program, Employee Resource Groups, and the Employee Service Corp.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director