Manager, Data Delivery & Operations

University of Illinois Foundation•Champaign, IL

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

The University of Illinois Foundation (Foundation) is the official fundraising and private gift-receiving organization of the University of Illinois (University). It works closely with alumni and friends, faculty and staff, corporations and foundations, as well as campus development professionals to create fundraising programs and opportunities that benefit the University. The Manager of Data Delivery & Operations oversees the intake, prioritization, coordination, and delivery of data warehouse and analytics development work for the organization’s enterprise data platform. Manages the operational workflow for the data engineering, development, and analytics teams, ensuring requests are properly defined, prioritized, and executed through established BI development lifecycle (BI-DLC) processes. This role functions similarly to a project manager for data platform delivery, coordinating small to mid-sized work efforts, partners with the PMO for larger initiatives, and supervises business analysts responsible for requirements gathering and documentation.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree, preferably in a business-related field, Information Systems, or Computer Science.
Minimum 3-5 years of experience managing technical projects or coordinating work in a data warehouse, BI, or analytics environment.
Experience coordinating technical team tasks related to software maintenance, enhancements, upgrades, releases activities, work prioritization and tasks coordination across teams.
Knowledge of data warehouse development processes and reporting delivery lifecycles, and production support practices.
Minimum of 2 years of release management coordination supporting technical teams such as data analysts, developers, and data engineers.
Practical project management experience using Agile, hybrid or similar delivery methodologies.

Nice To Haves

Experience supporting Microsoft Fabric, Azure, or other cloud-based data and analytics platforms.
Experience working with enterprise reporting and analytics tools such as Power BI, SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS), or similar platforms.
Experience supporting data warehouse modernization, migration, or cloud transformation initiatives.
Experience working with fundraising, advancement, or nonprofit data environments, including CRM platforms such as Blackbaud CRM or similar donor management systems.
Knowledge of fundraising operations, philanthropy data, and advancement reporting practices
Project management certifications or accreditations (e.g., PMP, PMI-ACP, Certified Scrum Master, or similar).

Responsibilities

Manages a team of professionals, setting strategic priorities, directing, and prioritizing the team’s work.
Delegates and reviews team members’ work to ensure it meets scope, requirements, and deadlines.
Hires, trains, develops, and recognizes team members’ performance.
Coordinate incoming work and regular releases by, prioritization, and coordination of work requests related to: Data warehouse development, semantic models, dashboards and reports, and other data requests
Oversee and manage data projects of less than 100 hours, service packs, and operational requests.
Establish and manage the data team intake process for new work requests and facilitate request intake meetings and backlog grooming.
Serve as the primary coordination point for data-related projects and initiatives and partner with project managers to align significant data warehouse or reporting tasks with large projects.
Ensure all work follows established software development lifecycle processes and improve and document processes related to data platform delivery and reporting development.