Sr Mgr, Data Services (US-REMOTE)

CDK Global; United States; Remote; USD 170,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player is seeking a visionary Senior Manager of Data Services to lead their data strategy and operations. This pivotal role will oversee the entire data lifecycle, from management to analytics, ensuring effective use of data assets for actionable insights. The ideal candidate will have extensive experience in data management, leadership, and major BI platforms, fostering a culture of data-driven decision-making. Join a forward-thinking organization dedicated to leveraging data for business success and driving innovation in the automotive sector.

Benefits

Paid Time Off (PTO)

401K Matching Program

Tuition Reimbursement

Medical Benefits

Dental Benefits

Vision Benefits

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in Data Management, Engineering, or Analytics.
• Deep expertise in BI platforms like Power BI, Tableau, and Cognos.
• Strong understanding of data governance and quality management.

Responsibilities

• Lead the development and execution of the Data Services strategy.
• Oversee the architecture and optimization of the enterprise data platform.
• Establish KPIs to measure the effectiveness of data services.

Skills

Data Management

Data Engineering

Business Intelligence

Data Analytics

Leadership

Data Governance

Data Quality Management

Stakeholder Management

Education

Bachelor's Degree in Data Science or related field

Master's Degree in Data Science or related field

Tools

Microsoft Power BI

Tableau

IBM Cognos Analytics

Snowflake

AWS

Azure

GCP

Job description

About Us
CDK Global is a leading provider of cloud-based software to dealerships and Original Equipment Manufacturers (“OEMs”) across automotive and related industries. The Company’s cloud-based, software as a service (“SaaS”) platform enables dealerships to manage their end-to-end business operations including the acquisition, sale, financing, insuring, repair, and maintenance of vehicles. By automating and streamlining critical workflows, the integrated platform of modern solutions enables dealers to sell and service more vehicles by creating simple and convenient experiences for customers and improves their financial and operational performance.

The Role:

We are seeking a highly strategic, visionary, and experienced leader to serve as the Senior Manager of Data Services at CDK Global. This pivotal role is responsible for defining and driving the overall strategy, delivery, and operation of enterprise data services, ensuring the organization can effectively leverage its data assets for actionable insights and data-driven decision-making. This role encompasses the full lifecycle of data enablement, including data management, integration, warehousing/lakehouse strategy, and the delivery of reporting and analytics solutions through platforms like Power BI, Tableau, and Cognos.
As the Sr Mgr, Data Services, you will lead and mentor a multi-disciplinary team potentially comprising data engineers, analysts, and platform administrators. Your team will be responsible for managing the enterprise data platform, ensuring data quality and governance adherence, transforming data, and delivering compelling visualizations, dashboards, and reports. You will champion best practices across the data lifecycle, from ingestion and modeling to visualization and self-service enablement, fostering a robust data culture within CDK Global. You will collaborate closely with executive leadership, business stakeholders, IT infrastructure, application teams, and data governance bodies to ensure alignment and maximize the value derived from our data assets.
This role demands strong leadership across the data domain, exceptional stakeholder management skills, and deep expertise in data architecture, data management principles, and major BI platforms. The ideal candidate will have a proven ability to build, scale, and mentor high-performing data teams and implement effective data service frameworks in a complex, large-scale organization. The Sr Mgr, Data Services, will report to the Sr Dir, Enterprise Data & Analytics and play a critical role in advancing CDK Global's overall data maturity and capabilities.

Essential Functions and Responsibilities:

Strategic Leadership

• Develop, articulate, and execute a comprehensive enterprise Data Services strategy for CDK Global, encompassing data acquisition, management, storage, integration, analytics, and governance enablement, ensuring alignment with overall business objectives
• Define the roadmap for the evolution of the enterprise data platform, including data warehousing/lakehouse technologies, ETL/ELT processes, and BI platform utilization (Power BI, Tableau, Cognos), driving consolidation and modernization where appropriate
• Oversee and prioritize the delivery of data services, balancing operational stability, platform enhancements, ad-hoc requests, standard reporting, analytics development, and strategic data projects
• Lead cross-functional collaboration with business units, IT (Infrastructure, Security, Applications), Data Engineering, and Data Governance to understand needs, define requirements, and deliver impactful data solutions and services
• Develop, mentor, and scale a high-performing, multi-disciplinary Data Services team, fostering a culture of technical excellence, analytical curiosity, continuous learning, and professional growth
• Promote career development within the data function, supporting diverse skill sets in data engineering, data modeling, platform administration, report development, data visualization, and business analysis

Data Platform & Analytics Services

• Oversee the architecture, development, operation, and optimization of the enterprise data platform (data warehouse, data lake, lakehouse)
• Establish and enforce best practices and standards for data modeling, data integration, data quality, data visualization, report design, and dashboard development to ensure reliability, clarity, consistency, and user adoption
• Guide requirements gathering processes for both platform enhancements and analytics solutions, ensuring business needs are accurately translated into effective technical specifications
• Ensure the accuracy, quality, timeliness, and accessibility of data across the platform and in reports/dashboards, collaborating closely with data governance and data source owners on data quality initiatives
• Champion and support self-service analytics initiatives, providing users with the tools, training, curated datasets, and semantic layers needed to explore data independently and reliably
• Oversee the administration, governance, security, and optimization of the entire data services environment (including databases, ETL tools, BI platforms like Power BI Service, Tableau Server/Cloud, Cognos Analytics) in partnership with IT/platform teams
• Lead the Data Services team, managing workload distribution, providing technical guidance, ensuring operational stability, and maintaining high-quality deliverables
• Manage relationships with key data technology and BI software vendors (e.g., cloud providers, database vendors, Microsoft, Salesforce/Tableau, IBM/Cognos), staying informed on product roadmaps and capabilities

Performance Monitoring

• Establish key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the effectiveness, reliability, adoption, and cost-efficiency of data services and platforms (e.g., platform uptime, ETL success rates, query performance, data quality metrics, usage statistics, user satisfaction)
• Monitor the performance, accuracy, relevance, and usage of existing data assets, reports, and dashboards, implementing processes for regular review, optimization, and decommissioning
• Drive the execution of testing (unit, integration, UAT) and validation activities to ensure data pipelines and BI solutions meet business requirements and quality standards
• Identify and implement opportunities for automation in data ingestion, transformation, quality checks, report generation, distribution, and platform maintenance processes. Executive Communication & Business Buy-In

Executive Communication & Business Buy-In

• Clearly communicate the value proposition, strategic importance, and impact of data services initiatives to senior leadership and key stakeholders at CDK Global
• Present key insights, trends, platform health, and performance summaries derived from data assets to executive audiences
• Ensure data services and analytics solutions are aligned with stakeholder needs, providing reliable, timely, and actionable information for decision-making
• Foster strong relationships with business leaders to understand their challenges and proactively identify opportunities for data-driven solutions and support
• Develop and implement strategies, including training programs, to drive adoption of data tools (including Power BI, Tableau, Cognos) and enhance data literacy across the organization
• Ensure cross-functional collaboration enables effective use of data assets and adherence to defined standards and governance policies

Process Improvement

• Continuously refine the data services lifecycle (from data acquisition and modeling to analytics deployment and platform maintenance) to improve efficiency, agility, reliability, and quality
• Identify and implement improvements in requirements gathering, data modeling techniques, documentation, testing, release management, and operational monitoring for data platforms and BI solutions
• Optimize the performance and cost-effectiveness of the data platform components (storage, compute, ETL) and critical reports/dashboards across Power BI, Tableau, and Cognos
• Standardize data definitions, integration patterns, reporting templates, and methodologies where appropriate to enhance consistency, reusability, and reduce redundancy

Thought Leadership

• Explore, assess, and advocate for emerging trends and technologies in data management, data architecture (e.g., data mesh, data fabric), cloud data platforms, data integration, business intelligence, data visualization, augmented analytics, and AI/ML enablement
• Advocate for innovative approaches to delivering data services, enhancing data accessibility, and improving the user experience with analytical tools
• Act as a champion for promoting a culture of data-driven decision-making throughout CDK Global

Required Qualifications and Attributes:

• 8+ years of progressive experience in Data Management, Data Engineering, Business Intelligence, and/or Data Analytics, with at least 8 years of people leadership experience managing diverse data or technical teams
• Deep expertise and significant hands-on leadership experience with major enterprise BI platforms: Microsoft Power BI, Tableau, and/or IBM Cognos Analytics
• This includes understanding architecture concepts, development best practices, security models, and administration fundamentals
• Significant experience with modern data warehousing/lakehouse technologies (e.g., Snowflake, Redshift, BigQuery, Synapse, Databricks) and architectures on cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP)
• Proven experience developing and implementing enterprise-wide data strategies and roadmaps in a large, complex organization
• Strong understanding and practical experience with data modeling principles (dimensional modeling, data vault), ETL/ELT processes, and tools (e.g., Fivetran, Azure Service Bus, dbt, ADF)
• Solid understanding of data governance frameworks, data quality management principles, and master data management (MDM) concepts
• Excellent communication, presentation, and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to engage effectively with both technical and non-technical audiences, including senior executives

Salary Range: $170,000 - $210,000

CDK Global is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. Compensation packages are based on several factors, including but not limited to skills, experience, certifications, and work location. The total compensation package for this position may also include annual performance bonus, benefits and/or other applicable incentive compensation plans.We offer Medical, dental, and vision benefits in addition to:

• Paid Time Off (PTO)

• 401K Matching Program

• Tuition Reimbursement

At CDK, we believe inclusion and diversity are essential in inspiring meaningful connections to our people, customers and communities. We are open, curious and encourage different views, so that everyone can be their best selves and make an impact.

CDK is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to creating an inclusive workforce where everyone is valued. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, creed, ancestry, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, creed or religion, age, disability (including pregnancy), results of genetic testing, service in the military, veteran status or any other category protected by law.

Applicants for employment in the US must be authorized to work in the US. CDK may offer employer visa sponsorship to applicants.