Senior Data Strategy – Operations Lead
Preply
full-time
Posted on:
Location Type: Hybrid
Location: Barcelona • Spain
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Job Level
About the role
- Own and run the operational rhythm of the Data & Applied AI org: team syncs, roadmap reviews, OKR cycles, quarterly planning, and retrospectives.
- Lead the annual and quarterly planning processes for the team, linking data and AI initiatives to company-level goals and product strategy.
- Manage the VP's leadership calendar and key team meetings, including agenda setting, preparation of materials, coordination with presenters, and follow-ups for cross-functional reviews, executive updates, and offsites.
- Own the preparation cycle for leadership forums and company-wide reviews where the Data & Applied AI team presents: ensuring the right content, framing, and data are ready.
- Serve as the connective tissue between the Data & Applied AI team and Product, Engineering, Commercial, and other functions, ensuring priorities are aligned and dependencies are visible.
- Own stakeholder communication: regular updates, progress reports, and dashboards that give leadership and partner teams clarity on what the team is delivering and why.
- Represent the Data & Applied AI team in company-wide planning processes (e.g., product planning, OKR alignment, resource allocation).
- Track progress on key data and AI initiatives end-to-end, from scoping through delivery, identifying risks early and driving resolution.
- Support the VP in managing the team's portfolio of work: ensuring the right things are prioritised, resourced, and moving forward.
- Drive accountability across workstreams without being a bottleneck, using lightweight but effective tracking and reporting mechanisms.
- Continuously identify friction in how the team works, whether in processes, tooling, collaboration patterns, or information flow, and design practical improvements.
- Build and maintain scalable processes that help the team operate efficiently as it grows (e.g., intake workflows, documentation standards, knowledge sharing).
- Support headcount planning, resource allocation, and team capacity analysis with data-driven models.
- Lead or support high-impact strategic projects that span the Data & Applied AI org, such as evolving the team's operating model, defining AI adoption frameworks, or assessing build-vs-buy decisions for data infrastructure.
- Conduct analysis and research to inform key decisions: sizing opportunities, benchmarking approaches, or evaluating trade-offs.
Requirements
- 7+ years of experience in strategy, operations, or planning, ideally in a high-growth tech environment.
- Hands-on experience working closely with data, analytics, or AI/ML teams: you understand how these teams operate, what they deliver, and what slows them down.
- Technical familiarity: you can follow conversations about data pipelines, ML models, experimentation frameworks, and AI product features without needing everything translated.
- Proven track record running operating cadences (OKRs, roadmap reviews, business reviews) and driving cross-functional alignment in complex organisations.
- Strong program and project leadership: you take ambiguous, cross-functional problems from definition to delivery with minimal hand-holding.
- Excellent stakeholder management: you build trust with both technical and non-technical leaders, communicate with clarity, and know how to influence without authority, including executive leadership.
- Highly data-driven: comfortable building models, spreadsheets, and dashboards to inform decisions. *SQL or BI tool experience (e.g., Looker, Tableau) is a plus.*
- Exceptional bias to action: you keep momentum high, unblock work proactively, and know how to get things done in fast-moving environments.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, with experience producing executive-level updates, presentations, and documentation.
- Proficient user of AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, Cursor): you actively use AI to accelerate your work, whether for drafting, analysis, research, or automation, and you stay current with how these tools are evolving.
Benefits
- Health insurance
- Flexible working hours
- Professional development opportunities
Applicant Tracking System Keywords
Tip: use these terms in your resume and cover letter to boost ATS matches.
Hard Skills & Tools
data analysisAI/MLdata pipelinesML modelsexperimentation frameworksSQLbusiness intelligencedashboard creationdata-driven decision makingproject leadership
Soft Skills
stakeholder managementcommunicationinfluence without authorityproblem-solvingcross-functional alignmenttrust buildingproactive unblockingbias to actionclarity in communicationteam collaboration