Associate Director - Reporting and Data Analytics

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GDS ES FINANCE | REPORTING & DATA ANALYTICS

JOB DESCRIPTION

Associate Director – R&DA

Role purpose

Serve as the strategic business advisor and R&DA delivery leader for the Regions, with end-to-end accountability for reporting, analytics and insights outcomes, stakeholder relationships, people leadership, operational excellence and regional adoption of transformation, automation and innovation initiatives.

Associate Director – Reporting & Data Analytics

Function  

GDS ES Finance | Reporting & Data Analytics

Role overview

The Associate Director – R&DA, Regions Lead is a strategic business advisor and delivery leader responsible for connecting regional business and finance priorities with the full R&DA capability. The role leads high-quality reporting, advanced analytics and actionable insight delivery while ensuring strong governance, controls, stakeholder alignment and measurable business value.

The Regions Lead also mobilises regional takeaways and adoption from enterprise-led initiatives, strengthens collaboration across regions and global teams, and scales repeatable solutions and best practices across the reporting and analytics ecosystem.

Primary objectives

• Provide strategic partnership and decision support to regional business and finance leadership.
• Own end-to-end governance for reporting, analytics and insights delivered to assigned regional stakeholders.
• Improve quality, consistency, timeliness and business relevance across R&DA outcomes.
• Drive standardisation, optimisation, automation, AI adoption and scalable delivery practices.
• Build strong regional stakeholder relationships and connect regional demand to global and enablement capabilities.
• Lead a high-performing, inclusive and future-ready R&DA team.
• Ensure regional mobilisation, adoption and value realisation from enterprise transformation initiatives.

Key responsibilities

Regional strategy and business advisory

• Act as a trusted advisor to regional business and finance leadership, providing insights and recommendations that enhance business performance and margins.
• Develop strong understanding of regional business cycles, KPIs, revenue drivers, reporting frameworks and stakeholder priorities.
• Influence and support strategic planning, forecasting and key business initiatives in partnership with stakeholders.
• Translate regional priorities into a clear R&DA agenda, demand plan and decision roadmap.
• Provide executive-level insights by integrating relevant financial, operational and market information.

Business insights and advanced analytics

• Lead the design and delivery of executive reporting, dashboards and analytics solutions.
• Drive predictive, scenario-based and forward-looking analysis to support leadership decisions.
• Identify performance-improvement opportunities across profitability, pipeline health, staffing effectiveness, operational investments and cost optimisation.
• Translate complex information into clear recommendations, narratives and decision points for senior stakeholders.
• Promote adoption of advanced analytics and automated insights where these improve decision support.

Reporting and delivery governance

• Own end-to-end delivery governance for reporting, analytics and insights for assigned regional stakeholders.
• Ensure timeliness, accuracy, consistency and quality across deliverables through clear controls and review mechanisms.
• Lead or support cyclical finance processes including monthly reporting, forecasting, revenue planning and GIP submissions.
• Establish transparent service expectations, priorities, ownership, escalation routes and delivery routines.
• Identify delivery risks early and drive mitigation with relevant business, finance, R&DA and enablement stakeholders.

Standardisation, optimisation and scalability

• Drive standardisation and optimisation across regional reporting operations to improve efficiency and stakeholder experience.
• Identify duplication, local variations, manual touchpoints and low-value outputs that can be simplified, rationalised or eliminated.
• Promote common reporting definitions, templates, controls, documentation and ways of working where practical.
• Scale repeatable solutions and best practices across R&DA teams while retaining justified regional requirements.
• Use fact-based baselines and benefit measures to demonstrate improvements in quality, turnaround, effort and control.

Transformation, automation and innovation

• Lead the regional R&DA transformation agenda to modernise reporting and insights through automation, AI and advanced analytics.
• Set direction and execute improvement initiatives that reduce manual effort and elevate value-added analysis.
• Partner with enablement and technology teams to deliver future-ready products and capabilities and ensure business outcomes are realised.
• Lead regional mobilisation, adoption and takeaways for initiatives led by enterprise or other teams.
• Identify opportunities for innovation, new capabilities and scalable solutions that strengthen stakeholder value and support growth.

Stakeholder and relationship ownership

• Own and manage key regional stakeholder relationships, ensuring alignment between business needs, priorities and delivered insights.
• Serve as a primary liaison between regional business leadership, finance teams, global service line leaders, R&DA teams and enablement teams.
• Lead stakeholder-facing communication including monthly business reviews, leadership decks, strategic commentary and decision memos.
• Manage expectations transparently and facilitate timely decisions on priorities, risks, trade-offs and investment needs.
• Represent regional stakeholder needs while balancing enterprise consistency, control and scalability.

Cross-region and cross-team collaboration

• Drive cross-pillar and cross-team collaboration to improve visibility, knowledge sharing and integrated problem solving.
• Represent regional stakeholders in relevant R&DA forums and ensure regional priorities and outcomes are visible.
• Identify opportunities to share activity, capacity, expertise and solutions across teams.
• Build effective partnerships with global, regional, service line, finance, transformation and technology stakeholders.
• Promote reuse and avoid unnecessary duplication of reports, analysis and technology solutions.

People leadership and workforce planning

• Lead cross-functional teams across reporting, analytics and finance operations, setting clear goals and accountability.
• Drive recruitment, onboarding, coaching, upskilling and performance management to build a future-ready talent pipeline.
• Foster a high-performing, inclusive and collaborative team culture with strong ways of working.
• Lead workforce planning including headcount strategy, role prioritisation, capacity planning and attrition management.
• Develop succession, backup coverage and capability plans aligned to evolving R&DA and regional needs.

Governance, controls and compliance

• Lead participation in governance routines such as MBRs, leadership syncs and planning cycles with clear actions and follow-through.
• Ensure adherence to control, compliance and governance standards across reporting and analytics operations.
• Maintain appropriate oversight of reporting risks, data quality concerns, process dependencies and issue resolution.
• Ensure transformation and technology adoption preserve required controls, accountability and operational readiness.

Business growth and enterprise initiatives

• Lead delivery and value realisation for core regional reporting and analytics initiatives with full accountability for outcomes.
• Contribute to enterprise programmes such as cross-service-line transformation, integrated delivery models and innovation programmes.
• Lead regional adoption of relevant enterprise capabilities and convert strategic initiatives into practical regional outcomes.
• Deliver value through productivity improvements, cost-reduction insights and scalable reporting and analytics solutions.

Key deliverables

• Regional R&DA strategy, priorities and stakeholder engagement plan.
• Integrated regional demand, delivery and transformation roadmap.
• Executive reporting, dashboards, insights and decision-support narratives.
• Delivery governance pack covering service performance, risks, issues, actions and decisions.
• Standardisation and optimisation backlog with documented benefits.
• Regional automation, AI and advanced analytics adoption roadmap.
• Stakeholder-facing monthly business reviews, leadership decks and strategic commentary.
• Workforce, capability, succession and capacity plans.
• Regional mobilisation and adoption plans for enterprise initiatives.
• Benefits-realisation view covering quality, timeliness, productivity, cost and stakeholder outcomes.

Key stakeholder groups

• Regional business and finance leadership
• Global service line and finance leaders
• R&DA leadership and delivery teams
• Enablement, transformation, data and technology teams
• Enterprise programme and initiative leads
• Reporting, analytics and finance operations teams

Experience and qualifications

Essential

• Substantial experience in reporting and data analytics, finance partnering, business insights or related leadership roles.
• Demonstrated experience leading reporting, analytics and insight delivery for senior stakeholders.
• Strong understanding of business cycles, KPIs, revenue drivers, financial reporting and decision-support requirements.
• Proven stakeholder relationship management and executive communication capability.
• Experience leading cross-functional teams, workforce planning, coaching and capability development.
• Experience driving operational excellence, standardisation, optimisation and transformation initiatives.
• Strong governance, risk management, prioritisation and delivery oversight skills.

Preferred

• Experience leading regional or multi-country stakeholder portfolios.
• Experience with Power BI, automated insights, advanced analytics, AI-enabled solutions or comparable reporting technologies.
• Experience mobilising regional adoption of global or enterprise programmes.
• Knowledge of integrated planning, forecasting, workforce transformation or machine-learning-enabled forecasting initiatives.
• Experience creating and scaling reusable reporting and analytics solutions across teams or geographies.

Core capabilities

Capability area & Expected capability

• Strategic leadership - Business advisory; regional agenda setting; planning; value framing; decision support
• Insights and analytics - Executive reporting; advanced analytics; scenario analysis; actionable narratives
• Operational excellence - Delivery governance; quality; standardisation; controls; service performance
• Transformation - Automation; AI adoption; innovation; mobilisation; benefits realisation
• Stakeholder leadership - Relationship ownership; influence; executive communication; expectation management
• People leadership - Team direction; coaching; workforce planning; capability and succession building

Measures of success

• Regional leadership receives timely, accurate and decision-relevant reporting and insights.
• Stakeholder priorities are translated into a transparent and governed R&DA delivery agenda.
• Reporting and analytics outcomes meet agreed quality, consistency, control and timeliness expectations.
• Standardisation, optimisation, automation and analytics initiatives deliver measurable business value.
• Regional adoption of enterprise initiatives is mobilised with clear ownership, readiness and benefits.
• Stakeholder relationships are strong, expectations are managed transparently and issues are resolved proactively.
• Workforce capacity, capability, succession and retention risks are actively managed.
• Repeatable solutions and best practices are shared and scaled across appropriate teams.

Leadership attributes

• Strategic and commercially aware
• Trusted, credible and outcome-focused
• Data-led and analytically rigorous
• Clear, concise and influential communicator
• Collaborative across regions, functions and technology teams
• Comfortable challenging complexity and driving standardisation
• Inclusive people leader and capability builder
• Disciplined in governance, controls and follow-through

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