Head of Data Engineering
Business Unit:
Lab360
Reporting to:
Chief Strategy and Growth Officer
Direct Reports:
Data engineering team, Platform Administrators, Platform Analysts, Platform
Visualisation team (4)
Date Created:
February 2017
Purpose of the position
The Head of Data Engineering is a key technical leadership position within Loyalty NZ Limited
(LNZL). The role is responsible for providing vision and leadership to the Loyalty Data engineering
and platform teams, and for designing, creating, deploying and managing Loyalty’s’ Data systems
and Data products.
The role will have strong working relationships with Loyalty NZ’s Lab 360 Professional Services
team, Data Architect, Chief Technology Officer, Information Security and Risk Manager,
Applications Architect, Solutions Architect, Software Development Manager, Infrastructure Manager
and Product Managers/Owners to ensure that Data engineering is delivering to the needs of the
Business in accordance to defined principles and standards, and in accordance with our strategic
plan.
Organisational position / Virtual Team
The role of the Head of Data Engineering reports directly to the Chief Strategy and Growth Officer
and has a very strong working relationship with all the business units at Loyalty NZ.
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Chief Executive Officer
Chief Strategy & Growth
Officer
Head of Products
and Innovation
Head of Channel
Strategy
Head of Lab360
Professional
Services
Head of Data
Engineering
Senior Product
Manager
Head of Client
Services
Data Engineers
Senior Product
Manager-Data
Head of Fly Buys
Services
Platform
Administrators
Platform
Visualisation
Platform
Analysts
Key Responsibilities
1. Provide leadership, vision and a forward thinking view to Data engineering practises, tools, and
technology, and lead the engineering team to successful delivery.

Understand the Strategy, Strategic Plan, Platform Plan, Client Plan, Customer plan and
their related product, platform and Data Requirements, and be able to articulate this with
the engineering team.
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Provide direction and leadership to the Data engineering team delivering the Data
programme for Loyalty NZ.
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Be a champion for the Data vision and Data Architecture plan.
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Work with the stakeholders across the organisation to ensure on-going buy in and
ownership to effective management of data and data security.
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Provide subject matter expertise and forward looking views in relation to data
technologies, data management, data migration and data practises.
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Understand the end to end vision for data at Loyalty NZ and be able to lead a Data
engineering team to successfully deliver to this.
2. Be responsible for the Technical delivery of data products and the Data programme for Loyalty
NZ
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Demonstrate technical leadership with a thorough understanding of Data, Data
technologies and data platform development in cloud environments.
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Champion development methodologies that ensure successful delivery of Loyalty data
structures, Products and programmes.
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Hire, manage and inspire a team of world-class Data engineers and platform engineers for
on time and fit for purpose delivery.

Secure resources and expertise as required and manage risks to the delivery of the
programmes.

Continually drive for quality and efficiency across the team.

Work closely with Lab Professional Services, Product Owners and Project managers to
ensure fit for purpose skills of team members and effective resource allocation.

Continually look for tools, technologies and methods to improve the delivery of data and
data services provided by the data Engineering team.

Be the primary escalation point for issues relating to Data or Data Platforms, both during
Data Delivery of projects and post Production deployment.

Act as a strong advocate for promoting data management and ensure adoption and
adherence of data governance practises.
3. Be responsible for defining standards, processes and work management tools and practises, to
ensure efficiency in the Data engineering practise and which is able to be measured.

Manage the development of processes, policies, standards and procedures to support data
platform development, Project development and Loyalty’s Data programme.

Ensure adoption and adherence of processes, policies, standards and procedures and act as
a strong advocate for these with both team and key stakeholders.

Continually look for new tools, technologies, and practises that can produce improvement
to current practises, and provide better ways of doing things.

Provide input into the Data Governance standards adopted by Loyalty NZ.
4. Lead and manage an effective Data Engineering team

Provide coaching support to your immediate team to build their skills, knowledge and
capability to perform effectively in their role and to reach their future potential as
individuals.
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Identify and provide training/development opportunities for your team.

Work with your team to set, manage and monitor performance objectives for your team in
line with KPI requirements and LNZL Corporate objectives.

Provide performance management and perform regular performance reviews for your
team.

Provide leadership to the team by developing and maintaining a challenging and supportive
work environment within which they can achieve their objectives and deliver on their
established performance expectations.

Actively contribute as part of the broader Leadership team and with other Business units to
build knowledge, trust and understanding regarding effective data management.
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Invest time to ensure that your personal development is integrated into personal
objectives/goals and that your personal development plan is both challenging and reviewed
regularly.

Advocate and support Data research activity as part of the ongoing development of the
Data engineering team.
5. Together with our Security Officer, be responsible for Data Security, ensuring that it is factored
in to all aspects of development and usage.

Understand PII and NZ privacy legislation and understand what components of Loyalty NZ
data are affected by these.

Work with the Security Officer and Data Architect to establish Data Security policies.

Understand the risks that exist with our data and actively work to own, manage and
mitigate these risks.

Ensure all aspects of Loyalty NZ data is managed and used in accordance with Security
policies and NZ law.
6. Demonstrate the behaviour and responsibilities required of a leadership role within LNZL.

Adhere to corporate governance legislation and requirements, together with company
policies.

Actively promote and drive vision and values to assist building the desired culture and work
environment.

Provide exemplarily leadership across the organisation that actively demonstrates and
models acceptable and the desired behaviours within the workplace for all staff to adopt.

Provide exemplarily leadership and exhibit our values when representing loyalty NZ with
our Clients and Business Partners.
Health & Safety
All of our people have a responsibility for their own and others safety and wellbeing. This includes
following all safety and wellbeing procedures and instructions, including reporting hazards,
incidents and accidents and participating in safety and wellbeing initiatives and programmes as
required.
The Loyalty Way
1. Focuses on and contributes towards continuous improvements within the workplace through
improving activities and processes to make things Easier, Better, Faster and Cheaper.
2. Contributes towards, and promotes, The Loyalty Way, LNZL’s values and the achievement of
our desired work environment; specifically an environment that stimulates individual, team and
organisational growth and achievements, and encourages our people to think and behave in
ways that achieve their goals through co-operative efforts.
3. Establishes and maintains effective relationships:

Develops and fosters good proactive working relationships with all internal and external
contacts.
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Ensures suppliers of goods and services conform to the standards of business ethics
adopted by LNZL.
4. Leads and/or contributes to specific projects.
5. Undertakes additional responsibilities and activities, as and when requested and as mutually
agreed with your leader.
Physical demands of the role
This is not a physically demanding role
Most challenging parts of the role
1. The data engineering team will be involved in multiple projects to varying degrees most of the
time which challenges the ability to effectively balance the workload across projects. This also
creates pressure for ensuring the Data engineering team follow defined processes and adhere
to standards. It is imperative that the Head of Data engineering recognises these challenges
and is effective in leading the team to success.
2. Ensuring the team, team structure, tools and technology do not stay static but instead are
constantly being reviewed and improvements made as necessary.
3. Inspiring and leading the team through this journey.
Key Functional Relationships
Internal:
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External:
Reports to the Chief Strategy and Growth Officer
Collaborates and liaises with Lab360 Professional Services teams
Collaborates and liaises with the Data Architect, Applications Architect, Systems Architect,
Technical Delivery, Security and Risk and Product Teams.
Must have a collaborate and constructive working relationship with every other LNZL Staff
member
Loyalty Clients
Loyalty Business Partners
Other external Contractors and Suppliers engaged from time to time, and other
Businesses
Working environment
1. Open plan layout and moderate amount of noise that goes with it
2. Very little if no travel required
3. Standard office equipment
Delegations of Authority
Capital Expenditure:
$20,000.00 within pre-approved Board budget
Operational Expenditure:
$20,000.00 within pre-approved Board budget
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Authorisation to Hire:
N/A
Authorisation to sign Contracts:
N/A
Responsible for:
Number of Staff:
4 direct reports with team of up to 20
Budget:
$0.00
Revenue:
$0.00
Appraisal and Performance Criteria
Formal appraisal will occur at least annually or more frequently when performance plans are
re-negotiated. Performance will be measured against the performance plan negotiated at the
beginning of the reporting period and against the other responsibilities identified above.
This job is being carried out successfully when all responsibilities are being met.
Person specifications
Qualifications
Essential:
Relevant Qualifications in IT/Computer Science
Preferred:
Experience & Knowledge
Essential:
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Previous experience in a technology engineering development management role
with a well-developed understanding of management and leadership activities.
7+ years’ experience working within the Data Technology domain with a string
emphasis on real time solutions, platforms and integration.
Familiar with Data Architecture, Data Analysis, Data Integration, Data Modelling
and Data Warehousing
A strong desire to establish standards, processes, policies of best practise
Understanding of various Analytical and Database technologies including
emerging technologies like columnar and Nosql databases, predictive analysis,
data visualisation, machine learning and unstructured data
Strong understanding of cloud computing, cloud providers (AWS, Azure etc) and
Cloud Data Technologies
Understanding of Restful Architectures
Understanding of PII and Data Security
Proven ability to communicate, work with and inspire Technical engineering
teams
Strong Business and communication skills
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Excellent organisational, prioritisation and time management skills
Ability to understand and portray the big picture, and to influence projects to
close the gap between current state and future state.
Proven ability to effectively manage teams to grow, change and adopt new ways
of working and tools.
Broad based information technology experience and foundation in Systems
development (eg: languages, methods, Development lifecycle, Project
management approaches etc)
Proven ability to translate complex and technical information into information
easily understood by non-technical staff and clients.
Financially astute and profits/achievements driven with good panning and
organisational skills.
Demonstrated experience of building data capabilities in an organisation
 Understanding of Open source development, tools and technologies and Restful Integration.
 Understanding of Big Data Platforms and technology components.
 Understanding of Loyalty Business concepts
Preferred:
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Skills
The ideal appointee should have a high level of the following skills:
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Interpersonal skills and the ability to negotiate and influence
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Passionate about data. Able to emphasise methodology, modelling and governance
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Technology and politically neutral

Articulate, persuasive and enthusiastic

Project management skills and the ability to meet deadlines
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Ability to manage a heavy workload
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Analytical, conceptual, problem solving, decisiveness and strategic thinking
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Team-Oriented and collaborative approach
Personal Attributes
The ideal appointee should be able to demonstrate:
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A results oriented person who is passionate about building high calibre performing teams and
committed to high standards
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Comfortable speaking with both technical and non-Technical audiences, and able to adjust
language to suit

A proactive and open minded consultative approach

Effective influencing skills and a high level of technical and team leadership skills

Forward thinking and forward planning person

Ability to play to the strengths of the team and to identify and improve the weaknesses
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A desire to coach, mentor and build effective technical teams
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Organised
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Comfortable with sometimes ambiguous and unstructured environments and can seek clarity
and bring structure to a problem.
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Ability to balance multiple projects, often with simultaneous and competing deadlines
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Excited by new technologies and a desire to learn new things
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Familiar with best practises and able to implement standards and processes accordingly
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The ability to work effectively with an eclectic group of people from a variety of backgrounds
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An enquiring mind. Be curious.
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Integrity, loyalty to the organisation and a commitment to organisational objectives.
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Initiative, judgement and ability to creatively solve problems.
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Be detail conscious.
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Ability to work under pressure with an achievement focus.
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Enthusiasm, a thirst for learning and self-development.
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