Data ​Products & Insights Lead

About the job

Who we are

VOIS (Vodafone Intelligent Solutions) is a strategic arm of Vodafone Group Plc, creating value for customers by delivering intelligent solutions through Talent, Technology & Transformation.

As the largest shared services organisation in the global telco industry with 30,000 FTE, our portfolio of next-generation solutions and services are designed in partnership with customers across Vodafone Group, local markets, and partner markets to simplify and drive growth. With our strategic partner Accenture, we work alongside our Vodafone customers, other Telco and tech companies to drive transformation, meet the challenges of our industry and ensure we stay relevant and resilient. This partnership is a unique, industry-first model which brings together the best of in-house and 3rd party capability.

We work with customers across 28 countries from 10 VOIS locations: Albania, Egypt, Hungary, India, Romania, Spain, Turkey, UK, Germany, Ireland, and with a network of teams in Czech Republic, Italy, Greece, and Portugal.

#VOIS #BeUnrivalled #CreateTheFuture

About this role

We are seeking a Data Products & Insights Lead to own a portfolio spanning data products, management information, analytics, Data Science and AI outcomes within Digital Engineering, Digital & IT.

Based flexibly in Newbury or Paddington, UK, you will lead a multi-disciplinary team that consumes trusted Data Platform capabilities and turns them into measurable customer, commercial and operational value.

You will be accountable for portfolio strategy and prioritisation, adoption, product lifecycle and people leadership. Rather than rebuilding the underlying data platform, your focus will be on ensuring data, insight and AI capabilities solve clearly defined problems, achieve measurable outcomes and operate reliably in production.

The role reports to the Data Strategy & Engineering Lead and includes direct leadership of 5+ Senior Engineers, alongside approved partner capacity where applicable.

What you’ll do

• Own the Data Products & Insights strategy, roadmap and prioritised backlog, aligning investment and delivery with Product, Commercial, Operations and customer outcomes.
• Lead the discovery and qualification of use cases, clearly defining users, decisions, value hypotheses, success measures and minimum viable products before delivery begins.
• Own the adoption and full lifecycle of data products, management information, insight services and AI/ML capabilities, including production support and retirement.
• Lead a multi-disciplinary team spanning Data Engineering, Data Science and ML/AI Engineering, maintaining clear responsibilities and effective collaboration.
• Ensure product engineering uses approved platform services, contracts and architecture.
• Ensure Data Science and AI solutions are valid, governed, measurable and ready for reliable production operation.
• Establish measurable customer, commercial and operational value from prioritised data, insight and AI initiatives.
• Lead people, suppliers and cross-functional dependencies, resolving competing priorities and supporting predictable delivery.
• Challenge and redirect demand where there is insufficient evidence, unclear ownership or no sustainable product lifecycle.
• Forecast and control assigned platform supplier capacity and contribute to investment decisions.
• Improve time to value, accuracy, freshness and product lifecycle health while reducing duplicate, manual and low-value reporting.
• Support AI-assisted engineering practices that improve delivery speed and quality while maintaining human accountability, security, privacy, traceability and production discipline.

Who you are

You are an experienced data and technology leader who combines product thinking, technical understanding and commercial judgement to translate data capabilities into measurable outcomes.

You will bring:

• Significant leadership experience across data products, analytics, Data Engineering, Data Science or AI.
• Demonstrable ownership of product roadmaps, prioritisation, adoption and outcomes beyond project completion.
• Experience leading multi-disciplinary technical specialists and delivery partners.
• A strong understanding of data products, management information, experimentation, model governance and production operations.
• Experience establishing clear responsibilities across Data Engineering, Data Science and ML/AI Engineering disciplines.
• Strong stakeholder and demand-management capabilities, including working effectively with Product, Commercial, Operations and senior leadership.
• Working knowledge of Google Cloud Platform or an equivalent cloud environment.
• Knowledge of data contracts, privacy, security, data sovereignty and responsible AI practices.
• Sound product and commercial judgement when navigating priorities within complex organisations.
• The ability to assess proposed use cases based on ownership, evidence, measurable value and sustainable lifecycle management.
• Experience within telecommunications, digital platforms or customer data would be advantageous.

Not a perfect fit?

Concerned you may not meet every requirement? Vodafone is committed to creating an inclusive workplace where everyone can thrive. If you are excited about this role but your experience does not align exactly with every aspect of the job description, you are encouraged to apply. You may be the right candidate for this or another opportunity, and the recruitment team will support you in exploring where your skills fit best.

What's in it for you

This role provides the opportunity to:

• Shape the strategy and roadmap for a portfolio spanning data products, analytics, Data Science and AI.
• Lead experienced technical specialists across multiple data and AI disciplines.
• Influence how data and AI investment is prioritised against measurable customer, commercial and operational outcomes.
• Work at the intersection of Product, Commercial, Operations and Digital Engineering.
• Help establish scalable, governed and production-ready uses of data and AI across complex digital and technology environments.
• Influence investment decisions and the effective allocation of supplier and platform capacity.
• Improve the adoption and lifecycle management of data products while reducing duplicate, manual and low-value reporting.

What skills you will learn

Through this role, you will have opportunities to further develop:

• Data product portfolio leadership, including roadmap prioritisation, adoption and lifecycle management.
• AI and ML product governance, from use-case qualification through to measurable production performance.
• Multi-disciplinary technical leadership across Data Engineering, Data Science and ML/AI Engineering.
• Cloud data platform knowledge, including the effective use of approved platform services, architecture and data contracts.
• Responsible AI and data governance, including privacy, security, sovereignty and traceability considerations.
• Value-based demand management, using defined users, decisions, hypotheses and success measures to qualify investment.
• Senior stakeholder leadership across Product, Commercial, Operations and technology functions.
• AI-assisted engineering practices focused on delivery quality, accountability and production discipline.

VOIS Equal Opportunity Employer Commitment

Vodafone recognises and celebrates the value of diversity in building a workforce that reflects the customers and communities it serves. No form of discrimination is tolerated. This includes, but is not limited to, discrimination based on race, colour, age, veteran status, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, pregnancy, maternity or parental status, ethnicity, disability, religion or belief, political affiliation, trade union membership, nationality, citizenship, indigenous status, medical condition, HIV status, neurodiversity, social origin, cultural background, marital or civil partnership status, or socio-economic background.

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