Head of Data Strategy & Governance

Overview:

Head of Data Strategy & Governance

Permanent

From £95,000 + Pension + BUPA + ShareSave + 6.6 weeks holiday + Hybrid Working

Southampton, Store Support Office

Join us as a Head of Data Strategy & Governance within the Customer team and you’ll be a big part of this.

Speak to our recruitment team to find out more.

What's the job?:

This is a strategic role which will have evolving responsibilities as our capability and maturity develops – which you’ll absolutely be driving!

This is a data role and an influencer, rolled into one.

This role makes sure our data and therefore our customers are being understood correctly, so that we can provide products and services our customers want. You’ll be helping to set ourselves up to be the European leader on home improvement behaviours, ultimately supporting the growth of our customer base, increasing omnichannel customer value and overall business performance.

Key Accountabilities / Responsibilities: Team Leadership

• Lead and develop the Data Strategy & Governance team, ensuring current and future capabilities through coaching, training, and recruitment.
• Foster a culture of learning, empowerment, experimentation, and collaboration within the team.
• Actively contribute as a key member of the Customer Leadership Team, collaborating across teams to align data governance initiatives with broader customer and business strategies, while representing the data team's voice in strategic discussions.

• Champion the value of data as a key business asset, driving commitment from senior stakeholders and securing investment in data activities.
• Collaborate with analytics, data science, and insight teams to align strategic goals and leverage data for commercial and customer KPI growth.
• Build strong relationships with leadership teams to increase data utilisation in driving both incremental improvements and transformational change. Ensure new channels, products, services and propositions have considered the data implications, and how we can capture the data requirements to ensure we can better support customers and colleagues through those journeys to drive growth within a connected data ecosystem, with reliable and controlled data.
• Develop and implement a company-wide programme to enhance data literacy and its practical application across departments.

• Develop and execute a comprehensive data strategy aligned with B&Q’s business goals, focusing on optimising customer data as a strategic asset.
• Work with the Head of Analytics & Data Science to optimise data management by transitioning from costly legacy systems to modern, cloud-based platforms, ensuring a more cost-effective, scalable infrastructure. This will streamline operations, reduce overheads, and improve the agility of data access and processing across the business, delivering both immediate cost savings and long-term value.
• Lead cross-functional collaboration to break down data silos by integrating customer data with other data domains to gain a holistic understanding of customer behaviours, enabling more actionable insights and informed decision-making.
• Ensure data documentation is accessible and on point.
• Own the strategy for customer identity, profile management and the Single Customer View to ensure accurate and consistent customer data.
• Work with Product & Technology to support the wider Customer leadership team to develop the future of Insight self-serve capabilities and platforms, for both internal colleagues and external vendors/suppliers – a key pillar of our data monetisation strategy.

• Bring together Analytical leaders across B&Q, and collaborate with Product, Tech and Kingfisher Group Data teams to deliver a unified data platform that is structured, scalable, accessible, and compliant.
• Lead the strategy for migrating to cloud-based analytics platforms, supporting Analytics teams with their requirements for modern tools to enable B&Q to be at the forefront of technological advancements in data and analytics.
• Strategically lead Group and supplier relationships and ensure they perform to target and SLAs.

• Work closely with Legal, DPO and InfoSec teams to ensure data security, governance, and privacy policies and processes remain up to date and aligned with regulatory requirements.
• Lead the creation of a comprehensive Data Governance framework that ensures data is collected, stored, transferred, processed, and shared in compliance with all relevant regulations, while exceeding customer expectations for data quality and security.
• Establish and promote governance clinics and forums to engage the wider business in understanding and applying data governance best practices, collaborating with Legal, InfoSec and PR teams.
• Work with Group Data and Group Infosec to ensure appropriate data security and availability restrictions are in place, especially to adhere to PII data regulations. Accountable for managing colleague and system access controls to customer data.
• Champion data ethics throughout B&Q by developing and implementing policies that ensure responsible data usage, transparency, and regulatory compliance. Cultivate accountability prioritising customer trust and data protection, aligning all data practices with the highest ethical standards.

• Lead the Data Quality team to ensure high data quality standards and assurance. Develop and enforce a comprehensive data quality framework, establishing clear standards, processes, and metrics for maintaining data accuracy, completeness, and consistency.
• Lead the programme to get to a single, reliable version of customer data, a “single version of truth” across B&Q and TradePoint.
• Identify and resolve data quality issues across the data lifecycle, ensuring data integrity and consistency.
• Ensure the right tools and processes are in place for monitoring data quality, and communicate key findings and improvements to the wider business.

• Be a key leader in the wider B&Q data community, collaborating with B&Q Analytics teams, Group Data and other Kingfisher banners to drive collective data maturity.
• Stay informed about data trends in retail and beyond, bringing fresh thinking to B&Q and keeping abreast of competitor technology and innovations.

What we need::

Required Skills & Experience:

• You have a proven capability in leading a Data team within a business that serves customers, ideally large retail or telecommunications.
• You’re a passionate advocate of the power of data and adept at championing the value of data as an asset.
• You may not be an analyst yourself, but you are very comfortable using and interpreting data, as well as defining analysis/insight requirements to Data Analysts/Scientists.
• You’re passionate about delivering transformation and change, with experience of strategic projects to improve capability and long-term planning.
• You have expert knowledge of Data management operations, including quality, governance and regulations.
• You have worked in Data Governance and experienced the challenges and opportunities for a sizable business.
• You will have strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to synthesise complex data from multiple sources.
• You will have excellent communication and influencing skills, with the confidence to present and communicate data stories to senior audiences and diverse stakeholders.
• You’re a strategic thinker, shaping functional vision and direction.
• You have a track record of successful influence and driving change within a large and complicated business.
• You’ve managed and built teams of Data experts, as well as worked collaboratively with Product, Tech & Legal teams.
• You’re commercially astute.
• You’re passionate about people; looking after the team you lead and growing it in a diverse and inclusive way to champion new ideas and achieve greater success.

What's in it for me?:

As part of a great team, you’ll be valued for who you are. We’re committed to making B&Q more diverse and representative of the communities we serve, where everyone can feel they belong and have equal opportunities. You will have access to a range of networks that represent our colleagues and allies and help us to continue to put diversity and inclusion at the heart of our business.

We also recognise that wellness means different things to different people, and we want to help colleagues be at their best and feel well by offering a range of benefits to help you. As well as a competitive salary, our benefits package includes an award-winning pension scheme, bonus, ShareSave options, 6.6 weeks holiday, payroll giving, an Employee Assistance Programme, shopping discounts, colleague wellbeing benefits and lots more!

So we can support you during the application or interview process, please contact recruitment@b-and-q.co.uk for any recruitment adjustments.