Senior Manager, Data Services & Platforms

Description

The Senior Manager, Data Services & Platform is a newly established leadership role within the Data, Governance & Analytics (DG&A) Hub at Purolator. This role owns two connected capabilities that form the technical backbone of the D&A organization: Data Services (architecture and engineering) and Platform Services (optimization and operational support of enterprise data platforms).

This role provides dedicated ownership for platforms, architecture, and engineering by establishing the technical standards, scalability, and sustainability that the rest of the D&A Hub and its Spoke partners depend on. The role reports to the Senior Director, Enterprise Data & AI Strategy, and leads a team of Data Architects, Data Engineers and Data platform owners and support teams.

Responsibilities

Data Architecture & Engineering

• Develop and maintain the enterprise data & AI architecture blueprint, aligned to Purolator's D&A strategy and AI-first principles
• Design and standardize data ingestion, transformation, and distribution patterns across source systems and analytical platforms
• Lead the build and evolution of data pipelines on AWS (Glue, Step Functions, S3) and Azure Data Factory, ensuring reliability, observability, and testability
• Define data modelling standards in conceptual, logical, physical, and canonical data models for Finance, Operations, and Customer domains
• Oversee the SAP BDC semantic layer POC and guide integration architecture between SAP S/4HANA and enterprise Agentic BI/analytics platforms
• Ensure engineering practices are reusable, well-documented, and aligned with the governed Data Product lifecycle
• Collaborate with Data Governance on metadata management, lineage, and data quality integration within the architecture
• Own the semantic model layer tabular models, DAX(Data Analysis Expressions) at enterprise scale, calculation groups, row-level and object-level security, incremental refresh and Direct Lake, as the single source of consumption semantics for enterprise Power BI
• Set DAX standards, semantic model version control, and CI/CD promotion, using Fabric deployment pipelines and XMLA endpoint governance
• Define and enforce a certified-dataset strategy that eliminates scattered Power BI dataset copies across business units

Platform Management & Optimization

• Own the operational health and performance of key D&A platforms and AI components: Azure Fabric, Azure Power BI (tenant administration, capacity optimization, gateway management), AWS (Glue, Redshift, S3, IAM), Ataccama DQ/MDM modules, and related tooling
• Define and execute platform roadmaps including migration, upgrade, and consolidation initiatives.
• Establish and enforce platform governance: access controls, cost management, usage monitoring, and SLAs
• Lead DevOps and CI/CD implementation for data platform deployments, ensuring consistent and repeatable release management
• Manage relationships with platform vendors and negotiate technical support arrangements in partnership with Procurement and Vendor Management
• Drive ITS collaboration on infrastructure, cloud provisioning, network, and security requirements for data platforms and AI components
• Govern Microsoft Fabric capacity, CU sizing, workload balance, and auto-scale policies across Finance, Operations and Customer workspaces
• Own Power BI tenant governance end-to-end: workspace hygiene, gateway estate, deployment pipelines Dev-Test-Prod, endorsement (Certified / Promoted) and Copilot enablement
• Rationalise dataflows and datamarts against a Fabric-first target state as part of the Qlik Exit and legacy BI modernization

Additional Responsibilities

People Leadership

• Lead, coach, and develop a team of Data Architects and Data Engineers, setting clear goals, performance expectations, and growth paths
• Build team capability in modern cloud data engineering, platform operations, and AI-ready architecture patterns
• Foster a culture of standardization, documentation, and engineering excellence within the team
• Collaborate closely with Delivery Management, Data Governance, and Analytics teams to ensure the technical foundation supports business outcomes

Stakeholder & Cross-Functional Engagement

• Act as the primary technical liaison between the D&A Hub and ITS (Infrastructure, Cloud, Security) teams
• Represent the Data Services & Platform tower in D&A SteerCo and portfolio planning forums
• Support Finance, Operations, and other Spoke partners in understanding platform capabilities and architectural direction
• Contribute technical input to business cases, RFPs, and SOW evaluations for data platform investments

Education

• A post-secondary degree or diploma in Data Science, Computer Science, Information Technology, Statistics, Mathematics, or a related field.

Experience

Required

• 8+ years of progressive experience in data engineering, data architecture, or data platform management
• 3+ years in a people leadership role (manager or senior manager level) with direct reports
• Demonstrated expertise in cloud data platforms AWS (Glue, S3, Redshift, Step Functions) and/or Azure (ADF, Power BI, ADLS)
• Familiarity with data governance platforms such as Ataccama (or similar: Alation, Collibra, Informatica)
• Hands-on experience designing and building enterprise-scale data pipelines and integration architectures
• Strong background in data modelling conceptual, logical, and physical across operational and analytical contexts
• Practical experience with platform administration: Power BI tenant management, capacity planning, performance optimization
• Track record of driving platform standardization, DevOps enablement, and release management in a data context
• Strong stakeholder communication skills able to translate technical concepts for non-technical audiences
• Expertise in Microsoft Fabric Semantic Models such as tabular modelling, DAX at enterprise scale, calculation groups, row-level and object-level security, incremental refresh, Direct Lake and composite models
• 5+ years leading enterprise Power BI development - canonical semantic models, deployment pipelines, XMLA endpoint governance, gateway estate and Copilot-enabled analytics
• Demonstrated experience defining and enforcing a certified-dataset strategy across multiple business domains

Preferred

• Experience with SAP integration architectures (S/4HANA, BW, BDC, ODP) and semantic layer design
• Exposure to BI migration initiatives
• Understanding of DataOps and MLOps practices and tooling
• Experience in logistics, supply chain, or parcel delivery industry environments
• Relevant cloud certifications: AWS Solutions Architect, Azure Data Engineer Associate, or equivalent
• Microsoft Certified: Fabric Analytics Engineer Associate (DP-600) and/or Power BI Data Analyst Associate (PL-300)
• Familiarity with Ataccama, Fabric Data Activator, OneLake shortcuts and cross-cloud mirroring (Semantic Models, OneLake, Direct Lake, DAX, XMLA)
• Experience running BI rationalisation programs (dataset consolidation, workspace re-organisation, endorsement rollout)