ThoughtFocus · 1 month ago
Senior Director Data Analytics - Higher Education
California, United States
Full-time
Hybrid
Lead/Staff, Director/Executive
12+ years expThoughtFocus partners with forward-looking companies and organizations in higher education & public services sector to drive innovation and achieve a better future faster. They are seeking a Senior Director – Data & Analytics to lead their Data & Analytics practice, focusing on strategy, customer success, and operational excellence in the Higher Education domain.
BankingBusiness DevelopmentConsultingFinanceInformation TechnologySoftware
Responsibilities
Define and own the strategy, roadmap, and growth plan for the Data & Analytics practice
Develop accelerators, reusable frameworks, and IP assets that scale adoption across industries
Ensure alignment with organizational strategy while driving innovation in data platforms, AI/ML, and analytics solutions
Own full P&L accountability for the Data & Analytics practice, with $2.5M+ annual revenue responsibility
Manage budgets, expenses, forecasts, and margins to ensure financial sustainability and growth
Partner with sales and business development teams to drive pipeline growth and portfolio expansion
Build and sustain trusted relationships with CIOs, CTOs, and business executives, influencing modernization roadmaps
Act as executive sponsor for key accounts, ensuring delivery outcomes align with business priorities
Lead architecture reviews and sign-off with AWS solution architect teams and customer authorities, ensuring trusted solutions
Oversee end-to-end delivery governance, ensuring projects are delivered on time, within budget, and to quality standards
Implement risk management, compliance, and cost-optimization frameworks across engagements
Drive adoption of automation, DevOps, and cloud-native best practices for efficient operations
Build and scale a global bench of data and analytics talent across US and India
Define career paths, upskilling programs, and certification roadmaps to strengthen practice capability
Mentor emerging leaders and create succession plans to ensure sustainable growth of the practice
Own strategic alliances with AWS, GCP, Azure, and Databricks, driving joint go-to-market solutions
Represent the practice at industry conferences, customer summits, and leadership forums, reinforcing thought leadership
Ensure the practice maintains the highest level of partner certifications and competencies
Qualification
Required
12+ years of IT experience, with 5+ years in cloud, data, and analytics leadership roles
Proven expertise in AWS (S3, Redshift, Glue, Lambda, IAM, MWAA, etc.) and GCP (BigQuery, Dataflow, Pub/Sub, Composer, IAM, etc.); Azure and Databricks experience strongly preferred
Strong track record in executive customer engagement, relationship management, and trust building
Demonstrated success in architecture validation and sign-off with AWS solution architect teams and customer authorities
Full P&L ownership experience with responsibility for revenue ($2.5M+), margins, budgets, and financial governance
Higher Education domain expertise is required, with successful delivery of analytics and modernization programs for universities and public institutions
Strong knowledge of security, compliance, governance, and cost optimization in cloud environments
Excellent executive communication and presentation skills, including experience delivering at CIO/CTO-level forums
Preferred
Entrepreneurial mindset with ability to scale a practice from strategy to delivery
Strong focus on customer success, financial accountability, and innovation
Skilled at building global delivery organizations, balancing customer needs with operational efficiency
Recognized thought leader with the ability to influence markets and drive adoption
Company
ThoughtFocus
ThoughtFocus is a privately held consulting, software engineering and business process management company.
1001-5000 employees
H1B Sponsorship
ThoughtFocus has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not
guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your
reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship
Represents job field similar to this job
Trends of Total Sponsorships
2025 (22)
2024 (21)
2023 (12)
2022 (15)
2021 (20)
2020 (8)
Funding
Current Stage
Late StageTotal Funding
unknownKey Investors
H.I.G. Capital
2022-11-02Private Equity
2013-10-01Private Equity
Leadership Team
Suman Radhakrishna
CEO and Executive Chairman
Rajiv Goyal
Board Member & Advisor
Recent News
2025-07-29
2025-07-17
Company data provided by crunchbase