Key Responsibilities: Leadership & Strategy Development: Design, develop, and implement a group-wide Rewards and Loyalty Programme. Define a cohesive data strategy that aligns with business objectives and coalition partner requirements. Data Architecture & Cloud Solutions: Build and manage a cloud-based data infrastructure using modern platforms (AWS, Google Cloud, Azure). Implement data lakes, data warehouses, and big data platforms for real-time insights. Data Governance & Compliance: Implement frameworks ensuring data quality, integrity, and compliance with GDPR and POPI. Manage data security and privacy for customer and partner data. Team Leadership: Lead a cross-functional team of Data Engineers, Data Scientists, and ML Engineers. Guide team growth, deliver high-quality data products, and foster a data-driven culture. Advanced Analytics & ML Solutions: Deploy machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) for predictive models, enabling hyper-personalisation for engagement and fraud prevention within the loyalty programme. Stakeholder Engagement: Work closely with C-suite executives, coalition partners, and business leaders to drive data-driven decisions. Present insights and strategies to senior management and board members. Cost Optimisation & Reporting: Optimise data architecture and software costs; administer reporting platforms (Tableau) and develop dashboards for tracking performance and ROI. Innovation & Continuous Improvement: Stay up-to-date with big data, ML, and cloud technology trends; drive best practices for continuous improvement. Key Requirements: Educational Background: Bachelors Degree in Data Science, Computer Science, or related field. Postgraduate qualifications or certifications in Cloud Solutions, Data Warehousing, or AI/ML preferred. Experience: 10 years in data management, business intelligence, and cloud-based architecture, focusing on big data, AI/ML, and data governance. Proven success managing cross-functional data teams in Financial Services, FinTech, or Telecom. Experience with AWS, Google Cloud, or Azure for large-scale projects. Technical Skills: Expertise in data architecture, warehousing, and data lakes (Redshift, Snowflake, Databricks). Proficiency in big data tech (Spark, Kafka, Hadoop) and ETL tools (AWS Glue, Fivetran, Airflow). Strong SQL, Python, and other data analytics and ML programming skills. Soft Skills: Strong leadership and team management, with a focus on talent development. Excellent presentation and communication skills for engaging senior leaders and stakeholders. Problem-solving focus on operational efficiency and business outcomes. If youre ready to make a big impact and shape the future of our Rewards & Loyalty Programme, apply today