Principal Analyst (all genders)

ABOUT THE TEAM 

The Business Steering, Reporting & Insights unit is the data backbone of ZMS, responsible for building and maintaining the data and reporting landscape that drives strategic decisions. The unit is well equipped with strong analytical expertise spread across many different teams that serve all ZMS data & insights needs.

We are now looking for a Principal Analyst to support our Data Modelling, Data Governance &  User Adoption of Self-Service Analytics. While you won't be leading people, you will be focusing on driving our analytical excellence and establishing our data governance processes. You'll be the go-to expert and driver for empowering our organization to leverage data independently through well-structured, cross-domain data models and scalable data products, acting as the key link between our BI Analytics and BI Engineering teams, and our diverse stakeholders.

INCLUSIVE BY DESIGN

At Zalando, our vision is to be inclusive by design. And this vision starts with our hiring - we do not discriminate on the basis of gender identity, sexual orientation, personal expression, ethnicity, religious belief, or disability status. You are welcome to leave out your picture, age, or marital status from your application. We only assess candidates on their qualifications and merit. 

We want to provide you with a great candidate experience. Feel free to inform us of any accommodations you may need, so we can best support you throughout the hiring process. 

do.BETTER - our diversity & inclusion strategy: https://corporate.zalando.com/en/our-impact/dobetter-our-diversity-and-inclusion-strategy
Our employee resource groups: https://corporate.zalando.com/en/our-impact/our-employee-resource-groups 

WHAT WE’D LOVE YOU TO DO (AND LOVE DOING)

• Own the Self-Service Analytics Vision & Strategy: You'll have end-to-end responsibility for defining and executing the long-term vision and roadmap for self-service analytics at ZMS. In collaboration with ZMS Engineering, you will influence the tooling and best data governance practices to achieve the strategic goals. 

• Empower User Adoption & Data Literacy: You'll be an excellent communicator, using your data storytelling skills to support our senior management and business teams in taking data-based decisions and actions by fostering a culture of self-service data exploration.

• Data Modeling Excellence: You'll establish guidelines and practices for approaching the data modeling for our analytical data. That includes bringing instruments and processes that will enable describing our business in logical terms, establishing consistency across different business domains and driving the development of efficient data models for scalable analytics. We also expect you to be familiar with the Dimensional Modeling approach that currently serves as the foundation for our analytics.

• Analytics frameworks & Semantic layer ownership: You’ll collaborate directly with senior stakeholders to understand their needs, build innovative analytical frameworks within the visual analytics tools like Microstrategy. We expect you to also guide the development and evolution of the data semantic layer, define standard service level objectives for data products and the best practices to manage them.

• Bridge the Data Gap: You'll develop a comprehensive understanding of ZMS's business drivers and work closely with our Business Intelligence Analytics team (who build and maintain data and reporting landscapes) and BI Engineering team (who enable the data) to design and implement key performance indicators (KPIs) and deliver actionable insights that contribute to strategic decision-making accuracy. You'll be the crucial bar raiser and tactics advisor, ensuring stakeholders can effectively and reliably utilize the data provided by these teams.

• Training & Governance: You'll independently perform deep dives into the data to derive insights and incorporate them back into our steering routines by establishing and sharing best practices for self-service content creation and consumption.

• Continuous Improvement: You'll continuously monitor the effectiveness of self-service solutions, identify areas for improvement, and stay ahead of the curve by researching and evaluating emerging trends and technologies in BI and analytics.

WE'D LOVE TO MEET YOU IF...

• You're proud of a degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Economics, or a related quantitative field, and have already relevant 7+ years of working experience in a data-focused role, ideally within Business Intelligence or Analytics with a strong track record of successfully leading data projects. Leadership experience is a plus.

• You have extensive experience designing and implementing data models that power up analytical needs. That should at least include star and snowflake schemas. You understand how to translate business processes into logical terms and corresponding data models, and know how to enable intuitive self-service analytics.

• You have hands-on experience structuring and organizing data products within an enterprise context, ideally with exposure to data mesh principles. You understand how to balance centralized standards with domain autonomy.

• You are an expert in SQL and have proven experience working with distributed query engines and relational databases, enabling you to manage and manipulate large, intricate datasets and understand how to tune data for query efficiency (at least in terms of requirements).

• You are skilled in using data visualization tools (particularly valuable experience is with MicroStrategy (MSTR) and Looker Studio), translating complex data into clear, impactful visual representations and self-service solutions.

• Your strong analytical and problem-solving abilities allow you to architect solutions for complex data challenges, contributing to core data models and delivering robust, actionable insights. 

• You are an excellent communicator and collaborator, effectively bridging the gap between technical, analytical, and non-technical business stakeholders, with the ability to influence and align on data strategy.

• Experience with the tools that are used to define data pipelines, like DBT, Databricks, Jupyter Notebooks, and scripting languages (Python, PySpark) is highly valued, showcasing your ability to design and optimize data pipelines and analytical processes.

• You have project management skills, with a proven ability to lead analytical initiatives from conception to delivery, ensuring high quality and business impact.

OUR OFFER

Zalando provides a range of benefits, here’s an overview of what you can expect. Ask your Talent Acquisition Partner to learn more about what we offer.

Employee shares program

40% off fashion and beauty products sold and shipped by Zalando, 30% off Zalando Lounge, discounts from external partners

2 paid volunteering days a year

Hybrid working model with 60% remote per week, actual practice is up to each team to best support their collaboration

Work from abroad for up to 30 working days a year

27 days of vacation a year (for Zalando SE)

Relocation assistance available (subject to prior agreement)

Family services, including counseling and support

Health and wellbeing options (including Gympass)

Mental health support and coaching are available

Learn all about Zalando and our values here: https://jobs.zalando.com/en/?gh_src=22377bdd1us