Director of Advanced Analytics, Platform and Data Services

Job Summary :   The Director of Advanced Analytics Platform and Data Services is accountable for the technology enablement of Wawa’s enterprise data and analytics capability. Working with analytics and business teams, this role designs, builds, and operates the data platforms, engineering services, and technical foundations required to deliver trusted, scalable, secure, and performant data products, dashboards, and AI/ML solutions. In partnership with the enterprise business/strategy data leader, this role is the technical authority for platform architecture, data engineering, operational reliability, and data & system integrity. The Director converts strategy requirements into durable technical capabilities and delivery plans, while enterprise prioritization, business definitions, and decisions about how the organization will use data remain owned by the business/strategy leader and governance forums. Principal Duties: Lead data platform activities (data ingestion, integration, and organization across SQL/large-scale data stacks, including cleansing and preparation enablement) to support analytics and AI/ML development and delivery. Deliver scalable platform solutions (data engineering, machine learning enablement, advanced visualization, and reusable data services) that enable business teams to execute prioritized use cases. Establish services and platforms that accelerate adoption and value realization of emerging technologies including, but not limited to, data science, natural language processing, content analytics, and machine learning / artificial intelligence. Establish and operate platform observability and reliability practices (monitoring, alerting, incident/problem management, runbooks, and recovery) to ensure data and system integrity. Work cross-functionally to understand enterprise requirements and translate them into an integrated technical roadmap that models future state capabilities and accelerates data services product development. Work cross-functionally to develop communication and training vehicles for IT and business teams on platform services, standards, and roadmaps; enable consistent ways of working and tooling adoption. Provide technical subject matter expertise across relevant analytic enablement areas (e.g., ML/AI platforms, predictive modeling enablement, web/app analytics instrumentation, experimentation tooling, NLP enablement, and visualization platforms). Be a thought leader in data platforms and analytics enablement; drive innovation while maintaining architectural integrity, security-by-design, and sustainability of solutions. Enable self-service models for analytics and data preparation by delivering governed tools, reusable datasets, and scalable environments for analysts and data scientists. Enable analytics capabilities including the exploitation of large-scale internal and sourced data, including exploration of new data types (e.g., IoT), with defined technical onboarding processes. Contribute to and support Master Data Management (MDM) and reference data capabilities by implementing the technical foundations and integrations that support governed master data operations. Partner with Risk and Security teams to implement technical policies and controls that protect enterprise information assets across the data lifecycle (identity, access, auditability, privacy controls, and retention). For projects, ensure realistic technical estimates, budgets, and delivery plans are established; provide the engineering structure and reporting needed for successful execution. Responsible for developing and managing the department budget and contributing to overall IT budget development; manage vendor/partner relationships and SLAs for platform services. Provide overall direction and support for the team; monitor and assess individual work in accordance with high standards of excellence, including coaching, performance reviews, corrective action when appropriate, and participation in