Head of Data Analytics and Insights - The Baltimore Banner

Join one of Baltimore's Best Places to Work!

About the Company: 

The Baltimore Banner is a nonprofit digital newsroom dedicated to providing high-quality local journalism to the Baltimore metro area. We hope to reimagine the future of local news by building a vibrant, strong, trustworthy, and sustainable news organization. With a multi-platform news operation, we cover a wide range of topics, including local government, culture, and the arts. Our goal is to tell stories that reflect the community, foster connections among neighbors, hold government institutions accountable, and provide a comprehensive understanding of the world. Everything we do is rooted in truth, and we believe that our work can contribute to a more vibrant, informed, and united Baltimore, surrounding counties, and the state of Maryland.

As the Head of the Banner Analytics and Insights team, you will play a central role in driving data-informed decision making across our organization that connects us to our local audience. You will drive and implement our strategy in collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data from various sources to provide valuable insights and recommendations. Your expertise in data analysis, insights, storytelling, and people leadership skills will be crucial in guiding strategic and tactical decisions that influence achievement our goals and fulfillment of our mission.

Head of Analytics Job Responsibilities:

• Manage and grow The Banner's analytics and insights capabilities, including supervision of a direct report, providing guidance, direction, and support in their day-to-day activities.
• Foster a culture of data-informed decision making within the organization, promoting the use of analytics to drive continuous improvement and innovation.
• Lead analytics strategy to support the organization's business and newsroom objectives, including cross-functional collaboration, KPI development, and business insights.
• Enhance and further develop our Data Lake and associated tools, guiding tool selection, ETL processes, documentation, and self-serve data access to key stakeholders
• Provide actionable insights and recommendations to stakeholders based on data analysis, helping them make informed decisions and drive business growth.
• Stay up to date with the latest industry trends and advancements in analytics tools and technologies and evaluate their potential to improve our data analysis capabilities.
• Drive data governance initiatives by establishing data quality standards, ensuring data accuracy, and implementing data security measures.
• Collaborate with Engineering team to ensure data infrastructure, systems, and tools are optimized to support efficient data collection, storage, and analysis.
• Effectively communicate complex analytical findings and insights to both technical and non-technical stakeholders through presentations, reports, and visualizations.

Required Skills:

• Effective leadership skills with the ability to motivate and inspire a team.
• Fluency with data warehousing best practices, ETL, and querying large data sets. Our tech stack includes:  AWS Lake Formulation, Glue, and S3; Athena; Cloudwatch; Apache AirFlow, MWAA, and Pyspark; Github; Google Cloud Platform; SQL; Python; and PowerBI.
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills, with a exceptional attention to detail.
• In-depth knowledge of statistical analysis techniques and methodologies, data modeling, data manipulation, and data visualization.
• Proven Business acumen and the ability to connect data insights to business objectives.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, with the ability to translate complex data into clear and actionable insights.
• Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced, dynamic environment, managing multiple priorities and meeting deadlines.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in a relevant field such as Mathematics, Statistics, Economics, or Computer Science. A master's degree is preferred.
• Minimum of 7 years of experience in analytics or a related field. Journalism, Digital Media, or E-Commerce experience is a plus.
• Proven track record of cross-function high visibility delivering impactful insights and recommendations based on data analysis.
• Excellent understanding of data governance principles and practices.

The Venetoulis Institute embraces diversity and inclusion, and we are wholeheartedly committed to being proactive in inspiring a culture of inclusion across our organization. We are dedicated to establishing an organization that reflects the fundamental respect for different ways of working and living. We assure every employee the opportunity to reach their full potential.

We are dedicated to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities throughout the recruitment process. If you require accommodation due to a disability to participate in the application process, please contact careers@thebaltimorebanner.com to request accommodation. Reasonable accommodations may include, but are not limited to, adjustments in the application process, modifications or assistance regarding job interviews, and accommodations to enable access to our facilities. We appreciate the value that individuals with disabilities bring to our workforce and encourage applicants with disabilities to disclose their needs for accommodation to facilitate a smooth and inclusive recruitment experience.