Data Project Lead, Enterprise Data and Analytics (up to 3 year project)

As a Data Project Lead within Enterprise Item Lifecycle Management (EILM), you will be responsible for leading highly complex data and analytics strategic project workstreams as a part of larger cross-functional EILM initiatives. You will be working primarily with the EILM Lead to lead teams of Staff from several business units, Digital Transformation & Technology (DTT), Enterprise Data & Analytics (ED&A), contingent workers, and 3rd party vendors on transformation journeys to deliver the most value out of EILM for the enterprise. In addition, you will partner with the EILM Governance Board and Product Working Group to align on direction and resourcing. Ultimately, you will have the immense responsibility of strengthening EILM's influence the discipline of prioritizing enterprise initiatives over individual business unit initiatives in the "day-to-day" operations of Item data management.

For the first 12-16 months of your role, you will lead enterprise change management for Menu Data Migration with the EILM Lead. As part of your onboarding, you will be educated on and provided artifacts for the current and future state design, including Master Data Management strategy, Item data models, Stibo STEP System and Oracle Fusion structures, cross-platform integrations, and affected functional personas in the stewardship models. Menu Data Migration will complete the Design phase June 2024 and will have a change management plan in place for Build/Implementation through Q2/3 2025. Menu Data Migration will have a large operational impact on several business units across the enterprise. In addition to executing the change management plan as it is agreed upon, your role is also to build strong relationships with your cross-functional stakeholders and EILM teammates to further build confidence in EILM and sustain enterprise momentum for the 2027 EILM Roadmap.

For the remainder of your tenure, you will be advancing and delivering EILM 2027 Roadmap workstreams and supporting the EILM lead in developing the EILM Run-State Strategy with the Enterprise Stewardship Model. You will be leading the entirety of at least one of these workstreams:

1. Menu Data Migration Phase 2: You will leverage your experience leading workstreams within Menu Data Migration Phase 1 to drive cross-functional Strategy, Design, Build, and Release cycles for Proposal 2 (More Granular Usage Recipes) through mid-2027. This workstream will be similar to Phase 1 but will focus primarily on the Restaurant to Item relationship. It is anticipated that this change in the data model will have several operational impacts across internal Staff and Restaurant-facing technology platforms. As with Phase 1, you will develop and align on a change management plan with partners to coincide with the release cycles. You will partner with several of the same Staff and consultant teams from Phase 1 and are expected to deliver the new data model within STEP by mid-2027.

2. Cloud PLM Delivery: You will drive EILM position in future-state Cloud PLM strategy and implementation with the Menu Services Team (Marketing) through mid-2027. Chick-fil-A's current on-prem PLM solution will be retired in April 2027. You will be assigned to support the Menu Services team as they rapidly evaluate and execute PLM direction through early-2027. You will influence strategy and design. You will provide the enterprise lens through the RFP process and the future state PLM data model and influence any necessary improvements to cross-functional access to PLM data. As part of providing the enterprise lens, you will be expected to pull together teams of cross-functional stakeholders who may not have been previously engaged in PLM strategy to ensure that the PLM team does not implement a siloed design. You may have to directly support UAT and release cycles along with your DTT partners. You will influence the long-term maintenance schedule, including the reconciliation of PLM and EILM strategies, cross-functional impacts of changes to access and data, DTT support needs, amongst others. You are expected to support the delivery of a Cloud PLM platform by mid-2027.

3. Product Working Group 2.0: You will establish a sustainable, long-term cross-functional EILM Product Working Group structure and optimize delivery of Backlog Tickets through mid-2027. You will re-imagine the total scope, playbook, cadence, team member responsibilities, and relationship with the Governance Board. You will be expected to identify the roles necessary on PWG 2.0 and work with the Governance Board to nominate individuals across the enterprise to fulfill those roles. You will collaborate with the Supplier & Portfolio team to re-imagine the ticket intake and execution process to address enterprise Item data challenges. Specifically, you will define the roles of ticket owners and clarify the commitment and cadence to delivery. You will also develop a sustainable escalation channel to the Governance Board and mitigation practices should tickets run into obstacles for delivery. You are expected to deliver the PWG 2.0 structure run-state with demonstrated effectiveness and value by mid-2027.

As part of the Enterprise Item Lifecycle Management team, you will cross multiple lines of business and work on challenges in areas where you will need to quickly learn and adapt. You will design and implement necessary role clarity, process, and implementation requirements on technically complex projects, focusing on developing cross-functional solutions with input from partners across business units, DTT, and ED&A to develop and maximize the value of data assets across the item lifecycle. You must be able to quickly develop mastery of the domain needs across the many lines of business that interact with the data assets within the portfolio, influencing strategic direction and impact of related programs, projects, and outcomes, while overseeing the delivery of high quality, broadly consumable, and discoverable data assets from source system to consumption. 

You will typically work with wide latitude for action or decisions on projects that are highly complex and cross-functional in nature, acting as an SME on certain aspects of the Item domain, while facilitating the coordination, governance, and alignment of the item domain by influencing the project prioritization and execution of multiple DTT audience and business teams. With support from EDS and EILM leadership, you may represent ED&A in external conversations and will assist with the selection or oversight of outside vendor partners. 

Successful candidates for this role must have a very strong leadership acumen, strong project management skills, including prioritization and the ability to influence difficult trade-off decisions, as well as a moderate understanding of data product lifecycle, database technology and data use within operational and analytic platforms, and they must have strong strategic thinking, and communication skills. We expect the Data Project Lead to demonstrate fluency and competency with the ability to influence cross-functional alignment on enterprise outcomes resulting in trustworthy and reliable data. They will need to be fast learners with a keen eye for detail, systems thinking, and process design. They must be team players who work steadfastly to create impactful change.  This is a professional track role.

The Chick-fil-A Support Center is launching a new project-based role that is part of the Enterprise Viability Team within Enterprise Data & Analytics department. This Project Full-time role is a TEMPORARY, full-time position up to a maximum of 36 months.

Our Flexible Future model offers a healthy mix of working in person and virtually, strengthening key elements of the Chick-fil-A culture by fostering collaboration and community.

• Support EILM Lead in facilitating the cross-functional EILM Governance Board and Product Working Group.
• Lead highly complex workstreams independently while leveraging wide latitude in aligning business and technical stakeholders across the enterprise to define business logic and requirements for scalable solutions.
• Leverage 3rd party vendor(s) expertise to benchmark and implement best-in-class designs and processes in project deliverables.
• Coordinate delivery of outcomes with clear identification of long-term technology and process implications, ensuring that deliverables meet the defined requirements to maximize the value to the enterprise.
• Coordinate cross-functional alignment and documentation of data standards, policies, and governance rules for the deliverable run-state, advising stakeholders on their integration into analytical and operational practices, including documentation and communication strategy.
• Clearly communicate to cross-functional stakeholders and leadership the status and health of the individual workstreams and escalate any challenges to delivery.
• Accountable for timeliness and functional effectiveness of deliverables, including change management and cross-functional adoption for impacted groups.
• Establish change management processes to help prepare, equip, and support EILM stakeholders to adopt change more quickly.

• 3-5 years’ experience
• Strong leadership acumen with a distinct ability to lead by influence
• Strong PMO skills
• Basic understanding of data product lifecycle
• Experience leading cross-functional change management initiatives
• Skilled in partnering with cross-functional teams using strong written and verbal communication
• Skilled in continuously prioritizing and influencing across multiple audiences
• Fast learner and proven problem solver
• Keen eye for system thinking and process design, especially with respect to scalability and automation
• Steadfast focus on creating impactful change
• Consulting, PMO, Strategy, Transformation, Innovation

• 5-8 years’ experience
• Experience with product lifecycle management (PLM)
• Has experience implementing data governance principles
• Has experience implementing Master Data Management (MDM)
• Has experience developing and implementing data models for broad business consumption