My career in data has been a rollercoaster of highs and lows and sideways moves, including being awarded the DataIQ 2024 Data Leader of the Year, which has been awesome and humbling. From studying SQL, Database Management in the 90s to building data teams, promoting data culture and building data fluency programmes I have been involved in all parts of the data ecosystem and associated functions. In my opinion a career in data is highly rewarding.
During my journey to data leader, I have been a software engineer, project manager, account manager, public sector bid manager, and six sigma black belt. The experiences across multiple roles with varying skill requirements have been instrumental to my development to the Data Leader I am today.
I have continuously evolved my skills to keep pace with the requirements of the role. I believe the most important skills for a data leader in today’s evolving landscape are communication, presentation and business understanding.