Data Specialist - Manager-Johannesburg 1 at EY

The opportunity

The newly established Africa Data Delivery Centre will rapidly grow into a core service for our Africa Assurance business, providing centralised support for our mainstream digital analytical solutions. We are currently seeking the right candidate for an excellent career opportunity in this team 

Responsibilities, Qualifications, Certifications - Internal

Key responsibilities for the data specialist Senior Manager position include the following:

• Manage the largest and most complex Audit-client accounts in South Africa in the pursuit of successful end-to-end delivery of analytic tools to the audit teams.  Delivery will be done through a shared team of data analysts who will extract, transform and load data into core digital analytical tools for the Africa Assurance business to agreed SLA targets.  The data analysts include onshore resources, the analyst team in Mauritius and our two global expert teams in India.  The clients will span a large variety of systems, sectors and geographies across EY’s client base.

• Potentially lead or assist in deliveries that need to be executed in countries outside South Africa where we do not yet have a dedicated data delivery team (including Zambia, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, Namibia and Botswana).
• Liaising with fellow data delivery leaders in countries supported by a dedicated data delivery team (including Kenya, Ghana, Mauritius, Zimbabwe and Nigeria) to align process, share technical updates and training data delivery processes as new solutions are imbedded into our Africa data delivery process.
• Lead or be involved in executing custom analytics work for clients which could include building bespoke analytics solutions or piloting solutions in Africa where the solution has been built elsewhere within the global EY firm.
• Finding opportunities to scale bespoke solutions across a broader sector client base and aiding the development team in creating that scalable solution.
• Estimating, budgeting, capacity planning and negotiating timelines for data analytics requests.
• Creating and embedding new process and knowledge into standardised, repetitive, re-usable processes.  Carrying out both reactive and proactive projects related to driving demand from the Assurance business and improving service delivery from the Data Delivery Centre.  This will include locating, defining and implementing new process improvement opportunities leveraging digital technology.
• Managing the relationship with clients and audit team representatives.
• Closely working with the data analysts, audit partners and managers as well as with the core implementation team to resolve challenges and remove roadblocks that prevent data delivery.
• Leading the Data Delivery centre learning and sharing initiatives to leverage from the EMEIA and Global data delivery and digital solution networks, in collaboration with the Assurance Digital Implementation and Innovation leaders.
• Providing technical leadership and solutions to the data analyst team.
• Assisting with the definition of technology infrastructure requirements to support the operations of the centralisation and data delivery team.
• Ability to be hands on as and when necessary, particularly in a client environment.
• Optimising utilisation of data analysts.
• Staying abreast of developments in EY’s digital solutions and developments in the market to be able to promote the use of these throughout the Assurance business.
• Contribute to the EMEIA area network by sharing best practice data delivery process and solutions.

  Skills and attributes for success

• Strong understanding of IT environments, IT security, networking and IT server architecture.
• Proven working experience as a data analyst, data engineer or business analyst.
• Proven experience with leading a team of at least 4 people.
• Knowledge over different data architectures, data models, database designs, developments, data mining and segmentation techniques.
• Strong knowledge of and experience with common data tooling such as Microsoft Excel, Access and SQL Server.
• Strong working experience with data wrangling and transformation methods.
• Strong working experience in one or more ERPs e.g. SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics NAV/AX, SAGE, etc.
• Working experience in TIBCO Spotfire, Microsoft PowerBI or Tableau.
• Advantageous to have some experience in Alteryx, Python or R.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to collect, organise, analyse, and disseminate significant amounts of information with attention to detail and accuracy.
• Adept at queries, report writing and presenting findings.
• Demonstrates strong project management and team management skills.
• Demonstrates good problem-solving and interpersonal skills.
• Deadline oriented.
• Customer-centric solution mindset.
• Ability to work in an ambiguous environment.
• Ability to prioritise own and teams work.
• Background in accounting or financial management is a positive.

To qualify for the role you must have 

• Preferred degree in Mathematics, Economics, Computer Science, Information Management or Statistics or equivalent.
• 6 to 8 years’ digital working experience
• Experience in external audit or in a professional services firm will be advantageous.