Director Finance, Reporting Center of Excellence

Description

• Create an enterprise KPI framework (definitions, ownership, calculation logic) to drive a single source of truth.
• Ensure traceability from source systems (ERP/EPM/CRM/Operational) through to certified datasets and reports; maintain data validation and reconciliation controls.
• Oversee platform reliability (availability, performance, cost optimization) and vendor relationships/renewals; manage the CoE budget.
• Strategic partnerships with the office of the COO and CGO around project delivery and win work to deliver on common goals.
• Set standards for data modeling (e.g., dimensional modeling, star schemas), semantic layers, and versioning; define DevSecOps practices (CI/CD, test automation, code review, observability).
• Serve as the primary business partner to FP&A, Controllership, IT/Data, and Operations leaders; translate business needs into a scalable reporting product backlog.
• Define and communicate the enterprise reporting strategy aligned to Finance, IT, and Operations priorities; champion adoption across regions, functions, and lines of business.
• Collaborate with Cybersecurity, Internal Audit, and Legal to ensure compliance with privacy and data residency obligations (e.g., PIPEDA, GDPR).
• Define roles, career paths, capability standards, and hiring/onboarding plans; foster a culture of curiosity, accountability, and continuous improvement.
• Establish the CoE operating model (governance forums, intake & prioritization, product lifecycle, service catalog, SLAs, success metrics).
• Lead technology selection in partnership with IT: evaluate and recommend BI, data integration, data platform (e.g., cloud warehouse/lakehouse), and semantic layer technologies via structured RFPs/POCs, TCO/ROI analyses, and reference architectures.
• Establish product management for reporting/analytics (intake, discovery, MVPs, iterative releases) using Agile practices.
• Prepare the foundation for AI/ML by maturing data quality, lineage, and governed feature assets; partner with Data Science on feature stores, model monitoring, and Responsible AI practices.
• Build and enforce enterprise data governance for reporting: data ownership & stewardship, metadata and lineage, master data & reference data, data quality SLAs, and role-based access control.
• Define and maintain KPI definition standards, semantic models, and a governed data catalog to enable reuse and self-service.
• Lead organizational change management (communications, training, enablement assets, community of practice) to drive adoption and measurable behavior change.
• Deliver executive dashboards, operational reports, and self-service datasets with consistent design standards (visualization guidelines, accessibility, brand).
• Identify high-value use cases (forecasting, anomaly detection, operations optimization) and sequence them into the roadmap once the foundations are in place, benefiting central and regional users.
• Build and lead a diverse, high-performing team: data visualization developers, data modelers/engineers, data governance leads, analytics product owners, and adoption/change specialists.
• Facilitate executive steering and prioritization; ensure alignment to enterprise strategy and regulatory/controls requirements (e.g., SOX, privacy).

Requirements

• Exposure to AI/ML enablement (feature stores, model governance, MLOps) and Responsible AI frameworks is a strong plus.
• Master’s in Data/Analytics, Information Management, or MBA preferred.
• Strong familiarity with ERP/EPM (e.g., SAP/Oracle/Workday, Anaplan/Oracle Cloud EPM), operational systems, and finance processes (close, consolidation, forecasting).
• 12+ years progressive experience in enterprise reporting/BI, data & analytics, or FP&A/Tech partnership roles within complex, global organizations.
• Product mindset with strong prioritization, value realization, and outcome measurement.
• Experience establishing data governance (ownership/stewardship, cataloging, MDM/RDM, quality, access control) and operating within regulated control environments.
• Relevant certifications an asset: Azure/Data Engineer or Architect, Power BI/Tableau, CDMP/DCAM (data management), Prosci/ADKAR (change), PMP/Prince2/Agile.
• Influential communicator and motivator, skilled at engaging and aligning key stakeholders.
• Track record of technology selection, reference architecture design, and scaling self-service analytics safely and effectively.
• Demonstrated ability to lead with integrity, accountability, and results-oriented focus.
• Executive presence and credibility with Finance, IT, and Operations leaders; able to translate strategy into an actionable roadmap and operating model.
• Bachelor’s degree in Information Systems, Computer Science, Engineering, Finance, or related field required.
• Bilingual (English/French) preferred; ability to work across time zones and cultures.
• 5+ years leading reporting/analytics teams or a Center of Excellence, including responsibility for budget, vendor management, and executive stakeholder engagement.
• Own CoE roadmap and multi-year capability maturity plan (from descriptive to diagnostic, predictive, and prescriptive analytics).
• Strategic thinker and data-driven decision-maker with a focus on continuous improvement and performance.
• Occasional travel (up to ~10–15%) may be required.
• Excellent communication, storytelling, and data visualization standards; passion for user-centric design and accessibility.
• Demonstrated success driving adoption of enterprise reporting strategies and delivering measurable business value.
• Hands-on background with modern BI tools (e.g., Power BI, Tableau), data platforms (e.g., Azure/Snowflake/Databricks), data integration (e.g., Azure Data Factory/SSIS), and SQL.
• Collaborative leadership style with a commitment to cross-functional teamwork and high-performance culture.
• Proficient in Agile delivery (Scrum/SAFe), DevOps/CI-CD for analytics, and platform cost/performance optimization.

Benefits

Training + Development

Interview process

Visa Sponsorship

Security clearance