Technical Associate Manager

Why this role exists: The Technical Associate Manager provides expert technical direction and detailed solution design, working on Officeworks Enterprise Data Platform, Snowflake. The role may be required on occasion to work with major source-of-record systems; e.g. S4Hana, Salesforce and others.

Leading a small team of engineers, the Technical Associate Manager will deliver advanced analytics, insights and reporting across the entire Officeworks business. Critically, this role will have a focus on the ongoing efficiency of the platforms in use, ensuring security, supportability, scalability, and reliability. The role bridges the gap between high-level enterprise data architecture and engineering execution, ensuring that data ingestion, transformation, and serving layers are built to high standards of performance and scalability.

By leading/managing, demonstrating technical excellence, guiding a team, and establishing technical standards, the Technical Lead enables the business to transition toward a democratised, self-serve analytics model and supports the successful deployment of AI-driven capabilities. Where you will make a difference: In this role you will: Technical Design & Solution Leadership: Lead the end-to-end detailed solution design across Snowflake ingestion, transformation, and serving layers to support data (and sometimes AI) workstreams. Translate architectural blueprints into detailed, implementable technical designs that meet business requirements.

Ensure integration patterns, including API and event-driven architectures via SAP BTP IS and Event Mesh, are consistently applied across the data ecosystem. Engineering Guidance & Quality Assurance: Guide and mentor teams on technical best practices, ensuring code quality, maintainability, and system performance. Drive the adoption of technical standards and governance frameworks to ensure consistency across the development lifecycle.

Conduct design and code reviews to identify bottlenecks and ensure adherence to security and scalability requirements. Innovation & Platform Evolution: Partner with the Enterprise Data Architect to align local engineering efforts with the broader enterprise data strategy and SAP BW migration goals. This will include engaging with the Data Governance Lead.

Stay abreast of emerging Snowflake trends to recommend optimizations for the enterprise data platform. Process & Continuous Improvement: Proactively identify opportunities to automate manual workflows and improve the efficiency of data delivery pipelines. Lead initiatives to enhance documentation standards and technical knowledge sharing within the Data & AI hub.

Drive a culture of continuous improvement, regularly reviewing existing processes to eliminate technical debt and improve operational velocity. Who you will be working with: Data & AI Team: Collaborate closely to provide technical direction and resolve complex delivery challenges. Data & Enterprise Architects: Partner to ensure technical designs align with the long-term technology roadmap.

Quality Analysts: Coordinate to ensure data integrity and the successful execution of automated testing frameworks. What success looks like: Technical Excellence: Delivery of robust, scalable Snowflake solutions that meet performance benchmarks and architectural standards. Operational Efficiency: Measurable improvements in development velocity and process efficiency through the implementation of continuous improvement initiatives.

Stakeholder Confidence: High levels of trust from architectural and leadership teams in the technical integrity of the designs produced. Strategic Alignment: Successful integration of AI and data workstreams with the broader SAP BTP and Snowflake ecosystem. How you will lead: Line Manager: Leads a culture based on our Officeworks values and behaviours Builds capability and delivers results across a diverse global workforce.

Demonstrates resilience, has determination and drive to persist through challenge Is self-aware; has humility and is self-reflective; understands how to bring out the best in self and others Strong sense of personal and team accountability, drives a genuine commitment to their teams and individual development Proactively contributes to a safe working environment, escalates appropriately if there are unsafe conditions or inappropriate behaviour Operates in line with applicable Officeworks company policies and Code of Conduct Qualifications and work experience: Essential: Education: Tertiary qualification in Computer Science, Data Science, Software Engineering, or a related field. Experience: Minimum of 79 years in data engineering or technical leadership roles, with a proven track record in designing complex Snowflake environments. Technical Mastery: Deep expertise in Snowflake (ingestion, transformation, serving layers), GitHub, and Machine Learning (ML) system architectures.

Integration Knowledge: Demonstrated experience with API and event-driven integration patterns (specifically SAP BTP IS or Event Mesh). Adaptability: Proven ability to adapt to emerging technologies, specifically moving from traditional ML to Generative AI or advanced AI applications. Problem Solving: Strong analytical skills with the ability to translate abstract architectural concepts into tangible engineering tasks.

Preferred: Industry Context: Experience within a large-scale Retail or FMCG environment, particularly during a cloud or SAP migration. Continuous Improvement: Certification or demonstrated experience in Lean, Agile, or other process improvement methodologies.