Director of Data, Insights & Customer Experience

Work Schedule

Standard (Mon-Fri)

Environmental Conditions

Office

Job Description

At Thermo Fisher’s PPD clinical research business, we’re using digital innovation, data science, and AI to reimagine how life-changing therapies reach patients. Our teams combine deep scientific expertise with advanced analytics, automation, and digital platforms to make research smarter, faster, and more connected.

We know that innovation happens when diverse minds meet. Our Digital Science, Data, and AI professionals collaborate closely with scientists, clinicians, and operational experts to solve real-world challenges in clinical research. Alongside our partnership with Open AI, you can be part of the collaboration that will help to improve the speed and success of drug development, enabling customers to get medicines to patients faster and more cost effectively.

You’ll join a culture that values experimentation, learning, and collaboration — where your ideas can help shape how we deliver life-saving solutions and improve global health outcomes. Whether you’re a data engineer, product manager, software developer, or AI scientist, you’ll find opportunities here to apply your skills to work that truly matters — improving global health outcomes. 

Director of Data, Insights & Customer Experience 

We are seeking a Director of Data to lead data strategy and execution for our Insights and Customer Experience digital product domain within PPD. This role is responsible for ensuring that data powering our products is trusted, well-defined, and aligned with source systems. You will oversee data analysts, data scientists, and front-end developers, partner with the business to establish strong data governance practices, and partner with the architecture team to design scalable data models that support both product features and AI-driven use cases.

This leader will act as the bridge between product, analytics, engineering, and architecture—ensuring that data is accurate, usable, and consistently understood across teams, and effectively surfaced through dashboards and data-driven interfaces.

This is a remote based position for qualified candidates in the US (East Coast preference)

Key Responsibilities

Data Strategy & Product Alignment

• Define and drive the data strategy for the Insights and Customer Experience digital product domain within PPD, ensuring alignment with product roadmaps and business objectives. 
• Partner with Product Managers to translate product requirements into scalable data models and structures. 
• Establish data as a core product asset, ensuring it is intentionally designed—not an afterthought. 

Data Modeling & Architecture Collaboration

• Define conceptual, logical, and physical data models to support digital product capabilities. 
• Collaborate closely with data engineers and architects to implement scalable, high-quality data solutions. 
• Ensure consistency between product data models and upstream source systems. 

Data Quality & Trust

• Own data quality standards, monitoring, and remediation processes 
• Establish processes to ensure data in digital products accurately reflects source systems. 
• Drive initiatives that improve confidence in data across stakeholders (“single version of the truth”) 
• Implement validation, reconciliation, and auditing practices. 

Data Definitions & Governance

• Lead the development and adoption of clear, consistent data definitions and business logic. 
• Ensure alignment across teams on key metrics, KPIs, and data usage. 
• Establish and maintain data governance frameworks, including metadata management and lineage. 
• Champion data literacy and shared understanding across the organization 

Analytics & Dashboard Enablement

• Lead and develop a team of data analysts supporting digital products. 
• Oversee the design and development of dashboards and data visualizations that support business processes and decision-making. 
• Ensure dashboards are intuitive, performant, and aligned to standardized definitions and trusted data sources. 
• Partner with product and business teams to embed insights directly into workflows and digital experiences. 
• Establish best practices for visualization, usability, and front-end data presentation. 

AI & Data Enablement

• Enable AI and machine learning use cases by ensuring high-quality, well-structured, and accessible data. 
• Partner with AI/ML teams to define data requirements for models and features. 
• Ensure data readiness for training, inference, and continuous improvement of AI systems. 

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Serve as a key partner to Product, Engineering, Architecture, and Business stakeholders across PPD. 
• Influence decision-making through data clarity, governance, and strategic direction. 
• Drive alignment across functions on data priorities and investments. 

What Success in This Role Looks Like

• Product teams within Insights and Customer Experience domain trust and rely on data without constant validation. 
• Clear, consistent definitions exist for all critical metrics and data fields. 
• Dashboards and data interfaces are widely adopted and drive business processes and decisions. 
• Data discrepancies between systems are proactively identified and resolved. 
• Scalable data models support current and future product needs. 
• AI initiatives are accelerated by well-prepared, high-quality data.

Key Competencies

• Data Ownership Mindset – Treats data as a product with accountability for quality and usability 
• Clarity & Alignment Driver – Brings structure and shared understanding to ambiguous data environments. 
• Technical-Functional Bridge – Effectively connects business needs with technical implementation. 
• User-Centric Insight Delivery – Ensures data is not just accurate, but accessible and actionable through well-designed dashboards and interfaces. 
• Pragmatic Leadership – Balances governance with speed and product delivery 

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent and relevant formal academic / vocational qualification (Advanced degree preferred).
• Previous experience in data, analytics, or data product roles that provides the knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform the job (comparable to 10+ years’ experience). 
• 5+ years of leadership experience managing data analysts or similar roles. 
• Strong experience with data modeling (conceptual, logical, physical) in product environments
• Proven track record of improving data quality and establishing trust in data. 
• Experience delivering dashboards or data visualization solutions for business users. 
• Experience working closely with data engineering and architecture teams. 
• Deep understanding of data governance, definitions, lineage, and quality frameworks.
• Experience supporting digital products (e.g., customer-facing platforms, SaaS, applications). 

Preferred

• Experience enabling AI/ML use cases with production data systems. 
• Familiarity with modern data stacks (e.g., cloud data platforms, APIs, event-driven architectures) 
• Experience with BI and visualization tools (e.g., Tableau, Power BI, Looker, or similar) 
• Experience embedding analytics into product experiences (not just standalone reporting) 
• Background in regulated or complex data environments 
• In some cases, an equivalency, consisting of appropriate education, training, and/or directly related experience will be considered sufficient for an individual to meet the requirements of the role.

At Thermo Fisher Scientific, we are committed to fostering a healthy and harmonious workplace for our employees. We understand the importance of creating an environment that allows individuals to excel. Please see below for the required qualifications for this position, which also includes the possibility of equivalent experience:

• Able to communicate, receive, and understand information and ideas with diverse groups of people in a comprehensible and reasonable manner.
• Able to work upright and stationary for typical working hours. 
• Ability to use and learn standard office equipment and technology with proficiency.
• Able to perform successfully under pressure while prioritizing and handling multiple projects or activities. 
• May require as-needed travel (0-25%). 

Location: Remote US (East Coast preferred). Relocation assistance is NOT provided.  
*Must be legally authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship.
*Must be able to pass a comprehensive background check, which includes a drug screening.
 

The annual salary range estimated for this position in North Carolina is $185,000- $215,000 USD. This position may also be eligible to receive a variable annual bonus based on company, team, and/or individual performance results in accordance with company policy.