Head of Data & AI Enablement

Ratonga Matihiko I Digital Services

Located in Ōtautahi | Christchurch, Aotearoa | New Zealand

• Full-time 37.5 hours per week (1.0 FTE)
• Continuing (permanent) position
• Generous annual leave provisions and professional development opportunities

Kia hiwa rā, kia hiwa rā!
He hiahia, he pūkenga nōu ki te mahi a te Head of Data & AI Enablement Nāia te pōwhiri nā Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha kia tono mai i te tūranga nei.

Āu Mahi | What You Will Do
The University of Canterbury is seeking a visionary and dynamic leader for the role of Head of Data & AI Enablement. This pivotal position is responsible for empowering the university to leverage data-driven insights and ethical AI practices to achieve strategic goals, improve student outcomes, and enhance the academic experience.

You will lead a passionate team dedicated to enabling effective data decision-making, providing foundational data engineering services, and driving the adoption of AI tools. As a visible leader and advocate, you will champion the growth of UC's data platform capabilities and foster a culture of safe, ethical, and responsible AI use.  

 Key Responsibilities include:

People Leadership and Organisational Culture

• Apply coaching and team cohesion frameworks to inspire high performance.
• Promote UC's Values, recognizing and rewarding exemplary behaviour.
• Foster a customer-centric mindset within the team, focusing on process improvement.
• Align team goals with UC's strategic vision and co-create a meaningful team purpose.
• Continuously evaluate team roles and capabilities, applying interventions and building skills as needed.

Enabling Analytics Across UC

• Provide data sets to inform UC's planning, including student demand forecasting.
• Partner with teams to co-design and maintain predictive models.
• Enhance core analytical products like Power BI and support analytics research initiatives.

Data Engineering

• Establish and grow a unified Data Engineering team to manage UC's core data platform.
• Develop modern cloud data platform capabilities and ensure the delivery of trusted, high-quality data services.
• Lead data platform improvement activities and manage vendor/partner relationships.

AI Research, Innovation, and Education

• Build an AI enablement team to support ethical and responsible AI use.
• Contribute to the development of an AI platform
• Collaborate to identify and prioritise AI use cases, driving operational efficiencies and enhancing experiences.
• Stay abreast of emerging AI trends and integrate AI concepts into UC's curriculum.
• Organise workshops, seminars, and training on generative AI tools.

Stakeholder Management and Partnerships

• Engage with UC leaders, staff, and external stakeholders to understand their data needs.
• Lead retrospectives and training sessions to enhance the effectiveness of data services.

Technical Services & Data Infrastructure Management

• Lead the development and maintenance of UC's data platform and AI infrastructure.
• Ensure the scalability, reliability, and security of data and AI systems.
• Evaluate and implement new tools, reducing technical debt and enhancing data movement.
• Expand UC's reporting data pool to meet evolving needs.

Mōu | Who You Are

You are a seasoned leader with over 10 years' experience in Business Intelligence technologies with a passion for driving innovation in data and AI.  We're looking for someone with exceptional recent experience in leadership and change management skills who thrives on critical analysis, problem-solving, and making strategic decisions. Your ability to communicate effectively and engage stakeholders will be key in fostering strong relationships and delivering results.

Specifically, you will have the following:

• Bachelor's Degree in relevant field or equivalent work experience.
• Have 10 years' experience in BI technologies, data repositories, data extract and integration methods.
• A minimum of 3 years' experience leading Generative AI and/or Machine learning development initiatives
• A minimum of 5 years' recent experience managing a team
• A proven ability to drive change and collaboration across a large organisation.
• An alignment with our organisation's values and culture, promoting a positive and inclusive work environment.

 Key to your success will be your deep understanding and recent hands-on experience in a large organisation (preferably tertiary education) demonstrating the ability to drive change and collaboration across a large organisation.

 Mahi Ngātahi | Who You Will Work With

Building world-class digital capability is crucial to the University of Canterbury's ongoing success. Digital strive to provide a dynamic foundation from which the University (UC) can explore new business models and ways of working. Digital will transform how we work, behave, and the expectations of the communities we service. 

Ngā Painga o UC | Why UC

Ngā Uara | Our Values of manaakitanga, whanaungatanga and tiakitanga guide our decisions and behaviour and provide a roadmap for how we do things at UC, affirming our commitment to pastoral care and support for our ākonga and staff. They challenge and inspire us to be the best we can, and make UC a great place to work and study. For more info on Ngā Uara | Our Values visit us here.

 We are committed to accessible higher education, service to the community and the encouragement of talent without barriers of distance, wealth, class, gender or ethnicity. The University explicitly aims to produce graduates and support staff who are engaged with their communities, empowered to act for good and determined to make a difference in the world.

We offer a range of fantastic benefits including flexible work practices, study opportunities and generous superannuation and leave provisions. For more information, please visit us: https://www.canterbury.ac.nz/joinus/benefits/ . For more information about Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha | University of Canterbury, please visit https://www.canterbury.ac.nz/

The closing date for this position is: 17^th January 2025 (midnight, NZ time)
Please note, applications will be reviewed as they are received, and interviews may take place before the close date.

Pēhea te tono mai | How You Apply

Applications for this position must be submitted via our careers website and should include a cover letter and resume.

 Please note, we do not accept applications by email, however we are happy to answer your queries in relation to the application process, please forward these to [email protected]

 You must have Aotearoa New Zealand or Australian citizenship/permanent residency to be considered for this role. If you hold a valid work visa and are physically present in New Zealand, then you may also be considered.