Vice President, Data, Science & Architecture

About Us

Ritchie Bros. (NYSE and TSX: RBA) is a global asset management and disposition company, offering customers end-to-end solutions for buying and selling used heavy equipment, trucks and other assets in numerous industries including construction, transportation, agriculture, energy, oil and gas, mining, and forestry. Our mission is to create compelling business solutions for the world's builders to easily and confidently exchange equipment. Learn more about us at: https://www.ritchiebros.com/

About The Team

Our Technology teams work collaboratively from different locations across the world on multiple eCommerce sites, mobile applications, and automated online auctions. We encourage and celebrate technical innovation and work with some of the industry’s leading technologies and tools.

Every day your work will make a difference in the way we run our business and the in the way customers interact with us.

Job Description

Our culture is characterized by collaboration, inclusivity, and a commitment to continuous learning, fostering an environment where diverse perspectives lead to groundbreaking solutions. Team members are empowered to share ideas and experiment across teams in all aspects of the business, fostering innovation and creativity. Leading edge technologies and inclusive practices drive both individual and collective growth as we modernize and grow our tech capabilities.

The Vice President of Data and Architecture will play a pivotal role in shaping the organization’s data strategy and architectural framework. This senior leadership position is responsible for overseeing the design, implementation, and governance of our data assets, ensuring they align with business objectives and drive innovation. Leverage your deep understanding of data management, analytics, and enterprise architecture, along with a proven ability to lead cross-functional teams, to modernize how data drives value across the enterprise.

In this role, you will collaborate closely with executives and stakeholders to establish a vision for data usage that enhances decision-making, and optimizes operational efficiency and usage. You will foster a culture of data-driven insights and best practices, empowering teams across the organization to leverage data effectively. Your strategic mindset and technical expertise will be crucial in transforming data into a key competitive advantage.

This leader will also re-establish an enterprise architecture function from the ground up. In this role, you will champion best practices in architecture governance, leveraging your extensive experience in designing and implementing frameworks that encompass applications, data, infrastructure, and security. Your ability to promote a culture of continuous learning and collaboration across the organization with be critical for adoption. Your ability to communicate complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders will be vital for fostering alignment and driving successful architectural patterns to enable modernization.

Responsibilities

Define and execute the company’s data strategy in alignment with business goals

Establish a clear vision for data architecture and governance, ensuring scalability and adaptability

Establish enterprise strategy for data sharing and usage in service of business outcomes

Oversee data quality, data governance, and data lifecycle management practices

Develop and implement policies for data usage, lineage, privacy and compliance with relevant parties

Define role of enterprise architecture, establish roles and processes to support distributed product teams with highly disparate technologies and frameworks

Design and maintain the enterprise architecture framework to support data integration, analytics, and reporting

Ensure that the architectural solutions align with the overall technology strategy

Partner with IT, product development, and business units to identify data needs and opportunities

Lead initiatives to improve data literacy across the organization, including data quality and ownership.

Build, mentor, and lead a high-performing team of technical professionals, including data scientists, analysts, and architects

Foster a culture of innovation and continuous improvement within the data and architecture teams

Communicate data strategy and architecture initiatives to executive leadership and stakeholders

Present insights and recommendations to drive data-driven decision-making

Consolidate distributed data science teams into a common organization and define patterns and practices

Leverage data to introduce wider usage of models and experimentation to increase business value

Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Data Science, or a related field;

8+ years of software development and 5+ years of management experience.

Strong knowledge of data governance frameworks, data modeling, and database management systems.

Proven track record of driving data-driven business transformations and managing large-scale enterprise ecosystems

Experience with managing workloads and data distributed across cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, Azure, Google Cloud) and on prem

Experience leading enterprise architecture teams, establishing vision and ways of working in support of product teams and platforms

Demonstrated to be a quick learner, energized by challenge, able to connect and communicate new technologies to lead large scale change efforts