Lead / Principal Data Product Owner

Location: Johannesburg, Gauteng (Preferred); Cape Town candidates will also be considered
Contract Type: Fixed-Term Contract (Initial 12 Months)
Start Date: As soon as possible

Are you an experienced Lead / Principal Data Product Owner with a passion for driving strategic data products and delivering enterprise-scale cloud-based data platforms?

Our client is seeking a highly experienced Lead / Principal Data Product Owner to drive the delivery and evolution of strategic data products and platforms.

This role requires a strong blend of product ownership, stakeholder management, data analytics, and cloud-based data platform expertise.

The successful candidate will be responsible for defining and executing the vision, roadmap, and delivery of enterprise data products, ensuring alignment with business objectives while maximising the value of data assets across the organisation.

This is a senior leadership role requiring extensive experience working on data-centric initiatives and managing cross-functional teams across business, technology, analytics, engineering, and architecture functions.

Key Responsibilities

• Own and drive the end-to-end lifecycle of data products from concept through delivery and optimisation.
• Define and maintain the product vision, roadmap, and backlog for enterprise data initiatives.
• Collaborate with senior business stakeholders to understand strategic objectives and translate them into data-driven solutions.
• Prioritise requirements based on business value, risk, dependencies, and technical feasibility.
• Work closely with Data Engineers, Data Architects, Data Scientists, Analysts, and DevOps teams to deliver scalable data solutions.
• Lead Agile product ceremonies and ensure delivery teams remain focused on business outcomes.
• Analyse, interpret, and derive insights from large and complex datasets to support decision-making and product evolution.
• Establish and monitor KPIs, success metrics, and adoption measures for data products.
• Drive data governance, quality, lineage, and compliance considerations within the product ecosystem.
• Manage stakeholder expectations and communicate product progress to executive leadership.
• Identify opportunities for innovation and continuous improvement within the data landscape.
• Act as the primary liaison between business and technical teams for all data product initiatives.

Minimum Requirements

Experience

• 8–12+ years of experience within Data, Analytics, Business Intelligence, Data Management, or Data Product environments.
• Proven experience as a Data Product Owner, Lead Product Owner, Data Delivery Lead, or similar senior role.
• Extensive experience delivering and managing enterprise-scale data-focused projects.
• Strong experience handling, analysing, and interpreting large datasets to drive business decisions.
• Demonstrable experience working within Agile and Scrum delivery environments.
• Experience engaging with executive stakeholders and managing complex delivery portfolios.
• Telecommunications industry experience will be advantageous.

Technical Skills

Essential

• Strong experience with Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and cloud-native data solutions.

Experience with:

• BigQuery.
• Dataflow.
• Dataproc.
• Cloud Storage.
• Cloud Composer.
• Looker / Data Visualisation platforms.

Advantageous

• Exposure to AWS data services and multi-cloud environments.

Strong understanding of:

• Data Warehousing.
• Data Lakes.
• ETL / ELT Frameworks.
• Data Modelling.
• Data Governance.
• Master Data Management.
• Data Quality Frameworks.
• Metadata Management.
• Working knowledge of SQL and analytics methodologies.

Leadership Competencies

• Strategic Thinking and Product Vision.
• Exceptional Stakeholder Management and Influencing Skills.
• Strong Commercial and Business Acumen.
• Excellent Communication and Presentation Capabilities.
• Proven Ability to Lead Cross-Functional Teams in Complex Enterprise Environments.
• Strong Problem-Solving and Decision-Making Skills.
• Ability to Manage Competing Priorities and Deliver Under Pressure.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Data Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or a related field.
• Relevant certifications in Product Ownership, Agile, Scrum, Cloud Technologies, or Data Management will be advantageous.
• GCP certifications highly desirable.

Key Success Factors

The ideal candidate will bring a combination of:

• Deep data domain expertise.
• Strong product ownership capabilities.
• Hands-on experience interpreting and leveraging data to drive outcomes.
• Proven success delivering cloud-based data platforms on GCP.
• The ability to engage effectively with both technical teams and executive stakeholders.

What's on Offer

• Initial 12-month fixed-term contract.
• Long-term programme with an expected duration of 2+ years.
• Hybrid work model (subject to client requirements).
• Opportunity to drive the delivery and evolution of strategic enterprise data products and cloud-based data platforms.
• Immediate start available.

If you are an experienced Lead / Principal Data Product Owner with a strong background in enterprise data products, cloud technologies, and stakeholder engagement, we'd love to hear from you.