[Hiring] Quarterly Planning and Operations Analyst @J.D. Power

Role Description

JD Power’s Analytics team of over 200 professionals uses a hybrid, customized version of SAFe (scaled agile framework) to coordinate, execute and measure quarterly product development plans through planned cycles (program increments) to deliver value faster and more predictably. This role is responsible for the execution and ongoing optimization of that approach across sets of analytics professionals including:

• Data scientists
• AI engineers
• ML engineers
• Data engineers
• Software engineers
• Data insights analysts
• Data visualization and QA analysts
• Data strategists

You will also interface heavily with partner teams in product and technology organizations as we move towards more consistent approaches across these teams. This is a high-intensity, high-visibility execution role involving the creation of net-new data-driven, AI- and ML-based products with our diverse set of automotive data assets.

The role also evaluates, reports and conducts retrospectives on Analytics team operational KPIs for several of our major product areas involving our most complex, real-time data sets that have high customer expectations and very fast customer response times. These metrics involve:

• Product quality
• Throughput
• Model accuracy
• Other identifiers

You will partner with Analytics leaders to identify, root cause and improve business performance, and evaluate and measure the impact of use of AI in our development teams.

This role sits within the Transformation Office, the enterprise function responsible for orchestrating the programs and initiatives that underpin our three-year strategy. In this capacity, you will be a dedicated execution partner to our CDAO, embedded in the work that matters most and positioned to grow alongside it.

What You’ll Be Doing in This Role

• Facilitate program increment quarterly planning events to align teams on a shared mission, objectives and delivery commitments each quarter.
• Lead inspect & adapt workshops, facilitating quantitative and qualitative retrospectives and executing on improvement ideas.
• Track and communicate metrics like completion rates, program predictability, to provide transparency and drive continuous improvement.
• Leading end-to-end program delivery by coordinating across multiple teams and functions, adapting to methodologies as needed including Agile, hybrid, and data platform-specific workflows.
• Building, maintaining, and owning the committed project plan and schedule, distinct from the product roadmap, and ensuring milestones are met with transparency and rigor.
• Drive adoption and maturity of product planning practices across the organization.
• Applying a hybrid toolkit – technical project management, agile delivery, and business analysis to address the specific needs of each workstream.
• Bring technical project management expertise to address engineering and AI challenges, working closely with technical leads and data scientists to monitor development progress and ensure alignment between business objectives and technical execution.
• Partner with Analytics leaders to set annual KPI objectives for year-on-year improvements.
• Proactively measure and report out on those KPIs and partner with technical teams to uncover root causes, implement retrospective actions and identify risks and countermeasures.

Qualifications

• 5-8 years of project management experience.
• Highly accountable, you own your commitments, follow through without being chased, and hold others to the same standard.
• A self-starter who can operate with limited direction, identify what needs to happen next, and move without waiting to be told.
• Strong communication skills, able to distill complex program status into clear, concise updates for leadership audiences, both written and verbal.
• Experience in technology-centric environments (software development, IT, or data) with a history of bridging business objectives and technical execution.
• Proficiency in SAFe a plus. Proficiency in both Agile and Waterfall methodologies, generally speaking; experience with Jira, Smartsheet, Microsoft Project, or similar SDLC and PM tools.
• Demonstrated experience applying AI tools to program and project management workflows, and a track record of proactively exploring and adopting emerging AI capabilities to improve team productivity and decision-making.
• Strong RAID discipline, schedule management, budget oversight, and the instinct to track details without losing sight of the bigger picture.
• Comfortable managing multiple workstreams concurrently in a fast-paced, matrixed environment.
• Bachelor's degree preferred; PMP certification a plus.
• North American based, with availability to work across a distributed global team.

Benefits

• Flexible work arrangements.
• Opportunities for learning and development.
• A culture centered on the Values that guide how we work every day.

Company Description

JD Power powers auto-related decisions through proprietary data, advanced analytics, deep industry expertise, and workflows that connect insight to action. Operating across North America, Europe, and Australia, we help customers make better decisions and achieve better outcomes.

• We power our customers’ success.
• We are innovative, collaborative, and grounded in data.
• We make things easy.
• We get it done.
• We start with trust and prove it every day.