Self-Service Analytics Centre of Excellence Manager

Optimisation Centre of Excellence - The core team responsible for supporting high value investment decisions across our organisation through bespoke, specialised analytics.

Customer Insights - A dedicated team of customer focused analysts, helping to drive customer obsessed decisioning through improved customer insight.

The Self-Service Analytics Centre of Excellence Manager leads the capability responsible for enabling governed, scalable and trusted self-service analytics across Dunelm. Reporting to the Director of Data Engineering, the role owns the standards, adoption approach and capability development for self-service analytics across current and future tools, including ThoughtSpot, ensuring colleagues can confidently answer business questions and use insight to drive better decisions using high-quality data products, clear definitions and intuitive analytics experiences.

The role combines leadership, analytics product ownership, platform stewardship, stakeholder engagement, coaching and data literacy enablement. It is accountable for setting the operating model and governance approach for self-service analytics, while ensuring centrally managed BI products and self-service capabilities remain reliable, supportable and aligned to business priorities.

A key part of the role is to coach and mentor business colleagues so they can use self-service analytics confidently and effectively to answer business questions and drive better decisions. This includes helping colleagues frame the right business questions, interpret results, apply data storytelling, use test and learn approaches, and turn insight into clear actions. The role will also provide functional guidance and subject matter expertise to dedicated business partner analysts drawn from the Analytics teams where deeper analytical support is required.

Self-Service Analytics Strategy and Adoption

• Define and lead the strategy for governed self-service analytics adoption across Dunelm, covering ThoughtSpot and other current or future analytics capabilities.
• Create clear pathways for colleagues to self-serve, supported by training, coaching, guidance, office hours, standards and reusable examples.
• Drive measurable improvements in analytics adoption, user confidence, data literacy and reduction of repeat manual reporting demand.

Leadership, Coaching and Business Enablement

• Lead, coach and develop the Self-Service Analytics Centre of Excellence team, creating a high-performing, collaborative and business-focused capability.
• Coach and mentor business colleagues in how to frame business questions, interpret data, tell clear data stories, test and learn through data, and turn insight into decisions and action.
• Provide functional guidance and subject matter expertise to dedicated business partner analysts from the Analytics teams, helping ensure specialist analytical support is consistent, high quality and aligned to self-service analytics standards.
• Build a culture of quality, curiosity, ownership, continuous improvement and trusted partnership with business, Product, Delivery, Data Engineering, Data Management and Analytics colleagues.

Analytics Product and Platform Stewardship

• Own the standards and lifecycle for self-service analytics assets, including semantic models, dashboards, reports, ThoughtSpot Answers and Liveboards, and centrally managed BI products.
• Ensure analytics products and tools are trusted, intuitive, performant, documented and aligned to agreed business definitions and governance controls.
• Partner with Data Engineering and Data Management to improve semantic model quality, metadata, lineage, certification and reusable metric definitions across self-service analytics capabilities.

Stakeholder Engagement and Governance

• Act as the senior point of contact for self-service analytics, helping business teams understand how to use analytics safely, effectively and consistently.
• Work with Product, Delivery and Analytics colleagues to shape demand, prioritise high-value opportunities and determine the right balance between self-service enablement, centrally delivered BI outcomes and specialist analysis.
• Champion governed analytics by embedding clear standards for access, certification, documentation, quality, supportability and responsible use., Meet John, our Chief Tech and Innovation Officer, who shares insights into the exciting things happening in tech, why Dunelm is his happy place, and his unique route into the tech world.

Work your way

We want our colleagues to feel at home wherever they work, so that they are comfortable and can be their best selves. In addition, we want everyone to feel connected to the business, our strategy and the teams they work with.

Where hybrid working is applicable, colleagues need to strike the right balance to fulfil both of these important factors. You will find the right mix of being at home, in the office & out in the business, bearing in mind business needs, job role and level of responsibility.

Wellbeing is more than just a buzzword here

From our Wellbeing Buddies and Mental Health First Aid training to our progressive parental leave, menopause policies and Colleague Support Fund, we’re committed to supporting our colleagues in every area - and at every stage - of their lives. Through our partnership with the Retail Trust, everyone at Dunelm has free access to a 24/7 Virtual GP, as well as therapy and counselling, plus information, guidance and advice in all areas of financial, emotional and physical wellbeing.

Look in our toy box

Of course, you should never judge a business by its tech stack. But take a peek at the range of technologies our engineers and developers are currently playing with.

Dazzling design

At Dunelm, we love every aspect of the design process. We’re continually researching new developments in packaging, materials and production methods, tapping into new data insights and keeping track of changing lifestyle trends. We’re hugely collaborative in the way we work. Together, the teams here have a direct impact on our success, creating amazing products that drive sales and delight our customers, as well as providing direction for our wide and varied range of brands. Please accept Functional Cookies to view this content Please accept Functional Cookies to view this content

Keep on growing

Join us on the tech side and you’ll have access to a huge array of learning and development opportunities, including a variety of internally created workshops and externally accredited courses. We also have a substantial tech-specific budget to fund e-Learning licenses, conference visits, resources, and qualifications, plus dedicated mentors, well-being buddies and a wide range of network groups to support you as you progress. Housewarming & Settling In where you can find out more about the wider business, our culture, behaviours, networks and wellbeing support Thrive, our learning and skills platform which gives you a blended, bite-sized, social learning experience with learning relevant to your role Our Enterprise Leadership Programme designed specifically for our strong growth potential Heads of Department to help them reach the next level in their career Our INSPIRE Programme designed for our strong growth potential senior managers across the business to enhance their leadership capability Our EXPLORE Programme designed to prepare our next generation of Line Managers Personal Effectiveness workshops and self-led learning, also delivered through Thrive Apprenticeships opportunities relevant to your role - from level 2 (equivalent to GCSE) through to Level 7 (equivalent to Masters) Colleague Development Fund to support colleagues in accessing external training relevant to your role Coaching and mentoring opportunities to support you in your current role and help you prepare for the next Self-awareness tools to help you understand what really matters to you, and where your own talents and ambitions lie Progress conversations that reflect on how you’re doing and define your focus areas for the coming months Career conversations that explore what you want from your career, in light of your current capabilities, potential and future aspirations

• Strong leadership capability, with experience managing, coaching and developing analysts, BI specialists or data professionals.
• Experience coaching, mentoring and enabling business colleagues to use analytics confidently, frame questions effectively, interpret results and turn insight into better decisions.
• Experience leading BI, analytics enablement or self-service analytics capabilities in a complex organisation.
• Strong understanding of governed self-service analytics across multiple tools and capabilities, including adoption, enablement, standards, training and support models.
• Experience with ThoughtSpot or comparable self-service BI platforms, with the ability to set direction and standards for semantic models, dashboards, reports or equivalent analytics assets.
• Strong understanding of analysis methods, data storytelling, test and learn approaches, interpretation of results and how analytics can be used to answer business questions and drive better decisions.
• Strong understanding of semantic models, dimensional modelling, reusable metrics, metadata and governed business definitions.
• Ability to translate business priorities into analytics roadmaps, delivery plans and clear team priorities.
• Excellent stakeholder engagement skills, with the ability to influence senior stakeholders and explain complex data concepts clearly to non-technical colleagues.
• Strong governance mindset, including awareness of access control, certified content, documentation, data quality and supportability standards.
• Commercial awareness and ability to focus analytics capability on measurable business value, adoption, decision improvement and action.
• Ability to create a collaborative, inclusive and high-performing team culture.

Desirable skills

• Hands-on experience administering, developing or optimising ThoughtSpot content, including semantic models, Answers, Liveboards, permissions and certified content.
• Experience working across multiple analytics and BI tools, with the ability to determine which capability is most appropriate for different business needs.
• Experience working with Snowflake or another cloud data platform, including awareness of performance, cost and platform consumption considerations.
• Experience leading BI migration, simplification or rationalisation activity, particularly where moving from traditional reporting to governed self-service analytics.
• Experience establishing communities of practice, coaching frameworks or shared standards that help business colleagues build confidence and capability in using analytics.
• Exposure to AI-assisted analytics, natural language BI or metadata-driven analytics experiences.
• Retail analytics experience or experience supporting analytics adoption in a large, multi-functional organisation.

Key qualities, behaviours and values

• Stronger Together - connecting and team working.
• Keep Listening and Learning - being curious and adapting.
• Thinking Long Term - customer-first mindset and thinking big.
• Acts Like an Owner - taking responsibility and delivering results.

Along with competitive salaries, we offer a range of other great benefits to recognise the unique contribution you bring.

Salary Advance so you can access up to 50% of the money you’ve earned during the month, rather than having to wait until pay day

Instant discounts with a range of other companies to help you stretch your budget

Pension contributions to help you save for your retirement

ShareSave scheme that enables you to save monthly and buy Dunelm shares at a discounted rate, building up your investments for a rainy day

Continuous training and coaching to ensure you feel confident in your current role and ready for any new challenges

Access to wellbeing support as and when you need it, including an online GP for you and your immediate family

Colleague networks that give everyone a voice and create an environment where we all feel at home

Outstanding development opportunities and all the support you need to grow your career the way you want

33 days annual holiday plus your birthday off to celebrate, and another day when you move home, so you can get settled in

Generous discounts on all our own products, in-store and online to help you make your house a home

Cycle to work scheme to help you keep your fitness up and your travel costs down

Charity day off (paid, of course) so you can volunteer for a charity that matters to you

And there’s no feeling like helping people create the joy of feeling truly at home. At Dunelm, that’s what we do. We’re the UK’s number one choice for homewares because we make home life lovelier for our customers. And we’ve crafted a workplace that feels just as welcoming, where you can bring your ideas, be yourself, and feel right at home.

Work your way, together We’re a hybrid business, which means you’ll have flexibility alongside time together with your team. In this role, you can expect 2 days per week in our Leicester or London office, helping you stay connected, collaborate and do your best work for our customers.

The Data and Analytics department is central to Dunelm’s Strategy in driving value from data through decision intelligence. The department comprises of 5 interconnected capabilities:

Future fit data platform - the enterprise data platform delivered by our core data engineering teams, providing a trusted, single version of business truth to drive value through data and decision intelligence.

Self-Service Analytics Centre of Excellence - the core team responsible for driving governed self-service analytics adoption across our organisation. The team maintains, enhances and develops our ThoughtSpot-led, AI-enabled analytics ecosystem, provides advice, guidance and support to our business community, and maintains a suite of centrally managed enterprise analytics products.

ABODE (Advanced Business Optimisation Engine) - A suite of interconnected Analytics and AI models powering high velocity, complex decisions across our organisation., Today, Dunelm is a leader in the £11bn UK homewares market. With over 200 stores across the country and a successful online operation - dunelm.com - we offer over 60,000 products across a broad range of categories. But where did it all begin?