Data Strategist

About Us

The FT has an uncompromising mission: delivering independent, quality information, news and services to individuals and companies around the globe. It’s the cornerstone of our reputation and the heart of our ambitions for the future. But for our people, the FT offers so much more than what we do. FT people come from all kinds of backgrounds and work across a huge range of disciplines and locations, and find an empowering, warm and welcoming culture that values curiosity and rewards smart, ambitious thinking. Those who are willing to unite around our mission and live our values will find plenty to challenge, inspire and interest them. Like the audiences we serve, no two FT people are the same; but together we help our audience be better informed and understand the world around them. It’s a job that’s never mattered more, and a career that can take you anywhere you want to go.

Our commitment to diversity and inclusion in the workplace

At the FT, we aim for employees across all regions to have a voice so that diverse perspectives are heard and valued. We believe that a supportive workplace is one where employees feel they can be themselves at work and have the flexibility they need to meet their personal needs. We'll continue to remove barriers for all, and in particular barriers facing employees from underrepresented groups.

The Role / Position Overview

The role of Data Strategist will sit within the Ads Data Strategy team reporting to the Director of Advertising Data and BI. It is a position that will suit somebody with 4+ years of experience working in digital advertising and marketing with a focus on the utilisation of data to inform client and product strategy and execution.

Our advertising customers and their agencies view the FT as an essential marketing platform for reaching some of the world’s most influential and discerning audiences within a high quality, brand safe environment . The creation of the team is in response to the increasing demand from those customers for more powerful audience intelligence underpinned by meaningful data and reporting.

The core objective of this team is to collaborate with Advertising Sales, Campaign Management, Market Research, Performance Marketing and the wider FT Data team to help identify which audiences, platforms and product mix work best for desired outcomes, providing consultancy to clients and agencies to maximise campaign impact. Crucially, focus will shift in time from tactical digital advertising campaign support, toward the production of strategic outputs for use across all campaigns such as sector case studies, spend and outcome based targeting strategies, reader trends and dashboarding to support unique sector requirements.

Key Responsibilities

• Production of reports and case studies, pulling, shaping and analysing data to inform digital ads and partner content business outputs and the products that underpin them

• Work with sales teams to understand sector verticals, client business objectives and marketing strategies 

• Assist in the storage of outputs in a structured way within our CRM system so as to ensure shared visibility across all teams

• Learn SQL - a database query language that will allow you to access the FT’s data sets for the purposes of assisting in reporting and analysis

• Gain exposure to and training upon an array of BI and data tools in order to build solutions for our sales teams and customers

• Get to grips with the available product set and the impact each product has on achieving campaign objectives

• Understand the metrics used to measure campaign performance and how these can be influenced by targeting strategies

Required Skills / Experience 

Essential: 

• At least 4 years experience working in digital advertising, media or a comparable vertical

• Significant experience of working directly with data and BI tools to produce actionable analysis,  reporting and insight

• Experience working with research based data outputs

• A firm understanding of the principles that underpin ad and martech systems like adservers,  DMPs, webservers and CMSs

• A willingness and desire to learn SQL and data design principles

• Self-motivated and very proactive with ability to manage and follow up on multiple tasks simultaneously

• Experience of working directly with sales teams and customers

• High level of customer focus 

• Thorough, detail oriented, inquisitive, intellectually curious & innovative

• The ability to collaborate and manage multiple stakeholders and their expectations

• Communication skills

• A commercially minded individual - ability to understand the commercial imperatives behind the data needs

• Creative thinking to help form appropriate campaign plans

Desirable:

• Advanced knowledge of ad tech systems and their applications

• Significant exposure to BI tools such as Tableau, Chartio, Qlik, power BI, Looker etc

• Looker and Big Query experience in particular are highly desirable

• Experience working in around data programming or knowledge of SQL, R, Python etc

• Direct experience building advertising / marketing solutions for customers, be that media owner side, agency or in house.

What’s in it for you? Our Benefits

Our benefits vary depending on location, but we are committed to providing best in class perks across all our offices as well as an inclusive environment to develop your career. Examples of our benefits include; generous annual leave allowances, flexible working (including working from home), medical cover, enhanced maternity & paternity packages, subsidised gym memberships and Giving Back opportunities. Full details of our benefits can be found here.

Further Information

The FT is committed to providing an inclusive working environment for all. We are an equal opportunities employer who seeks to recruit and appoint the best talent regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio-economic background, religion and/or belief. We also promote flexible working and will consider specific requests around flexibility for all roles where it can be accommodated. Please let us know if you require any adjustments as part of the application process or to enable you to attend an interview. If you would like to discuss your requirements, or have any questions, talent@ft.com and a member of our team will be happy to help.

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