Data Product Manager (Contractor) MNSITE-3838

RESPEC is seeking an experienced, strategic Data Product Manager to champion a major state enterprise modernization initiative supporting the Minnesota Department of Information Technology Services (MNIT) and the Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF). In this role, you will lead the evolution of core human services data into scalable, secure, and governed data products that power the "Whole Family" approach.

You will act as the key bridge between executive stakeholders, data engineering, data science, and operational teams, driving the transition from legacy mainframe platforms to cutting-edge cloud data lakes and modern curation architectures. Your leadership will directly impact public health and human services delivery by turning raw enterprise data into trusted, consumable assets for decision-makers and frontline personnel.

Core Responsibilities

As a Data Product Manager at RESPEC, you will guide data products through their complete lifecycle—from initial ideation and architecture alignment to deployment, user adoption, and ongoing optimization:

• Product Strategy & Roadmap: Partner with Enterprise Architecture, technical leads, and agency leadership to define the product vision, prioritize backlogs, and link data capabilities directly to state business outcomes.

• Modernization & Lifecycle Delivery: Spearhead the migration of data pipelines from legacy mainframe environments to modern lakehouse platforms, ensuring robust data lineage, metadata cataloging, and automated data quality frameworks.

• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner directly with data engineering and data science teams to build scalable pipelines, analytical models, and reusable data services in Databricks and modern cloud tools.

• Stakeholder Enablement & Analytics: Collaborate with analytics teams to implement interactive dashboards and KPI frameworks in Tableau, Power BI, and Looker while establishing metrics that quantify data product adoption and impact.

• Governance & Ethical Data Use: Champion robust data privacy, governance, and ethical AI standards within a regulated human services framework, ensuring strict alignment with state and federal compliance policies.

• Knowledge Transfer & Mentorship: Lead structured knowledge transfer sessions and documentation to ensure internal teams maintain long-term operational excellence.