How to structure a data team

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This topic comes up frequently in Slack and there really isn’t a right answer, but we took a stab at understanding it better by speaking with data leaders at HubSpot, Away Travel, Mack Weldon, and others and sharing the thinking behind their current structures. (Read the article here)

We saw some common considerations:

  1. How centralized / how distributed? Some teams are highly centralized, some teams distribute members to sit and work with organizational units.
  2. Where should data engineering sit? Some teams put data engineers on the data team, some draw a dotted line with the engineering organization.
  3. What is the role of the data team?** Some teams embrace data as a product, and some teams operationalize data as a service.
  4. What executive does the data team live under? Some teams have VP- or C-level executives leading them who report directly to the CEO. Other times data roles up to a functional head.

Would love to hear any additional thoughts from the community either sharing your own team structure or your considerations/thinking behind your current org structure.

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