Now Brewing, director, Decision Science
 

The director, Decision Science leads the Intelligence & Decision Science (IDS) vertical within Corporate FP&A. This role is responsible for designing, shaping and scaling modern finance intelligence capabilities by translating finance strategy into business-owned data products, planning capabilities, governed semantic definitions, and actionable insights delivered in close partnership with Starbucks Technology (ST) teams.
The leader will orchestrate and lead cross-functional pods aligned to priority finance initiatives, bringing together finance, analytics, data science, and technology to accelerate delivery, adoption, and value realization. The focus is on business data stewardship, product leadership, decision science ownership, and enterprise adoption of modern finance capabilities.
•    Business Data Stewardship and metric governance of finance datasets and canonical models
•    Planning & Forecasting Product Management, owning capability roadmaps, user journeys, and adoption
•    Decision Science Product Ownership, including prioritization of ML forecasting, driver attribution, and release acceptance
•    Insights Governance focused on semantic consistency, executive storytelling standards, and analytical depth
•    Cross-functional pod leadership to deliver priority finance initiatives end-to-end, from problem framing through adoption
This leader partners with finance, data science, analytics, and technology teams to create a unified, modern finance ecosystem-enabling faster decisions, higher data trust, and enterprise-wide insight. You will be accountable for business requirements, value realization, adoption, and decision science and will partner will ST leaders for architecture, data science, and technical delivery.

Summary of Key Responsibilities
Leadership & Strategy
•    Define and drive the business product vision for Finance Data Stewardship, Planning & Forecasting, and Decision Science capabilities.
•    Establish capability roadmaps and prioritized backlogs that balance enterprise value, adoption, and sustainability.
•    Build and lead a high-performing team of Product Managers, Business Analysis Managers, and Decision Scientists.
•    Form and lead cross-functional pods for key finance initiatives, aligning Finance, ST, Enterprise Systems, and Analytics partners around clear outcomes and delivery milestones.
•    Translate finance strategy into business requirements, value KPIs, and product acceptance criteria, partnering with technical teams for delivery.

Domain Responsibilities
1. Data Stewardship
Own business semantic definitions and data contracts for Finance; chair stewardship for canonical P&L models and metric governance; define acceptance criteria for finance data products delivered by ST; partner with Engineering leadership on platform roadmaps and release readiness.
•    Lead cross-functional pods to resolve complex data and metric issues, ensuring alignment across finance, analytics, and technology stakeholders.
•    Author business-side standards (data contracts, KPI definitions, finance logic) and approve technical standards set by ST/Data Office aligned with enterprise governance.
•    Own product backlog prioritization and acceptance of finance data products delivered by ST/Data Engineering.
•    Set business requirements and acceptance criteria for ingestion, schema, metadata, and data quality.

2. Planning Systems & Architecture
Design and evolve the planning and forecasting ecosystem from a business capability perspective; own planning roadmaps, business process design, and value KPIs; partner with Enterprise Architecture and ST for standards and integrations.
•    Stand up cross-functional pods to deliver planning and forecasting initiatives, coordinating finance users, system owners, and technology teams to drive adoption and measurable outcomes.
•    Partner with Enterprise Architecture leadership to help define technical guardrails and integration patterns for forecasting automation.
•    Partner with cross-functional teams (BU Finance, Corp. Finance, Digital, ST, Enterprise Systems) to modernize planning workflows; drive adoption and change management for planning workflows delivered by cross-functional teams.

3. Decision Science & Insights Governance
Serve as product owner for ML forecasting and driver attribution, including problem framing, driver selection, success metrics, and release acceptance; solutions built and operationalized in partnership with ST Data Science teams.
•    Lead cross-functional pods focused on high-impact decision science use cases, ensuring insights translate into executive action and sustained business value.
•    Define the enterprise BI strategy for CFO dashboards, performance storytelling, and automated insights.
•    Own business logic governance and semantic consistency to ensure consistent business logic across forecasting, reporting, and analytics.

Cross-Functional Leadership
•    Establish and govern pod-based ways of working, including decision rights, cadence, prioritization, and success metrics across Finance, ST, Enterprise Systems, and Analytics teams.
•    Represent Finance needs and decision priorities in enterprise forums, own business stewardship for definitions, metrics, and data quality acceptance.
•    Own business governance for definitions, metric stewardship, quality acceptance, and tool rationalization from a user/value lens.
•    Represent CFP&A business needs and stewardship priorities in enterprise forums.

Basic Qualifications
•    10+ years in Decision or Data Science, Technical Product Management, Data/Analytics leadership, or Finance Technology transformation roles.
•    Demonstrated ability to define product strategy and deliver large-scale, cross-functional technology programs.
•    Strong understanding of modern data platforms (Databricks, Azure), semantic layer concepts, and data modeling principles.
•    Experience with planning systems, forecasting engines, BI platforms, or financial data products.
•    Exceptional communication skills and ability to translate between business, finance, engineering, and executive audiences.

Preferred Qualifications
•    Experience working with financial datasets, forecasting models, or enterprise planning tools as a business owner or steward.
•    Familiarity with ML/AI concepts and operationalizing advanced analytics in business environments (business product ownership preferred).
•    Familiarity with SQL/Python, Databricks, PowerBI and experience partnering with technical teams (Data Engineering, Data Science, Architecture).
•    Experience leading teams focused on business product management, data stewardship, and cross-functional adoption.
•    Background influencing enterprise data governance, metric stewardship, and business requirements for tool/platform selection
 

As a Starbucks partner, you (and your family) will have access to medical, dental, vision, basic and supplemental life insurance, and other voluntary insurance benefits. Partners have access to short-term and long-term disability, paid parental leave, family expansion reimbursement, paid vacation from date of hire, sick time (accrued at 1 hour for every 25 hours worked), eight paid holidays, and two personal days per year. Starbucks also offers eligible partners participation in a 401(k) retirement plan with employer match, a discounted company stock program (S.I.P.), Starbucks equity program (Bean Stock), incentivized emergency savings, and financial well-being tools.  Additionally, Starbucks offers 100%25 upfront tuition coverage for a first-time bachelor’s degree through Arizona State University’s online program via the Starbucks College Achievement Plan, student loan management resources, and access to other educational opportunities.  You will also have access to backup care and DACA reimbursement.   Starbucks will comply with any applicable state and local laws regarding employee leave benefits, including, but not limited to providing time off pursuant to the Colorado Healthy Families and Workplaces Act, and in accordance with its plans and policies. This list is subject to change depending on collective bargaining in locations where partners have a certified bargaining representative. For additional information regarding partner perks and more detailed information about benefits, go to starbucksbenefits.com. 
If you are working in CA, CO, IL, LA, ME, MA, NE, ND or RI, you will accrue vacation up to a maximum of 120 hours (190 in CA) for roles below director and 200 hours (316 in CA) for roles at director or above.  For roles in other states, you will be granted vacation time starting at 120 hours annually for roles below director and 200 hours annually for roles director and above.

The actual base pay offered to the successful candidate will be based on multiple factors, including but not limited to job-related knowledge/skills, experience, geographical location, and internal equity.  At Starbucks, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at the high end of the range for their role, and compensation decisions are dependent upon the facts and circumstances of each position and candidate.

We believe we do our best work when we're together, which is why we're onsite four days a week.

Join us and inspire with every cup. Apply today!

Starbucks Coffee Company is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, national origin, disability, or protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. 
Qualified applicants with criminal histories will be considered for employment in a manner consistent with all federal, state and local ordinances.

Starbucks Coffee Company is committed to offering reasonable accommodations to job applicants with disabilities. If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, please contact us at [email protected] or 1(888) 611-2258.