Senior Director, Decision Analytics

Role Description

Sprout Social is seeking a Senior Director, Decision Analytics to join our Strategy & Business Operations team. In this senior leadership role, you will head our centralized Decision Analytics function, overseeing the data science and analytics teams that power strategic choices across the entire company.

This isn't a passive reporting role. You are tasked with reinventing how Sprout approaches data—moving beyond retrospective reporting to build a predictive, insights-driven culture where data actively shapes business outcomes. Inheriting a team mid-transformation, you will define how every major function at Sprout utilizes data to accelerate growth and maximize business impact for years to come.

What you'll do

• Own and lead Decision Analytics, Sprout's centralized analytics and data science function, spanning domain-specialized pods supporting Marketing, Revenue, Product, and Finance across the full organization.
• Set the vision, standards, and operating model for how Decision Analytics works at Sprout, including how the team prioritizes, partners with stakeholders, and measures its own impact.
• Drive a fundamental shift in how Sprout's business teams use data: from reactive reporting to proactive, insight-driven decision-making that creates measurable business impact.
• Serve as the primary analytics and data science thought partner to senior business stakeholders across the organization, building deep relationships, understanding what each team is trying to accomplish, and guiding the team to deliver the highest-leverage work.
• Connect the dots across the organization, understanding what individual pods are working on, what business stakeholders need, and what is the best use of the team's time and capability.
• Be a hands-on leader: willing to get into the weeds alongside your team when needed, help work through a complex analysis or model, unblock a problem, or bring the right people into the room.
• Lead and develop a team of managers, analysts, and data scientists across multiple domain pods, creating a culture of proactive partnership, intellectual curiosity, and high standards.
• Partner closely with the Director of Data Enablement on data infrastructure and analytics engineering requirements, ensuring the analytical layer is built on a trustworthy and scalable data foundation.
• Champion AI-forward thinking across the analytics and data science function, identifying opportunities to incorporate AI and automation into how the team works and what it delivers.
• Drive change management as the organization completes its transition to a centralized analytics model, building trust with stakeholders, establishing new ways of working, and helping the team thrive in a new operating structure.
• Collaborate cross-functionally without ego; this role requires a genuine collaborator who is more invested in outcomes than ownership.

Qualifications

• 12+ years in analytics, data science, or a related field, including 5+ years leading teams within a SaaS or subscription-based business.
• 5+ years experience of hiring, developing, and mentoring a high-performing team of managers, analysts, and data scientists.
• Proven success scaling and managing a centralized or hybrid analytics function that simultaneously supports diverse cross-functional business units.
• Deep, fluent understanding of core SaaS metrics across the customer lifecycle (e.g., ARR growth/composition, NRR, GRR, pipeline velocity, CAC payback, LTV:CAC, and product activation).
• The ability to move fluidly between high-level executive strategy and granular, hands-on technical execution.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience leading an analytics organization through a major consolidation, restructure, or operating model transformation.
• Hands-on familiarity with the modern data stack (SQL, Python, dbt, cloud warehouses, BI/visualization tools like Tableau/Hex/Looker) and a foundational understanding of ML modeling frameworks and experimentation design.
• Experience expanding advanced data science capabilities alongside core analytics, including predictive modeling and ML-based forecasting.
• An AI-forward mindset with practical experience integrating AI tools and automation to accelerate and scale analytical workflows.

How you'll grow

• Within 1 month: Build relationships with your direct reports, key business stakeholders, and cross-functional partners across Data Enablement, Product Operations, and Strategy & Business Operations.
• Develop a deep understanding of Sprout's business model, the domains your team supports, and the current state of the analytics and data science function you're inheriting.
• Assess the team's current ways of working, backlog, and stakeholder relationships — and identify the highest-leverage opportunities to build trust and early momentum.
• Within 3 months: Establish a clear operating model for how Decision Analytics works — how work gets prioritized, how pods partner with stakeholders, and how the team communicates its impact.
• Build credibility as a strategic analytics and data science partner with senior stakeholders across the organization.
• Identify gaps in tooling, process, or capability and develop a clear point of view on how to address them.
• Within 6 months: Own the full Decision Analytics function with confidence — managing pod leads, guiding prioritization across domains, and serving as the primary escalation path for the business.
• Demonstrate a measurable shift in how business stakeholders experience the analytics function: more proactive, more strategic, more trusted.
• Begin to shape the longer-term vision for how Decision Analytics evolves as Sprout's data maturity and analytical ambition grow.
• Within 12 months: Lead Decision Analytics through its next phase — from a newly consolidated function to a mature, high-performing team with a clear identity and a strong reputation across Sprout.
• Establish a team culture defined by curiosity, proactive partnership, and a relentless focus on business impact — not just analytical output.
• Position Decision Analytics as an indispensable driver of how Sprout makes decisions, allocates resources, and pursues growth.

Benefits

• Comprehensive Health & Wellness: Premium BCBSIL medical, dental (high/low plans), and vision (Eyemed) insurance for you and your eligible dependents.
• Premium Mental Health Support: Full, free access to Modern Health for you and your dependents, including coaching, therapy sessions, and digital wellness resources.
• Retirement Savings: 401(k) plan with a 50% company match on your first 6% of contributions (a 3% total match).
• Financial Security: 100% employer-paid Life and Disability insurance for your peace of mind.
• Flexible Paid Time Off: A flexible PTO policy, supplemented with additional company-wide Rest & Recharge days throughout the year.
• Paid Parental Leave: Up to 16 weeks of paid leave for new parents to support you in expanding your family.
• Annual Lifestyle Stipend: A $1,000 USD annual Lifestyle Spending Account to spend on your physical, mental, and financial well-being.
• Work From Home Support: A one-time $550 USD stipend to set up your home office, plus a monthly $50 USD stipend for internet.
• Giving Back: 16 hours of paid volunteer time annually, plus a $100 annual match for your charitable donations.
• Additional Financial Perks: Access to pre-tax commuter benefits, subsidized child/eldercare (Care.com), discounted pet insurance (Figo), and no-cost personalized financial wellness support through Your Money Line.