Data Leadership

Data Leadership is a place for me to share and catalogue all the advice I have for current and budding data leaders. The content will cover hiring, running teams, setting culture, direction etc occasional dips into technology relevant to data teams.

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About me

Hi 👋 I'm Ryan Varley, a leader in Data, Engineering, and Product, with a focus on Data Science and Data Engineering.

With a start in astronomy where I gained my PhD, I have since worked in data-centric roles at various startups across ad-tech, mar-tech, and ed-tech. Throughout my career, I have led teams in data science and data engineering while also leading and gaining experience across engineering and product functions.

I am currently SVP of Technology at Boclips, en ed-tech where I run the Data, Product and Engineering teams.

As a leader, I value:

• Deep understanding of the business context, client problems, and the solutions we are creating.

• Moving quickly: building MVPs to evaluate solutions and deliver value fast.

• Self-awareness, continuous improvement and pragmatism.

• Trust, nurtured through feedback, retrospection and accountability.

• Psychological safety, so teams can take risks and innovate.

• Candour: not shying away from difficult discussions to achieve the best outcomes.

• Operating across a high dynamic range, from big-picture strategy through to execution.

I frequently share insights on leadership and data here and on LinkedIn.