Director, Data Strategy & Business Applications

Job Description

Job DescriptionDescription:

About Twain Financial Partners

Twain Financial Partners is an investment firm located in St. Louis, MO, with over $6 billion in assets under management within the public-private partnership sector. The company specializes in tax credit, structured debt, and real estate transactions. Twain collaborates with financial institutions, corporations, and high-net-worth individuals to structure and manage investments that offer both attractive economic returns and social benefits.

We are a diversified financial services firm driving impact across Renewable Energy Financing, Commercial Real Estate, and Government Program Lending. We are seeking a visionary leader to not just manage our technology, but to transform how our company leverages data to compete.

This is not a traditional IT maintenance role. We need a strategist and a builder who can lead the migration of our core ERP and CRM systems while simultaneously building a modern data governance framework. You will lay the foundation for our future use of data science and AI, moving our culture from reporting to data-driven insights.

Mission & Key Objectives

• Transform the Foundation: Lead the successful migration and optimization of core business platforms (ERP/CRM) to ensure data integrity and operational efficiency.
• Build the Data Strategy: Draft and execute a multi-year roadmap that matures the organization from manual data handling to automated, governed, and AI-ready data management.
• Drive Business Value: Shift the analytics function from backward-looking reporting to forward-looking business intelligence that directly impacts revenue, portfolio risk, and operational costs.

Core Responsibilities:

• Strategic Leadership & Governance
• Draft and own the enterprise Data & Technology Strategy, aligning technical investments with business goals across Renewable Energy, CRE, and Program expertise lines.
• Establish a Data Governance Council to define data ownership, quality standards, and security protocols across the firm.
• Act as the bridge between technical teams and executive leadership, translating complex data concepts into clear business value propositions.

Applications & Operations (ERP/CRM)

• Oversee the end-to-end lifecycle of business applications, with an immediate focus on stabilizing and optimizing the ERP and CRM ecosystems.
• Lead the migration away from legacy systems/processes, ensuring minimal disruption to deal flow and fund administration.
• Instill rigorous project management disciplines to ensure technology initiatives are delivered on time, on budget, and with high user adoption.

Analytics & Business Intelligence

• Rebuild the analytics function to focus on actionable insights (e.g., portfolio risk analysis, tax credit yield optimization, deal pipeline velocity) rather than static operational reports.
• Define and track KPIs that hold the technology function accountable to business outcomes (e.g., reduced deal processing time, improved data accuracy).
• Prepare the organization for future AI/ML capabilities by ensuring data is structured, clean, and accessible.

Change Management & Culture

• Drive cultural change to foster a "data-first" mindset among deal teams and asset managers.
• Build strong relationships with cross-functional to ensure technology solves their specific pain points.
• Mentor and upskill the existing team, fostering a culture of curiosity, accountability, and high performance.

Requirements:

Candidate Requirements

• Experience: 10+ years in Financial Services, Fintech, or Asset Management, with at least 4 years in a leadership role bridging Technology and Business Operations.
• Transformation Track Record: Proven experience leading complex ERP/CRM implementations and data strategy overhauls in mid-sized or large organizations.
• AI & Automation Fluency: Demonstrated experience utilizing intelligent automation tools (e.g., Power Automate, Make, Zapier, n8n) and AI productivity solutions to accelerate organizational velocity. You must be AI-literate and capable of identifying opportunities to automate manual workflows.
• Strategic Vision: Demonstrated ability to write and execute a multi-year strategic roadmap; you can see the "big picture" of how AI and Data Science will reshape financial services.
• Executive Presence: Exceptional communication skills; able to command a room, influence stakeholders without direct authority, and manage up to the C-Suite.
• Technical Fluency: Deep understanding of modern data stacks (Cloud Data Warehouses, BI Tools like Power BI/Tableau), CRM (Salesforce/Microsoft Dynamics), and ERP systems.
• Must be located in or willing to relocate to St. Louis, Missouri
• Education: Bachelor’s degree required; MBA or Master’s in Data Science / Information Systems highly preferred.