SlipstreamJobs tracks this role from the company's public career site. Apply directly on the employer's site.
Perk (formerly TravelPerk) is an intelligent platform for travel and spend management serving 12,000+ companies globally. The company automates travel bookings, expenses, invoice processing, and related workflows to eliminate shadow work and boost productivity.
As VP of Data, you will lead a 40+ person data organization spanning seven crafts (data science, analytics, engineering, and related disciplines) with a business remit covering Customer Care, Marketing, Finance, Revenue, and People. You report to the President of Builders and sit at the executive leadership table.
Your mandate is to transform data from a reactive service function into core infrastructure and strategic moat. Today, data powers dashboards and answers questions. Tomorrow, data becomes the raw material products are built on—a competitive differentiator.
Key responsibilities:
- Own company-wide data strategy aligned with product expansion and business priorities; define and track KPIs for data quality, effectiveness, and impact across all domains.
- Treat data infrastructure as a core product: invest with the same rigor as customer-facing features, ensuring governance, reliability, and scale-from-the-start design. Own the data budget and make build/buy/prioritization decisions.
- Shift from reactive reporting to proactive insight; unify embedded teams so data speaks with one voice and informs the biggest business decisions.
- Drive maturity in data tooling, documentation, governance, GDPR compliance, and ethical data use as volume and complexity grow.
- Lead through senior leaders: build a high-performing culture with clear ownership, autonomy, and measurable results. Coach leaders of leaders, shape org design, hire and retain top talent, maintain high performance standards.
- Champion AI adoption: partner with AI and data science teams to bring machine learning and advanced analytics into products and business operations.
- Build genuine cross-functional partnerships with Product, Engineering, Finance, Customer Care, Marketing, Revenue, and People leadership; be a strategic voice, not just a support function.
Success means: a trusted data organization delivering measurable value; Perk using data to shape decisions and strategy; clear priorities, solid infrastructure, and strong ownership; core data infrastructure embedded in products; recognition as a strategic partner with a point of view.
Requirements:
- Experience leading data organizations in high-growth tech or SaaS scale-ups; proven ability to build and scale this function.
- Track record leading and scaling 40+ person organizations through senior leaders, including coaching leaders of leaders and hiring high-performing talent.
- Data science background combined with data analytics and data engineering expertise; technical credibility to go deep in any direction.
- Executive-level experience owning data strategy and budget; ability to present to senior leadership.
- Strong record building trusted partnerships across Product, Engineering, Finance, and Operations.
- Technical fluency with modern data stacks: dbt, Snowflake, Airflow, Looker or Tableau.
- Deep understanding of data privacy, governance, compliance, and GDPR.
- Excellent communication skills; ability to influence at senior levels and drive alignment.
- Strategic mindset; ability to move between company-level thinking and hands-on detail.
Work model: IRL-first, 3 days per week in-office. Role requires being within commuting distance of Perk hubs. Relocation support available for qualified candidates. English is the official office language.
