Senior Manager, Corporate Analytics & Decision Support

Senior Manager, Corporate Analytics & Decision Support (CADS) - Hybrid, Cary, North Carolina

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About the job

SAS is seeking a Senior Manager, Corporate Analytics & Decision Support (CADS) to lead the CADS function and mature how the team scopes, prioritizes, governs, and delivers analytics, data science, AI, and decision-support work within the Corporate Operations & Planning (CO&P) organization. CO&P addresses four critical challenges for SAS: ensuring the right strategy, enabling better decisions, improving operational effectiveness, and strengthening competitive advantage. CADS supports that mission by providing analytics, metrics, and insights leaders need to prioritize investments, measure performance, evaluate opportunities, and focus resources on the highest-value work for SAS.

This role addresses a structural operating need across CADS-owned decision-support delivery, contribution to enterprise metrics governance, practical AI- and data science-enabled analysis, and functional leadership. As the leader of CADS, the Senior Manager is accountable for aligning the team's analytics and data science resources, capabilities, and investments to enterprise priorities and the decisions that matter most. Success requires strong business judgment, organizational influence, technical fluency, and the ability to partner across Strategic Planning, Strategic Initiatives, executive leadership, and business stakeholders to connect CADS capabilities to measurable business outcomes.

As a Senior Manager, Corporate Analytics & Decision Support, you will:

• Lead and oversee the CADS function, setting strategic direction, priorities, operating practices, and long-term capability development aligned with business and corporate objectives.
• Partner with executive leaders to translate complex business challenges into analytical solutions, delivering actionable insights and decision frameworks that support critical enterprise decisions.
• Serve as a trusted advisor to senior stakeholders by evaluating opportunities, risks, tradeoffs, and performance impacts to drive informed decision-making.
• Support executive operating rhythms, strategic planning, corporate development, and enterprise initiatives through timely, decision-ready analytics and recommendations.
• Enhance organizational decision-making by developing and delivering scalable, high-impact decision support products and analytical solutions.
• Establish and maintain governance standards for metrics, reporting, documentation, validation, and decision-support processes to ensure consistency, transparency, and trust in business insights.
• Lead and continuously improve the CADS operating model, including demand intake, prioritization, capacity planning, stakeholder engagement, service delivery, and performance measurement.
• Define and advance the organization''s analytics and decision-support capabilities through data science, automation, AI-enabled solutions, and reusable enterprise assets that drive business value.
• Manage a portfolio of analytics initiatives by balancing priorities, resources, risks, dependencies, and capacity while providing leaders with clear visibility into tradeoffs and business impact.
• Lead, coach, and develop a high-performing analytics team, fostering a culture of accountability, innovation, collaboration, continuous learning, and strong business acumen
• Embrace curiosity, passion, authenticity and accountability. These are our values and influence everything we do.

Required qualifications

• Bachelors degree in Analytics, Data Science, Statistics, Computer Science, Mathematics, Operations Research, Economics, Engineering, Information Systems, Business, or a related field.
• Minimum 12 years progressive experience in analytics, data science, data engineering, operations research, business intelligence, decision support, strategy, operations, consulting, or a related discipline.
• Minimum of 5 years of leadership experience managing technical, analytical, or business intelligence professionals.
• Demonstrated experience leading and maturing an analytics, data science, business intelligence, decision support, or similar enterprise capability, including operating practices, governance, and service delivery expectations.
• Proven experience partnering with senior executives and business leaders to support strategic planning, investment decisions, and organizational priorities.
• Proven experience managing cross-functional demand, prioritization, and tradeoffs across multiple stakeholders, initiatives, and business functions.
• Equivalent combination of related education, training and experience may be considered in place of the above qualifications.

Additional competencies, knowledge and skills

• Creating a Culture of Trust: Fostering a work environment that encourages people to act with integrity and treat each other and their ideas with respect; creating and protecting a high-trust environment by setting an example, advocating for others in the face of challenges, removing barriers to trust, and rewarding others for demonstrating behaviors that cultivate trust. Provides feedback both reinforcing and constructive regarding the behaviors of his/her managers.
• Strategic Planning: Obtaining information and identifying key issues and relationships relevant to achieving a long-range goal; committing to a course of action to accomplish a long-range goal after developing alternatives based on logical assumptions, facts, available resources, constraints, and organizational values.
• Leading Change: Driving organizational and cultural changes needed to achieve strategic objectives; catalyzing new approaches to improve results by transforming organizational culture, systems, or products/services; helping others overcome resistance to change.
• Advanced degree (Masters or Ph.D.) in Business Administration (MBA), Analytics, Data Science, Computer Science, Operations Research, Statistics, Economics, Engineering, or a related field.
• Experience supporting enterprise strategic planning, portfolio management, corporate development, or transformation efforts with direct visibility to executive stakeholders.
• Experience developing enterprise KPI frameworks, metrics governance programs, executive reporting capabilities, or reusable decision-support assets.
• Experience leading teams of data scientists, advanced analysts, business analysts, or other highly specialized technical professionals.
• Experience implementing analytics automation, AI-enabled workflows, or decision-support modernization initiatives.
• Experience operating in a highly matrixed environment with broad cross-functional influence and executive stakeholder engagement.

World-class benefits

Highlights include...

• Comprehensive medical, prescription, dental and vision plans.

• Medical plan options include:

• PPO with low annual deductible and copays.

• HDHP combined with a health savings account with a contribution from SAS (no access to on-site health care center).

• Onsite Health Care Center (HQ) that's free to employees and family members enrolled in the PPO plan. There's a pharmacy too! Not local to HQ? The pharmacy will ship prescriptions for no additional charge!

• An industry-leading 401k plan.

• Tuition Assistance Program and programs and resources to support your development

• Generous time away including vacation time, a variety of paid holidays, and our much-loved U.S. Winter Wellness Break between December 25 and January 1.

• Volunteer Time Off, parental leave and unlimited paid sick days.

• Generous childcare benefits for all full-time employees.

You are welcome here.

At SAS, it's not about fitting into our culture - it's about adding to it. We believe our people make the difference. Our inclusive workforce brings together unique talents and inspires teams to create amazing software that reflects the diversity of our users and customers.

Additional Information

To qualify, applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States, and should not require, now or in the future, sponsorship for employment visa status. SAS is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants are considered for employment without regard to any characteristic protected by law. Read more: Know Your Rights.

Resumes may be considered in the order they are received. SAS employees performing certain job functions may require access to technology or software subject to export or import regulations. To comply with these regulations, SAS may obtain nationality or citizenship information from applicants for employment. SAS collects this information solely for trade law compliance purposes and does not use it to discriminate unfairly in the hiring process.

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