From Individual Contributor to Data Leader: The Skills No One Teaches

Moving from engineer or analyst to data leader isn’t just a promotion, it’s a complete shift in mindset. As a female leader, completing an MBA, and leading modern data teams, I realised something uncomfortable: no one actually teaches you how to make this transition.

In this session, I’ll share real lessons from moving out of delivery and into leadership, influencing without authority, handling conflict, setting priorities, and leading mixed-skill teams in organisations where data is no longer a support function, but the core of the business.

Data teams are different. They can’t afford to be reactive or purely technical anymore. They must be agile, outcome-driven, and business-facing, while still protecting quality, wellbeing, and trust.

This is an honest, experience led session about what worked, what didn’t, and what I wish I’d known earlier, especially navigating leadership as a woman in highly technical environments.

No theory. No leadership buzzwords. Just practical insight from the field.

Practical guidance for transitioning from technical expert to effective data leader Real-world strategies for influencing, prioritising, and handling conflict in data teams Insight into leading modern, business-critical data teams with confidence and impact