Application Guide

How to Apply for Data Operations Lead

at Workiva

🏢 About Workiva

Workiva is a leader in the rapidly growing ESG reporting space, helping organizations streamline their climate impact and compliance reporting. The company's focus on integrated ESG reporting makes it a mission-driven workplace where your work directly contributes to transparency and sustainability.

About This Role

As Data Operations Lead, you will be the backbone of Workiva's data infrastructure, ensuring analytics systems are reliable, scalable, and compliant. Your leadership of an offshore team and focus on automation will directly reduce operational toil and improve data governance, making a tangible impact on the company's ESG reporting capabilities.

💡 A Day in the Life

You'll start your day by reviewing dashboards for any overnight incidents, then lead a stand-up with your offshore team. The rest of the day involves designing automation for data pipelines, updating Terraform configurations, and collaborating with data engineers on governance policies. You'll also participate in compliance audits and incident post-mortems.

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🎯 Who Workiva Is Looking For

  • 6+ years in SRE/DevOps with a focus on data infrastructure, ideally with experience in Snowflake, DBT, and Airflow.
  • Strong technical leader with proven experience managing geographically distributed teams, especially offshore contractors.
  • Deep understanding of data governance, access control, and compliance (e.g., SOC 2, GDPR) – not just technical skills but also regulatory awareness.
  • Hands-on with automation and monitoring: Terraform for IaC, Splunk for observability, and Python for scripting and tooling.

📝 Tips for Applying to Workiva

1

Highlight your experience with Snowflake and DBT specifically – these are key to the role and Workiva's data stack.

2

Provide concrete examples of leading offshore teams, including how you handled communication, time zones, and quality assurance.

3

Showcase your incident response and monitoring implementations with metrics (e.g., reduced MTTR by X%, improved uptime).

4

Tailor your resume to emphasize data governance and compliance projects, not just generic DevOps tasks.

5

Include a brief note on your interest in ESG or sustainability – Workiva values mission alignment.

✉️ What to Emphasize in Your Cover Letter

['Your technical leadership experience with distributed teams, especially offshore contractors.', "Specific expertise in Snowflake, DBT, and Terraform, with examples of how you've used them to improve data operations.", 'Your approach to reducing operational toil through automation and monitoring frameworks.', 'Your understanding of data governance and compliance in a regulated environment (e.g., ESG reporting requirements).']

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🔍 Research Before Applying

To stand out, make sure you've researched:

  • → Understand Workiva's ESG reporting platform and how it integrates with customer data sources.
  • → Read about Workiva's recent partnerships or acquisitions in the ESG space to show industry awareness.
  • → Familiarize yourself with the CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) and SEC climate disclosure rules to speak to compliance needs.
  • → Look into Workiva's engineering blog or culture page to understand their remote work and team collaboration practices.

💬 Prepare for These Interview Topics

Based on this role, you may be asked about:

1 Describe how you would lead an offshore team to ensure 24/7 reliability of data pipelines.
2 Walk us through a time you automated a manual process and reduced toil – what was the impact?
3 How do you approach data governance and access control in a cloud data warehouse like Snowflake?
4 Explain your experience with incident response for data systems – what tools and processes do you use?
5 How would you ensure compliance with ESG reporting regulations (e.g., CSRD, SEC climate rules) in data operations?
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⚠️ Common Mistakes to Avoid

  • Don't focus solely on technical skills without emphasizing leadership and team management – this is a lead role.
  • Avoid generic DevOps examples; ensure they are data-centric and mention Snowflake/DBT specifically.
  • Don't neglect compliance and governance – failing to mention SOC 2 or GDPR could signal a lack of regulatory awareness.

📅 Application Timeline

This position is open until filled. However, we recommend applying as soon as possible as roles at mission-driven organizations tend to fill quickly.

Typical hiring timeline:

1

Application Review

1-2 weeks

2

Initial Screening

Phone call or written assessment

3

Interviews

1-2 rounds, usually virtual

✓

Offer

Congratulations!

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Good luck with your application to Workiva!

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