About Lyka:

Lyka was founded in 2018 by Anna Podolsky, inspired by her dog, Lyka, who was suffering from chronic health issues despite being on “premium” kibble. Together with Gabriel Guedes (COO) and Dr. Matthew Muir (Integrative Veterinarian), they built Lyka from the ground up with one core belief: better food can radically improve a pet’s healthspan and quality of life.

Lyka’s meals are vet-formulated and gently cooked from real food ingredients. Delivered via a flexible subscription model, Lyka meals have driven remarkable improvements for tens of thousands of customers, supporting gut health, reducing intolerances, improving energy and mobility, and even promoting hair growth.

What began as home-cooked meals has since scaled into one of Australia’s fastest-growing consumer companies, a vertically integrated, tech-enabled brand that is transforming pet health nationwide.

Lyka now operates from two offices, Sydney (HQ) and Melbourne, with three state-of-the-art food production facilities (two in Sydney, one in Melbourne) and a growing national footprint.

At Lyka, we’re not just selling pet food - we’re pioneering a new standard of wellness for pets. With strong product-market fit, deep customer love, and a track record of rapid growth, we’re now entering our most ambitious chapter yet: building a generational brand and category-defining business with global impact.


The opportunity:

As Data Director, your mission is to build a scalable, high-performance Data team (including Data Engineering, Analytics Engineering, Analytics and Data Science) that delivers world-class execution to support Lyka's mission.

Strategic Data Leadership

• Own Lyka's Data strategy and roadmap, in alignment with the company's mission and goals
• Enable our Data team to support Lyka's strategic ambitions
• Stay current with industry trends and emerging technologies in Data
  

Lead High Performing Data Team

• Manage the Data team covering Data Engineering, Analytics Engineering, Analytics and Data Science
• Coach and mentor a high performing Data team - attracting exceptional talent, setting expectations & objectives, and managing performance & development
• Drive the Data team's ways of working, cadence / rituals and connectivity
• Foster a culture of ownership, transparency, and continuous improvement
• Support the team to partner with business areas to define priorities and deliver on projects
  

Enable Data across the organisation

• Build strong, trusted relationships across the business with senior leaders
• Enable data access, literacy and insights across Lyka - championing a data-led decision making culture
• Enable strong Data governance and standards across the business

What we are looking for:

• Proven Data leader with 5+ years of experience, including leadership in high-growth environments
• Expertise across different areas of Data - with experience managing multidisciplinary Data teams
• Experience architecting or operating a modern data stack (e.g. cloud data warehouse, ELT/ETL tooling, orchestration, BI) on cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, or Azure)
• Exceptional communicator in all forms, being able to engage and influence effectively at all levels of an organisation and across different stakeholders
• Track record of hiring, coaching, and retaining high-performing talent in Data teams
• Exceptional team player and ability to work cross-functionally with a number of different departments (Product, Technology, Marketing, Growth, Operations, Customer Care, Finance, etc.)
• Comfortable operating strategically and tactically - can zoom out to shape strategy and zoom in to problem-solve with teams
• Thrives in fast-paced and ambiguous environments, energised by building
• Strong data centricity and commercial acumen, able to work with complex and ambiguous data with a strong understanding of business levers
• Passionate about Lyka’s mission to improve the healthspan of pets, with a deep personal connection to our vision of changing the status quo for pet wellness

• Work in a fast-growing start-up, experiencing what goes on behind the scenes to sustain hyper-growth for a start-up with a physical product!

• Growth and Development – Lyka is growing extremely quickly, which means you will have the opportunity to experience different challenges every day and progressively acquire more responsibilities as our facility and team expand. We provide an annual L&D budget for you to continue your personal development.
• Work for a sustainability-focused company – we care about the health of our dogs and our planet. We’re proud to be Australia’s only carbon-negative and plastic-negative pet wellness company and we’re always looking at ways for us to improve sustainability practices.
• Be part of a diverse top-talent team, coming from widely different backgrounds and geographies.
• Up to 18 weeks of paid parental leave top-up
• Wellbeing assistance and tools to take care of your mental and physical wellbeing so you can do your best work
• Pupper parent support to care for your furry friends – flexible arrangements for new pets, pet-friendly offices, discounts, and financial allowance for dog training and care to help them live their best life!

We are committed to building inclusive and diverse teams

Lyka is an equal-opportunity employer devoted to providing a working environment that embraces and values diversity and inclusion. We celebrate diversity, are devoted to creating an inclusive environment for all staff and encourage people of all backgrounds to apply. If you have any support or access requirements, we encourage you to advise us at the time of application.