Data Organization Upskilling Program for a Large U.S. Bank
Industry
Financial Services
Services
Operating Model Optimization, Data & Insights, Strategy & Planning
Facing a shortfall of nearly 400 roles across its technology organization, a leading U.S. bank turned to upskilling as a strategic solution.
Opportunity
The organization’s data teams were highly specialized, with Data Engineers focused on pipelines and back-end flows and Data Analysts serving as business liaisons. This division created overlapping responsibilities, unclear ownership, and frequent handoffs—resulting in confusion and extended development timelines. By implementing a data upskilling program, the bank had an opportunity to streamline roles, reduce friction, and equip employees with broader capabilities that accelerated delivery and improved how product teams leveraged data.
Outcome
Upskilled 200+ Employees
Making them more productive and able to support the data ecosystem end-to-end
Improved Employee Retention
Through investing in employee development and unlocking internal career growth opportunities
Decreased Headcount Shortfall
By reducing need for overlapping positions
Approach
Two Roads was brought in to develop a program that would upskill employees and merge the Data Analyst and Data Engineer job families. To accomplish this, Two Roads first worked with SMEs and leaders to develop a comprehensive training program with more than 250 hours of mixed-media coursework. Our team also created stage gates and assessments to ensure that program participants had a clear path to completion and could demonstrate their mastery of engineering and analytical skills. Finally, we facilitated the entire program, developing progress reports for each participant, communicating this progress to senior leaders, creating a recognition system to keep participants engaged, and providing white-glove service to help shepherd hundreds of participants through the program.
After 18 months of leading this effort, we successfully transitioned management of the program to an internal team. This team has leveraged the tools and processes developed by Two Roads for more than two years as they continue to administer the program.
As a result of the data organization upskilling program, more than 200 employees have become end-to-end data experts. Product teams can now complete the same amount of work with smaller data teams, thereby reducing staffing shortages. Additionally, since all program participants have the skills to assist at any point in the data lifecycle, data issues can be more quickly resolved. Finally, program participants have found greater demand for their expanded skill sets throughout the organization. This has given those who have completed the program greater career flexibility and a leg up on their peers when applying for new internal roles.
Authors
Eric Krchnak
Partner
