Director, Data Architecture and Engineering

Job Summary

The Director for Data Architecture and Engineering is a high-impact leadership role responsible for bridging the gap between enterprise data foundations and advanced AI execution. Reporting directly to the VP of Data and AI, this individual will architect the "AI-ready" data ecosystem required to transition GAF from legacy reporting to a future of autonomous enterprise solutions and agentic workflows. The role will lead the architectural strategy for Project Nexus, ensuring that our data platform, semantic layers, and certified data products are built to be trustworthy, scalable, and fully optimized for Large Language Models (LLMs) and Generative AI.

Essential Duties

• Architect the "future state" data model that moves beyond traditional Bronze/Silver/Gold layers to create certified, AI-ready data products.
• Define the semantic layer strategy to prevent definition drift across business teams, Tableau experiences, and future AI agents.
• Establish automated frameworks for data trust, including observability, lineage, proactive alerts, and data contracts.
• Mentor and provide technical guidance to data engineers and architects on cloud data platforms and engineering best practices.
• Act as a critical bridge between technical engineering teams and non-technical business stakeholders to translate complex requirements into actionable roadmaps.
• Own and manage the entire data artifacts checklist, ensuring consistency, reusability, non-proliferation, cataloging, governance, compliance, and operational readiness of all data assets.
• Create and maintain comprehensive documentation, including data flow diagrams and conceptual/logical data models at various levels of detail.
• Design and optimize data solutions using Scripting, ETL, and other cloud data pipeline and transformation tools.
• Review procedures, programs and scripts to extract/integrate/share data from enterprise applications (internal and external).
• Analyze, Research, Review, and Interpret data consumption and usage requirements.
• Develop and enforce best practices around standards, frameworks, data quality, data integration, data governance, security, data retention, and compliance for data management in the cloud.
• Work on products/programs by functional areas to provide development & support.
• Update the established frameworks with existing and emerging technologies.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree required.
• 10+ years of experience designing and engineering technical cloud based data and analytics solutions to meet business outcomes and non-functional requirements.
• 5+ years of deep experience in data architecture with conceptual, logical and physical data modeling for large cloud data platforms.
• 3+ years experience developing, Ingesting, ETL, and ELT batch and streaming data pipelines using Google Cloud Platform ingestion tools.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in large-scale manufacturing organizations.
• At least one Google Cloud Professional level certification.
• A "Product Mindset" that treats data as a strategic asset rather than a utility.
• Experience in a large organization, with high-performance, large transaction volume database systems.
• Experience in all phases of SDLC (system development lifecycle) and information lifecycle.
• Strong consultative and presentation skills.
• Ability to present and explain information in a way that establishes rapport, persuades others and promotes understanding and consensus building.
• Experience in Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and GCP Ingestion tools, including Pub/Sub, Dataflow, Cloud Data Fusion, Cloud Composer, Cloud Functions, BigQuery, GCS, etc.
• Expertise in data modeling methodologies (e.g., Dimensional, 3NF, Data Vault) and designing optimized data forms (schemas) for analytical platforms like BigQuery.
• AI/ML Literacy: Practical experience with LLMs, RAG, and orchestration frameworks such as LangChain or AutoGen.
• Vector Search: Familiarity with vector search and storage solutions like Vertex AI Search or AlloyDB.
• Hands-on programming skills using SQL, Python, T-SQL, PL-SQL, Unix/C/C#, spark/scala background, real time queue management techniques.
• Basic skills in software design & development using RDBMS.
• Interpreting data models, relationships, data lineage & database connectivity details.

Pay

Base Salary Range: $160,000-$220,000. Individual compensation offers will be determined based on a variety of factors, including but not limited to geographic location, relevant candidate experience and skill, education, and/or qualifications.

Benefits

• Wide range of health insurance options that include medical, dental, and vision for you and your family.
• Family-Building benefits support the many different journeys to fertility and parenthood.
• Robust 401K plan includes an employer match contribution with your pre-tax and/or Roth contributions.
• Wellness program, free financial coaching, a referral program, and product rebates when purchased for an employee's primary residence.
• Professional growth and development opportunities including internal training programs and courses, as well as a generous tuition reimbursement program.
• Opportunities for employees to connect with one another, including through Employee Resource Groups who focus on education and allyship for all of our employees.