Director, Data Engineering

About the Role

We are seeking a visionary Director of Data Engineering to architect the "data set of the future." This role is about building scalable, AI-ready infrastructure that will fuel our next generation of manufacturing innovation. You will move the organization beyond traditional data warehousing to a robust Data Lakehouse architecture, ensuring our enterprise data—from shop floor to point-of-sale—is clean, real-time, and ready for advanced GenAI and predictive modeling. The ideal candidate bridges the gap between the plant floor and the front office, integrating complex operational data with high-velocity sales and commercial data to create a unified ecosystem. This will enable us to pivot from reactive operations to a truly predictive enterprise.

Responsibilities

• Architect the Future: Define and execute a data infrastructure roadmap centered on a Lakehouse architecture that integrates structured and unstructured data, enabling both real-time operational analytics and high-scale AI/ML workloads.
• AI-Ready Foundation: Establish data governance, cataloging, and lineage frameworks to power secure, trusted AI models and Large Language Models (LLMs) across the enterprise.
• Manufacturing Integration: Partner with OT and Engineering teams to ingest and operationalize IIoT and supply chain data, creating a unified data ecosystem that drives predictive maintenance and factory floor efficiency.
• Modern Data Stack Leadership: Oversee the transition from legacy BI tools to modern, self-service analytics platforms, ensuring organizational agility in deriving insights from the data lakehouse.
• Data Ops & Governance: Lead the transition to MLOps and DataOps methodologies, ensuring data quality, security, and compliance in an increasingly automated environment.
• Strategic Partnership: Collaborate with business unit leaders to identify and prioritize data products that drive measurable top-line growth or operational cost reductions.
• Team Leadership: Build and mentor a high-performing team of data engineers, ML engineers, and data architects comfortable in both cloud-native environments and complex legacy manufacturing systems.

Requirements

• 15+ years in data strategy, architecture, and engineering, with at least 5 years in a leadership role driving organizational change.
• 5+ years in a leadership role managing data & analytics teams.
• Demonstrated experience designing and deploying Lakehouse architectures (e.g., Databricks, Snowflake, or similar) at scale.
• Proven experience operationalizing AI/ML models within an enterprise environment; deep understanding of data preparation for LLMs and generative AI.
• Extensive experience with Azure (or equivalent cloud hyperscaler) data stacks (e.g., Synapse/Fabric, ADLS Gen2, Azure AI).
• Advanced proficiency in Python, Spark, and SQL; strong experience with CI/CD for data pipelines and infrastructure-as-code.
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Data Engineering, or a related technical field.
• A "product manager" mindset for data; the ability to translate complex technical architectural debt into business-friendly value propositions.

Preferred Skills

• Experience with data governance frameworks and tools.
• Exposure to advanced analytics, data science, or machine learning initiatives.
• Experience in manufacturing, industrial, or eCommerce environments.

Work Conditions and Physical Requirements

• Ability to work in both office and manufacturing environments.
• Availability to work outside of core business hours, including nights, weekends, and holidays when required for system upgrades or migrations.
• Required to sit or stand for long periods of time.
• The ability to lift 30-50 lbs without assistance.
• Local and/or international travel (10-15%), including extended stays for education or deployments.
• Must have a valid driver’s license and passport.

Pay

$165,000