VP Engineering - Data Products

About the role

We are looking for a senior engineering leader to own the technical roadmap for our enterprise-scale data and AI infrastructure. You will lead a multi-disciplinary engineering organization, set data platform and cloud architecture direction, and act as the bridge between hands-on solution design and commercial/vendor accountability. This role combines strong architectural credibility with people leadership, governance ownership, and stakeholder management across global clients.

Responsibilities

• Lead, grow and develop a multi-disciplinary engineering organization, providing mentorship to Development Leads and engineers, ensuring team composition is adequate, and hiring to fill gaps.
• Set and own the technical roadmap for the data platform, defining reference architectures and design patterns (e.g. medallion/layered architectures) that scale across multiple business units and data domains.
• Provide guidance, coaching and mentorship in modern data engineering practices, web application development, and best practices for diagnostics, debugging, testing, deploying, and troubleshooting.
• Work with Product and Engineering teams to scope, plan and estimate the technical roadmap, aligning it to broader business goals and helping to forecast delivery timescales.
• Evaluate solution options against business requirements and organizational standards; champion rapid prototyping and proof-of-concept work to validate designs and de-risk delivery.
• Provide architectural oversight and mentorship to architects and engineers; maintain high standards of design documentation and contribute to the evolution of architectural reference models.
• Foster constructive debates between Product, Engineering and UX teams to create scalable, client-focused solutions that solve business problems with software in the shortest sustainable lead-time.
• Establish and run governance frameworks for applications and data products, including certification and stewardship processes; ensure compliance with security, data privacy, and regulatory standards.
• Own platform security posture: access control, secrets management, naming/tagging conventions, and certification of new data products.
• Lead the triage and remediation of platform security or data incidents.
• Build visibility into cloud and compute cost drivers; drive FinOps practices to optimize spend across environments.
• Design repeatable onboarding processes for new tools, analysts, and integrations.
• Manage vendor relationships, procurement processes and commercial contract negotiations, ensuring legal and compliance requirements are met.
• Provide technical oversight of 3rd party supplier partnerships.
• Lead platform modernization and migration programs, including planning, sequencing, and risk management for large-scale technology transitions.
• Stay up to date with emerging technologies and industry trends, assessing their potential impact and benefit to the overall business strategy, particularly AI/agentic capabilities and data infrastructure innovations.

Candidate profile

• Proven experience leading data engineering or data platform teams at a senior/head level, ideally within a large or matrixed organization.
• Industry experience working with Data platforms is essential, with strong background in dimensional data modelling, data pipeline development and data engineering in support of web applications.
• Strong hands-on background in modern cloud data platforms (e.g. Databricks, Snowflake, or equivalent) and major cloud providers (Azure, AWS, or GCP).
• Solid understanding of data governance, access control, and security practices in cloud environments.
• Experience with large-scale ETL/ELT design and migration programs.
• Demonstrated experience with cloud cost management and FinOps practices.
• Experience managing vendor contracts, procurement, and commercial negotiations.
• Strong stakeholder management skills with the ability to communicate effectively across technical and non-technical audiences and global/matrixed teams.
• A structured, specification-driven approach to requirements and delivery, with a preference for disciplined, release-oriented delivery.
• Able to demonstrate evidence of applying technology to solve business problems.

Requirements

• Strong working knowledge of modern cloud data platforms (Azure Databricks/Spark using Python and associated frameworks, or Snowflake equivalent).
• Strong working knowledge of cloud storage solutions (Azure Data Lake, Blob storage, or equivalent).
• Strong experience of building data reporting and visualisations using PowerBI, Tableau, or equivalent tools.
• Strong knowledge of SQL and data modelling principles.
• Experience in application development with proficiency in Python or JavaScript frameworks.
• Strong knowledge and experience of hosting in major cloud platforms (Azure, AWS, or GCP).
• Familiarity with how AI/ML and agentic systems are integrated with enterprise data platforms.
• Solid understanding of data governance, access control, and security practices in cloud environments.
• Knowledge of delivering solutions using a microservice architecture with RESTful protocols and event-driven architectures.
• Knowledge and experience of implementing Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery.
• Ability to quickly learn and apply emerging programming languages, frameworks, and platforms.
• Comfortable working in an agile environment.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills with the ability to explain technical solutions clearly to both technical and business audiences.

Preferred experience

• Experience in building applications in MERN (Mongo, Express, React, Node) using Webpack, Typescript, and GitHub.
• Experience with Docker and/or Kubernetes and containerized deployments (AKS).
• Experience with workflow orchestration tools such as Apache Airflow or n8n.
• Experience of code quality, test, CI/CD and package managers such as Jest, Lint, Brigade, and Helm.
• Experience with Kafka and event-driven architecture patterns.
• Experience with identity/access management integrations (Okta, Entra ID).
• Experience with service mesh technologies (Istio) and advanced networking patterns.
• Working knowledge of GraphQL APIs, ABAC solutions, and CMS platforms.
• Experience with C4 model architecture documentation (PlantUML or similar).
• TOGAF or other enterprise architecture certification.
• Cloud architecture certifications (AWS Certified Solutions Architect, Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate).
• Familiarity with the AdTech/MarTech ecosystem.

Pay and benefits

The annual base salary range for this position is $136,000 - $171,500. Placement within the salary range is based on a variety of factors, including relevant experience, knowledge, skills, and other factors permitted by law. Additionally, this position is eligible for discretionary incentive compensation.

Benefits available with this position include: Medical, vision, and dental insurance, Life insurance, Short-term and long-term disability insurance, 401k, Flexible paid time off, At least 15 paid holidays per year, Paid sick and safe leave, and Paid parental leave.