Director, Data & AI Platform

Pendo•Raleigh, NC

3d•$187,000 - $245,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The Data & AI Platform team at Pendo builds and maintains the trusted data infrastructure, semantic layer, BI platform, and internal AI tooling that powers every insight, automation, and AI-enabled workflow across the company. This team spans data engineering, analytics engineering, BI, and software engineering. The Director will own the data foundation the entire company relies on, drive the AI-ready infrastructure for agents and automations, and create an internal AI workspace for all Pendo employees to find, use, and contribute AI capabilities frictionlessly. This is a high-autonomy, high-accountability role with significant organizational reach and a mandate to build ahead of business needs. The role is based in Raleigh, NC, following Pendo's hybrid model of 3 days per week in the office.

Requirements

8+ years in data, engineering, or similar roles.
Demonstrated people leadership experience across senior technical ICs.
Strong command of data architecture, analytics engineering, BI platforms, and modern data stacks.
Experience building internal platforms or tooling, with an understanding of governance and operational trust for company-wide adoption.
Track record owning company-critical metrics, semantic layers, and governance frameworks.
Comfort leading across blended disciplines: data engineering, analytics engineering, BI, and software engineering.
Excellent judgment and prioritization skills.
Clear, confident communication style that translates technical work into business outcomes.
Proven ability to develop senior ICs while building a high-trust, execution-oriented culture.
Track record creating organizational clarity across complex, multi-disciplinary teams.
Intellectual restlessness - staying current on a fast-moving landscape and willingness to change course when data demands it.

Nice To Haves

Hands-on experience with dbt, Fivetran, BigQuery, or similar modern data stack tooling.
Familiarity with AI observability and evaluation tooling such as LangSmith or Gemini ADK.
Experience with BI platforms that include a semantic layer (Omni or similar).
Prior use of Claude Enterprise or similar AI platforms in an enterprise context.
Experience enabling self-serve analytics at scale across a non-technical user base.

Responsibilities

Lead organizational strategy and execution across the platform, establishing operating rhythms, prioritization frameworks, and delivery accountability.
Create alignment across engineering and business stakeholders, and communicate progress and tradeoffs clearly.
Drive planning, staffing, and roadmap alignment across initiatives, partnering with senior technical leaders.
Ship the near-term foundation: governed connectors, a seeded skills library, a validated AI surface, and eval infrastructure.
Own Pendo's internal AI platform, including the skills flywheel, agent surfaces, and observability infrastructure.
Drive measurable business outcomes such as faster time to insight, higher KPI confidence, operational efficiency, and revenue impact.
Partner closely with Applied AI, Analytics, Business Systems, IT, and GTM Operations.
Make informed build vs. buy decisions.
Translate technical decisions into business impact for leadership and operating stakeholders.
Balance scale with speed, avoiding over-engineering.
Set a clear direction while remaining open to changing course.