Director Data Engineering

FBL Financial Group•West Des Moines, IA

6d•Hybrid

About The Position

Director Data Engineering Overview : We're looking for a strategic and hands-on leader to shape the future of data engineering across our enterprise. As Director of Data Engineering , you'll drive modernization, automation, and scalability—building a team and platforms that deliver trusted, high-quality data for analytics, AI, and business intelligence. Who We Are: With Farm Bureau Financial Services, our client/members can feel confident knowing their family, home, cars and other property are protected. We value a culture where integrity, teamwork, passion, service, leadership, and accountability are at the heart of every decision we make and every action we take. We're proud of our more than 80-year commitment to protecting the livelihoods and futures of our client/members and creating an atmosphere where our employees thrive. What You'll Do Set the vision and strategy for enterprise data engineering, defining goals, operating models, and success metrics for data platforms, pipelines, and products. Lead planning and execution for financial and operational priorities, ensuring resources are aligned to deliver maximum business value. Build and develop a high-performing team with expertise in cloud data engineering, automation, and agile delivery; oversee hiring, training, performance management, and budget accountability. Partner with business and technology leaders to shape roadmaps, evaluate solutions, and sponsor initiatives that align with enterprise objectives. Modernize data engineering practices by retiring legacy ETL and implementing automated, cloud-native pipelines for both batch and streaming use cases. Institutionalize DataOps principles - including version control, CI/CD for data pipelines, automated testing, environment management, and release governance. Establish enterprise data quality standards, embedding profiling, anomaly detection, monitoring, and automated remediation into pipeline execution. Implement observability and performance management for data platforms, including lineage, metadata, logging, and cost optimization (FinOps). Define and manage the data product lifecycle, ensuring reusable, API-enabled access for analytics and AI consumers. Embed security and compliance into engineering processes in partnership with architecture and governance teams. Drive continuous improvement through intake and prioritization processes, capacity planning, and technical debt management. Manage vendor relationships and ensure partner performance meets expectations. What You Bring: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or related field; 10+ years of progressive experience in data engineering leadership. 8+ years of experience building and leading high-performing teams. Proven success with modernizing enterprise data engineering from legacy ETL to automated, cloud-native solutions. Deep expertise in DataOps/DevOps practices for data engineering, including CI/CD, automated testing, and release governance. Strong knowledge of data architecture patterns (batch, streaming, event-driven), metadata management, and API-enabled data access. Experience implementing data quality frameworks and observability tools. Familiarity with infrastructure-as-code and platform automation; ability to operationalize reliability and cost management. Skilled in supporting analytics, BI, and AI/ML initiatives with trusted data. Excellent communication, stakeholder management, and problem-solving skills. Knowledge of agile principles and experience managing agile teams. What We Offer You: When you're on our team, you get more than a great paycheck. You'll hear about career development and educational opportunities. We offer an enhanced 401K with a match, low-cost health, dental, and vision benefits, and life and disability insurance options. We also offer paid time off, including holidays and volunteer time, and teams who know how to have fun. Add to that an onsite wellness facility with fitness classes and programs, a daycare center, a cafeteria, and for many positions, even consideration for a hybrid work arrangement. Farm Bureau....where the grass really IS greener! If you are interested in joining a company that appreciates employees, provides growth and professional development opportunities, and offers great benefits, we invite you to apply today! Work Authorization/Sponsorship: Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis. We are not able to sponsor now or in the future, or take over sponsorship of, an employment visa or work authorization for this role. For example, we are not able to sponsor OPT status. Not Ready to Apply?

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or related field; 10+ years of progressive experience in data engineering leadership.
8+ years of experience building and leading high-performing teams.
Proven success with modernizing enterprise data engineering from legacy ETL to automated, cloud-native solutions.
Deep expertise in DataOps/DevOps practices for data engineering, including CI/CD, automated testing, and release governance.
Strong knowledge of data architecture patterns (batch, streaming, event-driven), metadata management, and API-enabled data access.
Experience implementing data quality frameworks and observability tools.
Familiarity with infrastructure-as-code and platform automation; ability to operationalize reliability and cost management.
Skilled in supporting analytics, BI, and AI/ML initiatives with trusted data.
Excellent communication, stakeholder management, and problem-solving skills.
Knowledge of agile principles and experience managing agile teams.

Responsibilities

Set the vision and strategy for enterprise data engineering, defining goals, operating models, and success metrics for data platforms, pipelines, and products.
Lead planning and execution for financial and operational priorities, ensuring resources are aligned to deliver maximum business value.
Build and develop a high-performing team with expertise in cloud data engineering, automation, and agile delivery; oversee hiring, training, performance management, and budget accountability.
Partner with business and technology leaders to shape roadmaps, evaluate solutions, and sponsor initiatives that align with enterprise objectives.
Modernize data engineering practices by retiring legacy ETL and implementing automated, cloud-native pipelines for both batch and streaming use cases.
Institutionalize DataOps principles - including version control, CI/CD for data pipelines, automated testing, environment management, and release governance.
Establish enterprise data quality standards, embedding profiling, anomaly detection, monitoring, and automated remediation into pipeline execution.
Implement observability and performance management for data platforms, including lineage, metadata, logging, and cost optimization (FinOps).
Define and manage the data product lifecycle, ensuring reusable, API-enabled access for analytics and AI consumers.
Embed security and compliance into engineering processes in partnership with architecture and governance teams.
Drive continuous improvement through intake and prioritization processes, capacity planning, and technical debt management.
Manage vendor relationships and ensure partner performance meets expectations.