Director Data Engineering, AI, RPA & Governance

Crown Castle • Piney Point Village, TX

1d • $173,860 - $239,057 • Hybrid

About The Position

The Director of Engineering – Data, AI, RPA & Governance is a senior technology leader accountable for the end-to-end ownership of Crown Castle’s enterprise data ecosystem, AI strategy, and intelligent automation capabilities. This role defines and operationalizes the company’s data governance framework, AI adoption strategy (including platforms such as Lyzr), and target data architecture, ensuring scalable, trusted, and business-aligned delivery. The leader will own the data foundation and platform enablement model, while supporting a separate centralized Analytics & Insights organization that consumes and delivers business insights. A critical component of this role is building a culture of data citizenship, ensuring that data ownership, accountability, and quality are embedded across the enterprise—not just within IT.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field
• 10+ years of experience in data engineering, AI/ML, platform engineering, or enterprise architecture leadership
• Proven track record owning enterprise data governance, architecture, and platform strategy at scale
• Hands-on experience with Databricks, Snowflake, and modern cloud data ecosystems
• Experience leading enterprise AI strategy and Generative AI adoption (e.g., Lyzr or similar platforms)
• Strong experience in RPA and intelligent automation at enterprise scale
• Demonstrated success building data operating models that separate platform enablement from analytics consumption
• Deep expertise in data governance, architecture, and platform engineering
• Strong understanding of medallion data architecture, semantic layers, and external data integration
• Experience with AI governance, responsible AI frameworks, and compliance requirements
• Ability to build enterprise-wide data citizenship and accountability models
• Strong executive communication and stakeholder management capabilities
• Financial acumen with ability to track and articulate ROI from data, AI, and automation investments

Nice To Haves

• Master’s degree and/or MBA preferred

Responsibilities

• Define and execute the enterprise data governance strategy, including ownership models, stewardship, data quality, classification, lineage, and access controls
• Establish and scale data citizenship capabilities across the enterprise, including: Business data ownership and stewardship models, Data literacy and accountability frameworks, Governance councils and domain-aligned ownership structures
• Drive adoption of governance practices across business functions, ensuring data is treated as a strategic enterprise asset
• Ensure compliance with regulatory, privacy, and security requirements in partnership with Risk and Security
• Define and lead Crown Castle’s enterprise AI strategy, including adoption and scaling of platforms such as Lyzr
• Identify and prioritize high-value AI and Generative AI use cases, ensuring alignment to measurable business outcomes
• Establish reusable AI frameworks, patterns, and accelerators to scale adoption across domains
• Ensure AI solutions are aligned to enterprise data architecture, governance, and responsible AI standards
• Own the design, delivery, and continuous evolution of the enterprise target data architecture
• Lead implementation and sustainment of Databricks-based medallion architecture (bronze, silver, gold layers) ensuring data quality, consistency, and reuse
• Establish and maintain the semantic and enterprise context layer to standardize definitions and enable consistent data consumption
• Govern integration and onboarding of external data sources, ensuring quality, compliance, and value realization
• Define and enforce enterprise standards for: Data modeling and pipelines, Metadata management and lineage, Data interoperability across platforms
• Serve as the data and AI platform provider for a centralized Analytics & Insights team outside of this organization
• Ensure delivery of high-quality, trusted, and accessible data products to enable advanced analytics, reporting, and insights generation
• Define and manage clear service-level expectations (SLAs) for data availability, freshness, and performance
• Partner closely with the Analytics & Insights organization to: Align on priorities and data product roadmap, Enable self-service capabilities through governed semantic layers, Support advanced analytics, AI-driven insights, and decision-making
• Lead enterprise RPA and intelligent automation strategy and operations, including lifecycle management of automation assets
• Drive hyper automation initiatives combining RPA, AI/ML, and workflow platforms to streamline end-to-end processes
• Establish governance, standards, and KPIs for automation (ROI, performance, scalability, maintainability)
• Ensure continuous optimization of automation portfolio aligned to business value
• Lead cross-functional engineering teams across data, AI, and automation platforms
• Implement modern engineering practices including DevSecOps, CI/CD, and product-based delivery models
• Ensure platforms are scalable, secure, cost-efficient, and highly available
• Track and report KPIs tied to business outcomes, adoption, and platform performance
• Build and lead high-performing teams across data engineering, AI engineering, automation, and governance
• Define a clear operating model separating: Platform ownership (this role), Analytics and insights consumption (separate team)
• Foster a culture aligned to Crown Castle’s values, emphasizing accountability, ownership, and results-driven execution

Benefits

• Comprehensive healthcare plans with highly company subsidized premiums and up to $2,000 annual company contribution to your Health Savings Account (HSA base plan for employee and dependents).
• Market-leading 401(k) plan, which includes up to 10% company contributions through our 5% match and 5% profit sharing program (based on employee contributions).
• New-child leave up to 8 weeks of 100% paid leave upon birth or legal adoption of a new child. Birth mothers are eligible for up to 8 weeks of additional 100% paid medical leave.
• Tuition reimbursement up to $5,250 per year of eligible tuition and fees.
• Crown Castle scholarship program awarding up to $10,000 per recipient each year for eligible dependent children of employees and interns.
• Matching charitable contributions to qualified charitable organizations of up to $1,000 per year per teammate.
• Generous paid time-off for eligible full-time employees (minimum 18 days per year based on years of service).
• 10 company holidays plus 2 floating holiday.
• All offices provide free beverages and snacks.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director