Head of Data, Platform and Intelligence
About The Position
Babel Street is the trusted technology partner for the world’s most advanced identity intelligence and risk operations. We deliver advanced AI and data analytics solutions providing unmatched, analysis-ready data regardless of language, proactive risk identification, 360-degree insights, high-speed automation, and seamless integration into existing systems. Babel Street empowers government and commercial organizations to transform high-stakes identity and risk operations into a strategic advantage. The actionable insights we deliver safeguard lives and protect critical assets around the world. Babel Street is headquartered in Reston, Virginia, with regional offices in Boston, MA and Cleveland, OH, and international offices in Australia, Canada, Israel, Japan, and the U.K. For more information, visit www.babelstreet.com. ROLE SUMMARY As Head of Data you will define and lead Babel Street’s North Star Data Strategy and Architecture, building a cohesive, scalable, and AI-native data platform that transforms fragmented systems into a unified foundation for intelligence, analytics, and product innovation. You will own the full lifecycle of data across the organization, from ingestion and storage to semantics, retrieval, and productization. Your mandate is to unify fragmented systems into a cohesive, scalable, and AI-ready data platform that directly enables investigative, analytical, and operational workflows across Babel Street’s product suite. You will work closely with Product and Engineering leadership, to ensure that data is not just infrastructure, but a core competitive advantage. This includes powering Babel Street’s Knowledge Graph, enabling agentic and generative AI systems, and delivering data capabilities that are reliable, performant, and economically efficient at scale. This role requires deep technical expertise, strong architectural judgment, and the ability to translate complex data challenges into customer-impacting intelligence capabilities. This hybrid role will be based in our Reston, VA or Somerville, MA office.
Requirements
- 10+ years of experience in data platforms, data engineering, or distributed systems
- Strong background working within multi-cloud or hybrid environments, including hands-on experience with Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
- Proven experience designing and evolving large-scale data platforms through major architectural transitions (e.g., warehouse, search, Lakehouse, or multi-cloud transformations)
- Deep expertise across multiple data paradigms, including: Analytical warehouses Search/index systems Object storage and distributed data systems
- Experience building platforms that support AI, ML, or agent-driven systems
- Familiarity with vector search, retrieval architectures, and modern AI data patterns
- Experience with graph-based data models, entity resolution, or knowledge graphs
- Strong communication skills and the ability to collaborate effectively across technical and non-technical teams.
Nice To Haves
- Experience operating in regulated, high-stakes, or mission-critical environments is strongly preferred.
- Master’s degree or PhD preferred.
Responsibilities
- Define the North Star Data Architecture
- Build an AI-Native Data Foundation
- Own Data as a Product
- Lead Platform Rationalization and Evolution
- Own Performance, Reliability, and Cost Economics
Benefits
- Health Benefits: Babel Street covers 85-100% monthly premium costs for Medical, Dental, Vision, Life & Disability insurances – for you and your family!
- Retirement Plans: Babel Street offers both a Traditional and Roth 401(K) with a very competitive match.
- Unlimited Flexible Leave: We trust our employees to manage their own time and balance their personal and work lives.
- Holidays: Babel Street provides employees with 12 paid Federal Holidays
- Tuition Reimbursement: We are committed to investing in our employees. One way we do that is with our Tuition Reimbursement Program for continuing education.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Executive
Number of Employees
101-250 employees
