Senior Director, Data Engineering (AWS)

phData

90d

About The Position

Join phData, a dynamic and innovative leader in the modern data stack. We partner with major cloud data platforms like Snowflake, AWS, Azure, GCP, Fivetran, Pinecone, Glean and dbt to deliver cutting-edge services and solutions. We're committed to helping global enterprises overcome their toughest data challenges. phData is a remote-first global company with employees based in the United States, Latin America and India. We celebrate the culture of each of our team members and foster a community of technological curiosity, ownership and trust. Even though we're growing extremely fast, we maintain a casual, exciting work environment. We hire top performers and allow you the autonomy to deliver results. The Senior Director, Data Engineering is one of the most strategic, high-pressure, and mission-critical roles at phData. If you're seeking a position that challenges your technical expertise, business acumen, and leadership abilities daily—this is it. In this role, you will function as a CTO-like advisor for phData’s most strategic customers. You will lead customer success, direct technical strategy, drive delivery excellence, and serve as a key stakeholder in growing long-term partnerships and revenue. This position requires a unique blend of hands-on architecture skills, executive presence, client empathy, and entrepreneurial drive. If you thrive in highly visible, fast-paced roles where the expectations are high and the impact is massive, this is the career-defining opportunity you’ve been looking for.

Requirements

• 10+ years of hands-on experience delivering complex data or AI/ML platforms in production environments.
• 3+ years in a consulting leadership role with direct client ownership and revenue accountability.
• Deep technical expertise in cloud platforms (Snowflake, AWS, Azure, GCP), modern data stacks, and MLOps tools.
• Proven success growing enterprise accounts and building executive-level relationships.
• Strong architectural and implementation skills in Python, SQL, dbt, and modern infrastructure tooling.
• Excellent communication and negotiation skills with a strong sense of presence and clarity under pressure.
• Willingness to travel for customer meetings, QBRs, and key events when necessary.

Nice To Haves

• Advanced degree in a technical, data, or business-related discipline.
• Experience leading delivery within a scaled services or consulting firm.
• Proficiency in partner ecosystem collaboration (especially Snowflake, AWS, dbt).
• Hands-on experience with containerization (Docker, Kubernetes) and cloud-native AI/ML tools.
• Demonstrated thought leadership (e.g., blogs, speaking, open source) is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Design and deploy scalable SageMaker domains to enable secure data sharing across teams and domains.
• Implement best practices for VPC, IAM, encryption, and compliance (SOC2, HIPAA, etc.).
• Integrate SSO and AWS Identity Center, manage RBAC, multi-account permissions, and access policies for SageMaker and DataZone.
• Enable CloudWatch logging, compliance monitoring, audit trails, and automate multi-domain SageMaker deployments using Terraform or alternative solutions.
• Lead data migration from Lake Formation to DataZone, align architecture to a federated data mesh, and enforce governance workflows for cross-domain sharing.
• Conduct load testing, define service limits, and implement cost optimization strategies with SageMaker Unified and DataZone.
• Serve as the executive-level technical leader and primary advisor for strategic customer accounts.
• Act as a CTO for your accounts, guiding technology decisions, roadmaps, architecture, and platform maturity.
• Build deep relationships with technical and business stakeholders, driving consensus on solutions.
• Lead Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs), Innovation Days, roadmap presentations, and architectural vision sessions.
• Deliver clear recommendations, success criteria, and measurement frameworks for each engagement.
• Collaborate closely with Account Executives to create and execute growth strategies.
• Identify new opportunities for phData services and lead scoping, pricing, and proposal development.
• Influence buying centers, build executive relationships, and create value-based narratives for expansion.
• Drive strategic alignment between the customer, partners (e.g., Snowflake), and internal teams.
• Own delivery success and overall satisfaction across all projects within assigned accounts.
• Ensure delivery quality through mentorship, leadership, and hands-on involvement as needed.
• Mentor technical consultants and engineers across the delivery organization.
• Lead client resource planning, forecasting, and skills alignment in partnership with Recruiting and Resourcing.

Benefits

• Remote-First Work Environment
• Casual, award-winning small-business work environment
• Collaborative culture that prizes autonomy, creativity, and transparency
• Competitive compensation, excellent benefits, 4 weeks PTO plan plus 10 Holidays (and other cool perks)
• Accelerated learning and professional development through advanced training and certifications

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: Bachelor's degree
• Number of Employees: 501-1,000 employees