Senior Director, Data Platform Engineering
About The Position
The Data Platform organization is responsible for building the foundational infrastructure, services, and governance that enable the company to operate as a truly data-driven enterprise. Our platform powers analytics, machine learning, experimentation, personalization, business intelligence, and AI initiatives across every function of the company. Today, the organization operates a modern cloud-native data ecosystem spanning data lakes and warehouses, and self-service data capabilities that empower thousands of internal users. As the Senior Director of Data Platform Engineering, you will define and execute the long-term vision for the company's data platform strategy while leading a global organization responsible for the architecture, reliability, scalability, security, and evolution of our enterprise data ecosystem. You will partner closely with Engineering, Product, Data Science, AI/ML, Infrastructure, Security, Finance, and executive leadership to transform data infrastructure into a strategic competitive advantage. This role requires a seasoned technology executive who can balance technical innovation, organizational leadership, operational excellence, and business outcomes while enabling the next generation of AI-powered products and data-driven decision making. As Coursera and Udemy integrate, this role is key to creating a successful data driven company.
Requirements
- 15+ years of experience building and operating large-scale distributed data platforms or cloud infrastructure.
- 8+ years of engineering leadership experience managing managers and multi-level engineering organizations.
- Demonstrated success building and scaling global engineering organizations supporting mission-critical platforms.
- Proven experience defining and executing long-term technology strategies that align with business objectives.
- Expertise in Databricks
- Deep expertise in distributed systems, cloud-native architectures, and modern data platforms.
- Hands-on knowledge of technologies such as Spark, Kafka, Trino/Presto, Flink, Iceberg, Delta Lake, Airflow, or equivalent large-scale data technologies.
- Strong understanding of data warehousing, streaming architectures, lakehouse platforms, metadata management, and data governance.
- Expertise with Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, CloudFormation, Ansible), Kubernetes, container orchestration, CI/CD, and cloud-native infrastructure.
- Strong understanding of platform observability, reliability engineering, security, and operational excellence.
- Outstanding executive communication, organizational leadership, and stakeholder management skills.
Nice To Haves
- Experience implementing enterprise data governance, privacy, compliance, and security programs.
- Experience supporting modern lakehouse architectures and data mesh implementations.
- Experience leading platform engineering organizations within consumer technology companies.
- Experience managing globally distributed engineering organizations across multiple regions.
- Demonstrated success influencing executive leadership and board-level technology strategy.
- Advanced degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field.
Responsibilities
- Define and execute a multi-year vision and roadmap for the company's enterprise data platform aligned with business and technology strategy.
- Drive platform modernization initiatives supporting analytics, AI/ML, experimentation, and product innovation.
- Establish engineering investment priorities and technology strategy in partnership with executive leadership.
- Build, lead, and scale a high-performing global Data Platform Engineering organization, including senior managers, engineering managers, staff engineers, and principal engineers.
- Recruit exceptional technical leaders while developing strong succession planning and leadership pipelines.
- Foster a culture of innovation, accountability, operational excellence, and continuous learning.
- Own the architecture and operation of highly scalable cloud-native data platforms supporting petabyte-scale storage and processing.
- Lead engineering efforts across batch processing, real-time streaming, metadata management, governance, platform tooling, and self-service infrastructure.
- Champion modern engineering practices including Infrastructure as Code, Kubernetes, platform automation, observability, developer productivity, and platform reliability.
- Partner with senior leaders across Engineering, Product, AI/ML, Analytics, Infrastructure, Security, and Finance to align platform investments with business priorities.
- Serve as the executive sponsor for enterprise-wide data initiatives and influence technical direction across the company.
- Represent Data Platform Engineering in executive planning, architecture reviews, and technology governance.
- Establish KPIs and operational metrics for platform availability, scalability, adoption, reliability, performance, and cloud efficiency.
- Drive continuous improvements in developer experience, self-service capabilities, security, compliance, and operational maturity.
- Ensure the platform meets enterprise requirements for governance, privacy, and data quality.
- Evaluate emerging technologies and industry trends to evolve the company's modern data architecture.
- Enable AI-first platform capabilities that accelerate machine learning development and data product creation.
- Promote technical excellence through architecture reviews, engineering standards, and technical mentorship.
Benefits
- Comprehensive health and wellness benefits
- Bonus and RSU equity programs
- Global perks designed to help you grow and thrive
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
