Sr Director | Data and AI Platforms

ADP•Alpharetta, GA

21h

About The Position

ADP is hiring a Senior Director – Data & AI Platforms to lead the people, strategy, and evolution of data, analytics, and AI capabilities within the Human Resources Outsourcing (HRO) business. Reporting to the VP, Data Analytics and Business Transformation, you will drive innovation and build the foundation for HRO’s future data and AI capabilities while leading key teams in a growing organization. This leader-of-leaders role will oversee a global team of 30+ professionals across data science, data engineering, ML/AI enablement, platform operations, and data governance. At ADP we are driven by your success. We engage your unique talents and perspectives. We welcome your ideas on how to do things differently and better. In your efforts to achieve, learn and grow, we support you all the way. If success motivates you, you belong at ADP. We strive for every interaction to be driven by our CORE values: Insightful Expertise, Integrity is Everything, Service Excellence, Inspiring Innovation, Each Person Counts, Results-Driven, & Social Responsibility.

Requirements

10+ years of directly related experience in a technology or data analytics environment with at least 4 years of direct leadership or managerial experience.
Bachelor’s degree required, MS or PhD preferred in the field of data science, computer science, engineering, mathematics, statistics or related fields
Strong understanding of agile methodologies and experience on a cross functional agile team
Demonstrated ability to lead strategy and execution amid ambiguity, leveraging strong problem‑solving skills to remove obstacles and accelerate delivery.
Excellent communication skills with the ability to influence leaders and explain complex technical concepts in business-friendly terms.
Strong expertise in data transformations, feature engineering, and analytical data pipelines.
Proven ability to lead tactical engineering teams, manage execution priorities, and ensure on-time delivery.
Deep technical knowledge and experience in big data platforms (Databricks, Spark, SQL, Python, PySpark) and cloud-based data platforms.
Expertise in performance optimization, governance, and security for analytical solutions.
Expertise in developing and scaling data analytics capabilities within large organizations

Nice To Haves

Experience building or supporting distributed onshore/offshore teams.
Proven experience with modern data architecture principles (e.g., ELT patterns, lakehouse design, data modeling).
Expertise with data quality and governance tools (Anomalo, Alation).
Experience with CI/CD tools (Bitbucket, Jenkins) and automation frameworks for data engineering.
Exposure to or interest in ML Engineering and MLOps concepts, even if not running these teams today.
B2B experience with deep knowledge of service-oriented and/or HCM related business models.

Responsibilities

Lead, mentor, and grow a global team of 4 leaders and 30+ data scientists, data engineers, ML/AI enablement engineers, platform operators, and governance professionals.
Serve as a trusted advisor to HRO leadership, translating business objectives into data and AI strategies and helping shape the evolution of HRO’s analytics and data capabilities.
Build a culture of excellence, collaboration, curiosity, and continuous learning across teams and provide clarity, direction, and prioritization in an environment where future-state capabilities are still being defined.
Lead analytics engineering teams delivering high-quality, reliable data products, and pipelines that power analytics and data science.
Ensure rigorous data architecture and coding standards that align with enterprise policies and integrate seamlessly with the Databricks Lakehouse environment.
Promote automation, performance, and efficient workflows across data ingestion, transformation, and analytics processes.
Strengthen data governance and quality practices across HRO using best in class practices, thought leadership, and operational rigor.
Oversee stewardship practices, metadata management, data classification, lineage, tool usage (e.g. Anomalo, Alation) and business glossary alignment.
Partner with enterprise governance teams to ensure HRO compliance with organizational standards and processes.
Oversee HRO’s existing Data Science function, driving development of robust, interpretable, and actionable models that support business outcomes.
Ensure strong scientific rigor, experimentation frameworks, feature engineering discipline, and model evaluation standards.
Champion the use of data science for business value, communicating insights and approaches in clear, compelling ways.
Define and build the future-state vision for ML Engineering and GenAI Engineering capabilities within HRO.
Partner with enterprise AI, engineering, and Central Data Office (CDO) teams to create patterns, tools, and pipelines that support scalable model deployment, monitoring, and lifecycle management.
Identify opportunities for GenAI and traditional ML applications within HRO and guide early experimentation and prototyping efforts.
Work closely with Business Partners, enterprise Data & AI teams, and Product teams to ensure alignment, consistency, and strategic clarity.
Act as the bridge between the enterprise hub and business-unit spoke, ensuring HRO’s needs are supported while adhering to enterprise direction.
Influence cross-functional decision-making and represent HRO’s interests in enterprise data programs.