Technology Leader

The Planet Group • Chicago, IL

12d • $200,000 - $230,000

About The Position

The Role: Launch is actively seeking a passionate and highly skilled Technology Leader with deep experience in data architecture, cloud engineering, and AI/ML enablement. This individual should have a strong background in spearheading technology initiatives in a consulting capacity. In this pivotal role, you will help shape technology roadmaps, lead strategic engagements, and architect cloud-native solutions focused on data platforms, analytics, and AI. You’ll also play a hands-on role in technical pre-sales, solution development, and delivery risk management while mentoring delivery teams and guiding client engagements. This is a highly visible leadership role requiring a unique mix of technical depth, business acumen, and client relationship-building.

Requirements

• 12+ years of relevant work experience in technology consulting, architecture, or engineering roles
• Proven experience designing and leading data platform, analytics, or AI/ML solutions in the cloud
• Strong delivery experience in at Azure public cloud platform
• Experience in regulated industries; financial services strongly preferred
• Strong understanding of cloud data architecture, including data lakes, lakehouses, streaming, and batch pipelines
• Proficiency in data security, compliance frameworks, and governance best practices
• Demonstrated success developing technical roadmaps and solution architectures aligned to business objectives
• Ability to scope and estimate projects, define resourcing plans, and guide execution from strategy to delivery
• Excellent communication skills; able to engage C-level stakeholders and technical teams alike
• Comfortable leading conversations across disciplines—engineering, product, data science, and business

Nice To Haves

• Prior consulting experience with financial services clients (banking, insurance, capital markets)
• Familiarity with data privacy laws and regulatory frameworks like SOX, GLBA, PCI, or GDPR
• Experience designing event-driven architectures (e.g., Kafka, Event Hubs) and real-time data pipelines
• Familiarity with AI/ML model lifecycle management, feature stores, and MLOps platforms
• Hands-on experience with infrastructure-as-code (IaC) and CI/CD in data and AI environments
• Familiarity with GenAI tools, foundation models, and integration of LLMs into business use cases
• Strong communication experience, including technical evangelism, thought leadership, or speaking at meetups/conferences
• Kubernetes and container orchestration experience
• Background in secure solution design, observability, and platform monitoring

Responsibilities

• Lead client conversations focused on data-driven solutions, AI enablement, and cloud platform design
• Guide discovery, architecture, and development of world-class data and AI solutions across a broad range of technologies and design patterns
• Collaborate with business and technical stakeholders to translate business needs into scalable, secure technical solutions
• Develop data strategy roadmaps, proposals, and statements of work aligned to client business goals
• Design architectures leveraging cloud-native data platforms, data pipelines, MLOps practices, and AI services
• Partner with other technology leaders to shape complex, cross-functional transformation programs
• Provide program-level architecture oversight and technical quality assurance across client delivery teams
• Support internal knowledge sharing and contribute to the development of reusable frameworks and IP
• Mentor engineers and architects, fostering a culture of technical excellence, innovation, and delivery quality
• Communicate complex concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences, including executive leadership
• Author or review technical documentation, architecture artifacts, and reusable design assets
• Stay current with industry trends in data, AI, and cloud computing, and contribute to Launch thought leadership

Benefits

• Our employees receive full benefits—medical, dental, vision, short-term disability, long-term disability, life insurance, and matched 401k.
• We also have an uncapped, take-what-you-need PTO policy.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Number of Employees: 1,001-5,000 employees