Vice President, Data Platform Engineering

Ares Management Corporation•New York, NY

17h•$210,000 - $230,000

About The Position

Ares Management is seeking a Vice President, Data Platform Engineering to lead the strategy, architecture, engineering, operations, and continuous evolution of its enterprise data platform ecosystem. The role owns the Azure and Databricks foundation supporting data ingestion, transformation, analytics, AI/ML, and data product delivery across the organization. The position is accountable for building and operating a secure, scalable, resilient, high-performing cloud data platform, encompassing Azure infrastructure, Databricks workspaces, networking, security, environment management, platform operations, DevOps, FinOps, observability, and reliability engineering. The VP will establish platform engineering capabilities that enable self-service, accelerate delivery, improve developer productivity, and support enterprise-grade governance and operational excellence. The role partners with data engineering, data ingestion and integration, data distribution services, AI/ML engineering, cybersecurity, infrastructure, architecture, governance, and business stakeholders. It leads platform modernization, including migration from legacy data warehouses and on-premises platforms to Azure, and aligns platform capabilities with business and technology objectives. The position reports to the Principal, Head of Data Platforms. The description also lists a reporting relationship to the Managing Director, Head of Data Engineering & AI Platforms.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related field.
15+ years of experience in cloud engineering, platform engineering, infrastructure engineering, or data platform architecture.
8+ years of leadership experience managing enterprise engineering organizations.
Extensive experience designing, implementing, and operating enterprise-scale Azure and Databricks Lakehouse platforms supporting analytics, data engineering, AI/ML, real-time processing, and data product workloads.
Deep expertise architecting Azure cloud infrastructure, including Azure Landing Zones, ExpressRoute, Azure DNS, Network Security Groups, Key Vault, Managed Identities, Azure Kubernetes Service, Azure Storage, and disaster recovery architectures.
Hands-on experience administering and optimizing Databricks Workspaces, Unity Catalog, Delta Lake, Cluster Policies, SQL Warehouses, Databricks Workflows, Serverless Compute, ML Workspaces, and workspace governance frameworks.
Experience driving platform automation using Terraform, Infrastructure as Code, GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, CI/CD pipelines, automated testing frameworks, release management processes, and environment promotion strategies.
Expertise implementing platform observability with Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, Application Insights, Azure Workbooks, Microsoft Sentinel, Databricks Lakehouse Monitoring, Databricks System Tables, Audit Logs, Cluster Metrics, Query History, and operational telemetry solutions.
Experience with platform security and governance, including Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD), RBAC, Unity Catalog security models, Privileged Identity Management, encryption, secrets management, compliance monitoring, vulnerability management, and enterprise security controls.
Success improving platform scalability, reliability, performance, and cost efficiency using SRE, FinOps, workload optimization, capacity planning, automated remediation, performance tuning, resilience engineering, and operational excellence practices.
Strong background in DevOps, Infrastructure Engineering, Cloud Architecture, and Site Reliability Engineering.
Experience leading cloud transformation and platform modernization initiatives.

Nice To Haves

Financial Services, Asset Management, Banking, Insurance, or other regulated-industry experience.

Responsibilities

Define and execute the enterprise Data Platform Engineering strategy and multi-year roadmap.
Establish platform engineering standards, operating models, and governance frameworks.
Build and lead teams responsible for cloud infrastructure, platform services, DevOps, SRE, and platform operations.
Drive platform modernization, automation, and self-service enablement initiatives, including migration from legacy data warehouses and on-premises platforms to Azure.
Partner with executive leadership to align platform capabilities with business and technology objectives.
Establish KPIs, SLAs, SLOs, and operational excellence metrics.
Manage platform budgets, cloud spend, vendor relationships, and strategic technology investments.
Own cloud data platform architecture, engineering standards, and the technology roadmap.
Partner with Infrastructure, security, application teams, and business stakeholders to align data capabilities with priorities and translate requirements into scalable technical solutions.
Drive infrastructure optimization, capacity management, platform reliability, and scalability improvements.
Implement cost optimization and FinOps disciplines.
Build and lead platform SRE capabilities and define reliability targets and operational excellence standards.
Implement incident management, problem management, and root-cause analysis processes.
Establish disaster recovery and business continuity capabilities, including backup, failover, and recovery strategies.
Improve platform availability, resiliency, and operational maturity.
Implement and support data quality controls, lineage, metadata, and governance capabilities.
Contribute to data security, privacy, and compliance requirements.
Lead technical workstreams and complex engineering initiatives; mentor junior team members and provide technical guidance.
Participate in architecture discussions and technology evaluations, and collaborate with leadership on roadmap and prioritization.