Director - Data Engineering

Director - Data engineering

What are we looking for
real solver?
Solver? Absolutely. But not the usual kind.  We're searching for the architects of the audacious & the pioneers of the possible. If you're the type to dismantle assumptions, re-engineer ‘best practices,’ and build solutions that make the future possible NOW, then you're speaking our language.

Your Responsibilities
what you will wake up to solve.
1. Delivery & Tactical Rigor
Methodology Implementation:  Implement and manage a unified, 'Data Ops-First' methodology for data engineering delivery (ETL/ELT pipelines, Data Modeling, MLOps, Data Governance) within assigned business units. This ensures predictable outcomes and trusted data integrity by reducing architecture variability at the project level.
Operational Stewardship:  Drive initiatives to optimize team utilization and enhance operational efficiency within the practice. You manage the commercial success of your squads, ensuring data delivery models (from migration to modern data stack implementation) are executed profitably, scalably, and cost-effectively.
Execution & Technical Resolution
Technical Escalation:  Serve as the primary escalation point for delivery issues, personally leading the resolution of complex data integration bottlenecks and pipeline failures to protect client timelines and data reliability standards.
Quality Enforcement
Quality Oversight:  Execute and monitor technical data quality standards, ensuring engineering teams adhere to strict policies regarding data lineage, automated quality checks (observability), security/privacy compliance (GDPR/CCPA/PII), and active catalog management.

2. Strategic Growth & Practice Scaling
Talent & Scaling Execution:  Execute the strategy for data engineering talent acquisition and development within your business units. Implement objective metrics to assess and grow the 'Data-Native' DNA of your teams, ensuring squads are consistently equipped to handle petabyte-scale environments and high-impact delivery.
Offerings Alignment:  Drive the adoption of standardized regional offerings (e.g., Modern Data Platform, Data Mesh, Lakehouse Implementation). Ensure your teams leverage the profitable frameworks defined by the practice to accelerate time-to-insight and eliminate architectural fragmentation in client environments.
Innovation & IP Development:  Lead the practical integration of Vector Databases and LLM-ready architectures into project delivery. Champion the hands-on development of IP and reusable accelerators (e.g., automated ingestion engines) that improve delivery speed and enhance data availability across your portfolio.

3. Leadership & Unit Management
Unit Leadership:  Directly lead, mentor, and manage the Engineering Managers and Lead Architects within your business unit. Hold your teams accountable for project-level operational consistency, technical talent development, and strict adherence to the practice's data governance standards.
Stakeholder Communication:  Clearly articulate the business unit’s operational performance, technical quality metrics, and delivery progress to the C-suite Stakeholders and regional client leadership, bridging the gap between technical execution and business value.
Ecosystem Alignment:  Maintain strong technical relationships with key partner contacts (Snowflake, Databricks, AWS/GCP). Align team delivery capabilities with current product roadmaps and ensure squad-level participation in training, certifications, and partner-led enablement opportunities.

Welcome to Searce
The ‘process-first’, AI-native modern tech consultancy that's rewriting the rules.
We don’t do traditional.
As an engineering-led consultancy, we are dedicated to relentlessly improving the real business outcomes. Our solvers co-innovate with clients to  futurify  operations and make processes smarter, faster & better.

Functional Skills
1. Delivery Management & Operational Excellence
Methodology Execution:  Expert capability in implementing and enforcing a unified delivery methodology (Data Ops, Agile, Mesh Principles) within specific business units. Proven track record of auditing squad-level adherence to ensure consistency across the…