Director, Data Engineering & Transformation

Job Description:

Role Overview

This role combines Data Engineering leadership with enterprise transformation ownership. You will lead a distributed data engineering and automation team while personally driving architecture, modernization, and high-impact delivery. You are accountable for turning legacy-heavy, labor-intensive systems into modern, automated, cloud-native platforms that measurably reduce cost, risk, and friction across the business.

This is not a pure people-management role and not a strategy-only role. You will design, code, refactor, automate, govern, and communicate. You'll coordinate across business, finance, and technology, translating executive goals into scalable data and automation solutions that actually ship.

If you enjoy owning outcomes end-to-end, modernizing messy environments, and leading from the front—this role fits.


Key Responsibilities

Leadership, Strategy & Delivery
• Lead, mentor, and develop a high-performing, remote data engineering and transformation team across multiple time zones.
• Set clear priorities, execution plans, and accountability for data, automation, and transformation initiatives.
• Own hiring, performance management, coaching, and career development.
• Build a culture of ownership, proactive problem-solving, and delivery over theater.


Data Architecture & Platform Modernization
• Own the data architecture and automation roadmap, driving the transition from legacy systems to modern, scalable, cloud-native platforms.
• Design and implement data models, pipelines, integrations, and automation frameworks aligned with business and financial priorities.
• Lead large-scale refactoring and modernization initiatives to eliminate technical debt and improve reliability, performance, and transparency.
• Ensure cross-system compatibility through enterprise architecture principles and governance.


Automation & Transformation Portfolio Ownership
• Own the end-to-end automation and transformation portfolio across data, workflows, integrations, and RPA.
• Define automation strategy, governance models, standards, and success KPIs tied to efficiency, cost reduction, and control improvement.
• Ensure alignment between automation initiatives and accounting, finance, shared-services, and operational workflows.
• Identify opportunities to replace manual, error-prone processes with durable, automated solutions.


Hands-On Engineering & Execution
• Actively write and review code—data pipelines, transformations, automation logic, orchestration, and internal tooling.
• Build and optimize SQL, Python/Scala services, ELT pipelines, and workflow orchestration.
• Rapidly prototype solutions to validate ideas and accelerate decision-making.
• Conduct code reviews, enforce quality standards, and ensure platform stability, security, and observability.


Best Practices, Governance & Enablement
• Establish and enforce standards for:
• Modular data design
• CI/CD for data and automation
• Observability, DataOps, and platform reliability
• Governance, lineage, controls, and auditability
• Actively teach and uplift the team—modern tools, patterns, and architectural thinking.
• Reduce operational friction through automation, standardization, and platform reuse.


Stakeholder & Executive Engagement
• Serve as the primary bridge between technology, business, finance, and executive leadership.
• Lead communication with senior leadership and oversight committees—clear, factual, outcome-driven.
• Present strategy, progress, risks, and ROI in language executives understand.
• Manage vendors, contracts, and budgets with a focus on measurable value and cost control.


Required Qualifications
• 10+ years in data engineering, enterprise technology, or automation leadership.
• 5+ years leading teams and major initiatives in complex, multi-system environments.
• Proven success leading distributed, remote teams across time zones.
• Deep hands-on expertise with:
• SQL (expert-level)
• Python and/or Scala
• ELT/ETL frameworks (dbt, Airflow, Dagster, etc.)
• Azure Data Factory
• Snowflake
• Cloud platforms (Azure, AWS, or GCP)
• Orchestration, CI/CD, automation, and containerized workloads
• Demonstrated success modernizing legacy platforms and eliminating significant technical debt.
• Strong understanding of automation platforms (RPA, workflow orchestration, integration tooling).
• Experience aligning technology initiatives with financial operations, controls, and efficiency goals.
• Excellent communicator – able to simplify complex systems for executives without dumbing them down.


Preferred Qualifications
• Background in Financial Services, Accounting Outsourcing, SaaS, or BPO environments.
• Familiarity with accounting workflows, shared-services models, and compliance controls.
• Experience building internal platforms or self-service data and automation tooling.
• Strong vendor management and budgeting experience with documented cost-reduction outcomes.
• Experience with data governance, lineage, auditability, and regulatory environments.


Who Succeeds in This Role
• Owns problems end-to-end and doesn't wait for permission.
• Rejects "that's how it's always been done."
• Comfortable operating at both whiteboard and code editor levels.
• Speaks fluently to engineers, finance leaders, and executives.
• Values results over noise and momentum over perfection.