Director, Data Engineering

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We are looking for a Director, Data Engineering, to lead the continued optimization and maturation of our existing large-scale data platform. This is hands-on technical leadership role: roughly 60% of your time will be spent as a working solution architect – improving, rearchitecting, and scaling data pipelines, infrastructure, and models that power the business. The remaining 40% will be focused on strategic alignment, technical direction, and resource management for the Data Engineering team. A key part of the mandate is ensuring the platform remains AI/ML ready as it scales – well modeled and well governed so that advanced analytics teams can reliably and efficiently access high-quality data.

Reporting to the VP-Data Engineering, AI & ML , you will lead a team of Data Engineers – setting the technical execution direction while staying close enough to the architecture and code to guide hard decision, unblock the team, and ensure the platform continues to scale reliably and security as usage and AI/ML initiatives grow.

Applicants must be authorized to work for any employer in the U.S. We are unable to sponsor or take over work authorization sponsorship now or in the future for this position.

Key Accountabilities/Deliverables:

Solution Architecture & Hands-On Delivery

Own the technical evolution of our existing large-scale data platform, identifying and riving improvements to architecture, performance and scalability data volume and complexity use cases grow

Act as the lead solution architect for data engineering initiatives

Personally design, prototype, and development of frameworks and critical platform components – especially for high-risk/high complexity initiatives

Have a forward-thinking posture as it comes to creating an AI/ML ready data platform

Participate in the evaluation, selection and implementation of data platform tooling (i.e. – storage, orchestration, compute, streaming)

Reinforce existing data observability solutions/standards across pipelines and the platform

Diagnose and resolve complex production issues/technical debt across the data platform – partnering directly with other engineers to resolve.

Strategy, Technical Direction & Resource Management

Partner with VP-Data Engineering, AI & ML to define and execute the roadmap for a fully optimized and scalable data platform – ensuring alignment to broader company and data strategies including AI/ML readiness assessments

Set technical direction and architectural standards for the team by working closely with Enterprise Architecture

Manage, mentor, and develop data engineers

Participate in resource planning and prioritization across the team’s product roadmap – balancing business requests with platform-based initiatives

Represent Data Engineering planning, budgeting, and resource management discussions as needed

Stay current with emerging trends in data engineering and data platform architecture – brining innovations into continued data maturity for the organization.

Technical Knowledge and Understanding:

Technical Knowledge

Deep expertise in data pipeline design, optimization, and distributed data processing architectures with experience identifying and resolving performance and scalability bottlenecks

Platforms: Hands on experience with Snowflake or Databricks (experience in an architecture role with these platforms is a plus), Azure Synapse Analytics/MS Fabric

Strong knowledge of cloud data platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP) and modern data warehouse/Lakehouse architectures (Delta Lake, Iceberg)

Working familiarity with AI/ML data requirements and tooling to support AI/ML enablement

Strong working proficiency with at least two programming languages (Python, Scala, SQL)

Solid understanding of data governance, security, and compliance practices in a regulated or enterprise environment

Experience with IAC and CI/CD practices for data systems (i.e. Terraform, GitHub Actions)

Leadership & Soft Skills

Proven ability to set technical direction while remaining hands-on and credible at the architecture and code level

Strong stakeholder management skills – the ability to translate between technical and non-technical audiences

Excellent prioritization and resource management skills across competing technical and business demands

A coaching mindset with genuine investment in growing the technical and soft skills of direct reports

Requirements:

Bachelor Degree in Computer Science or related field or equivalent work experience.

10+ years experience in data engineering with significant experience in optimizing, scaling, and evolving large-scale mature data platforms

3+ years in an architect role (Solution, Enterprise, Data, Platform) with direct ownership of solution designs

3+ years in a leadership role managing data engineering teams – including direct people management responsibilities

Working knowledge of how data platforms enable AI/ML solutions

Track record of balancing hands-on technical delivery with people leadership and strategic planning

Nice to Have

Experience designing or implementing Agentic workflows for data engineering

Experience working with Property & Casualty insurance carriers

Experience with Data Vault 2.0 or Ensemble data modeling techniques

#LI-Hybrid

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At Core Specialty, you will receive a competitive salary and opportunities for professional development and advancement. We offer medical, dental, vision, and life insurances; short and long-term disability; a Company-match of 100% of a 6% contribution 401(k) plan; an Employee Assistance Plan; Health Savings Account, Flexible Spending Account, Health Reimbursement Account, and a wellness program