What are the responsibilities and job description for the Manager, Data Platforms position at Harris County Sheriff's Office?
The Manager, Data Platforms leads the strategy, design, implementation, and operational management of the Sheriff’s Office enterprise data hub and integration ecosystem. This role is responsible for researching modern data architectures, managing in-house or vendor-led implementations, and overseeing the secure movement of data into and out of the organization’s data platform. The position combines technical leadership, program oversight, and team leadership to build a scalable, secure, and future-ready data environment supporting operational, investigative, analytical, and emerging AI capabilities.
Key Responsibilities
Design & Build the Data Platform
Key Responsibilities
Design & Build the Data Platform
- Leads the architecture and implementation of a modern data platform (data lake, warehouse, or hybrid)
- Designs scalable data pipelines for ingestion, transformation, and distribution
- Establishes real-time and batch data processing capabilities
- Works with the technology management team to establish strong data governance
- Provides clean, structured, and accessible data for AI/ML use cases
- Partners with the Innovation team to support model development and deployment
- Enables feature engineering, training datasets, and inference pipelines
- Integrates data across core public safety systems
- Builds APIs and data services for internal and external consumption
- Works to eliminate data silos and create a unified data ecosystem
- Implements data governance frameworks in coordination with the technology management team
- Establishes data quality standards, monitoring, and remediation processes
- Ensures performance, scalability, and uptime of the data platform
- Implements monitoring, logging, and alerting for pipelines and data flows
- Optimizes cost and performance across cloud and on-premises environments
- Provides technical leadership for data engineering efforts
- Defines best practices for pipeline development, versioning, and deployment
- Builds and mentors the data engineering capability
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Engineering, or a related field; an equivalent combination of education and experience may be considered
- Six (6) or more years in data engineering, data architecture, or platform engineering, including building and managing data pipelines (ETL/ELT)
Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities
- Strong experience with SQL and at least one programming language (e.g., Python)
- Experience with databases and cloud data platforms (Azure, AWS, or GCP)
- Ability to lead technical staff and manage vendor-supported implementations
- Experience with tools such as Snowflake, Databricks, Synapse, BigQuery, or similar
- Familiarity with streaming technologies (Kafka, Event Hubs, or similar)
- Experience in public safety, justice, or another regulated environment
- Knowledge of data governance frameworks and metadata management
- Exposure to MLOps or supporting AI/ML pipelines
Work Environment & Physical Demands
• This position operates primarily in a professional office setting.
• Standard use of computers, phones, printers, and related technical equipment.
• The ability to lift and carry up to 10 pounds is occasionally necessary.
Position Type and Typical Hours of Work
Position Type: Professional Staff, Full-time, Exempt
Work Schedule: Typically Monday – Friday, 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM. Hours may vary based on the department's business needs.
Equal Opportunity Statement
Harris County is an Equal Opportunity Employer and is committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, pregnancy, disability, genetic information, or any other protected class in accordance with applicable federal and state laws.