Director, Data Engineering

Director, Data Engineering

📍 Location: North Branford, Connecticut, United States

🏢 Industry: Restaurants

💼 Work Setting: Hybrid

Are you passionate about building enterprise-scale data platforms, leading high-performing engineering teams, and enabling data-driven decision-making across the organization?

We are seeking an experienced Director, Data Engineering to lead the strategy, architecture, delivery, and operations of modern data platforms and engineering capabilities. This leadership role is responsible for ensuring the organization's data infrastructure is scalable, reliable, secure, and aligned with business priorities while enabling Analytics, Business Intelligence, Data Science, and Data Product teams with trusted and accessible data.

The ideal candidate combines deep technical expertise in modern data architectures, strong engineering leadership, operational excellence, and the ability to collaborate across Product, Platform, Security, and Business organizations.

Key Responsibilities

Data Engineering Strategy & Roadmap

• Own and execute the enterprise data engineering roadmap aligned with business objectives and data product priorities.
• Define strategic direction for data platforms, pipelines, and engineering capabilities.
• Drive long-term modernization initiatives that improve scalability, reliability, and operational efficiency.
• Align engineering investments with organizational goals and technology strategy.

Data Platform Architecture & Engineering

• Lead the design, development, and operation of enterprise data platforms and services.
• Oversee implementation of:
• Batch Data Processing
• Real-Time Streaming Pipelines
• Cloud Data Architectures
• Data Integration Frameworks
• Enterprise Data Services
• Ensure platforms support analytics, reporting, machine learning, and operational use cases.
• Promote reusable engineering patterns and platform standards.

Data Pipeline Development & Operations

• Oversee data ingestion, transformation, orchestration, and delivery processes.
• Ensure data pipelines are:
• Reliable
• Scalable
• Observable
• Cost-Efficient
• Secure
• Establish operational standards and monitoring practices across data systems.
• Drive continuous improvement in data delivery performance.

Data Quality, Governance & Observability

• Establish enterprise standards for:
• Data Quality
• Data Lineage
• Data Documentation
• Data Observability
• Metadata Management
• Ensure accurate, trustworthy, and timely data availability.
• Partner with governance teams to improve data stewardship practices.
• Implement data monitoring and quality controls across platforms.

Enterprise Collaboration & Stakeholder Partnership

• Partner closely with:
• Data Product Managers
• Analytics Teams
• Business Intelligence Teams
• Data Science Organizations
• Enterprise Architecture
• Security & Compliance Teams
• Translate business outcomes into engineering priorities and technical solutions.
• Align platform capabilities with evolving business and consumer needs.
• Drive cross-functional collaboration and stakeholder engagement.

Security, Privacy & Compliance

• Ensure data platforms comply with enterprise security, privacy, and regulatory requirements.
• Partner with Security and Compliance teams to implement appropriate controls.
• Support governance frameworks for data protection and access management.
• Promote secure-by-design principles across engineering practices.

Platform Modernization & Technical Excellence

• Lead initiatives to modernize legacy data architectures.
• Reduce technical debt and improve maintainability of data systems.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and recommend strategic adoption opportunities.
• Drive innovation across cloud, distributed systems, and data engineering capabilities.

Team Leadership & Talent Development

• Lead, mentor, and develop managers, technical leads, and senior data engineers.
• Build a high-performing engineering culture focused on:
• Accountability
• Innovation
• Collaboration
• Continuous Learning
• Support recruiting, succession planning, and career development initiatives.
• Establish engineering best practices and delivery standards.

Operational Excellence & Performance Management

• Define and track key performance indicators (KPIs), including:
• Pipeline Reliability
• SLA Performance
• Data Freshness
• Platform Availability
• Cost Efficiency
• Engineering Productivity
• Drive operational maturity and continuous service improvement.
• Ensure consistent delivery of high-quality engineering outcomes.

Qualifications

Education

• Bachelor's Degree in:
• Computer Science
• Data Engineering
• Information Systems
• Software Engineering
• Related Technical Field

Preferred

• Master's Degree in a technical or business-related discipline.

Experience

• 8–12 years of experience in:
• Data Engineering
• Data Platforms
• Data Infrastructure
• Data Architecture
• Platform Engineering
• 3–5 years of leadership experience managing engineering teams or enterprise-scale data capabilities.
• Experience building and operating cloud-based data platforms.
• Proven success leading complex engineering initiatives in large organizations.

Technical Expertise

Data Engineering

• Data Pipeline Development
• ETL/ELT Frameworks
• Batch Processing
• Streaming Data Architectures
• Data Integration

Data Platforms

• Cloud Data Warehouses
• Data Lakes
• Distributed Data Systems
• Modern Data Architectures
• Enterprise Data Platforms

Governance & Operations

• Data Quality Management
• Data Observability
• Data Lineage
• Metadata Management
• Platform Monitoring

Cloud & Infrastructure

• AWS, Azure, or GCP
• Distributed Computing
• Platform Scalability
• Reliability Engineering
• Infrastructure Automation

Core Competencies

• Data Engineering Leadership
• Enterprise Data Platforms
• Data Architecture
• Cloud Data Engineering
• Data Governance
• Data Quality Management
• Data Observability
• Platform Modernization
• Engineering Management
• Operational Excellence
• Security & Compliance
• Stakeholder Management
• Strategic Planning
• Team Development
• Continuous Improvement