Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. ClassLink builds secure, intuitive education technology tools that improve access, equity, analytics, and school data management for students and educators. The Director of Data Engineering provides strategic and technical leadership for the Data Engineering organization, overseeing enterprise data platforms, architecture, governance, reliability, AI-enabled engineering, and modernization. The role also develops engineering leaders, builds high-performing teams, and aligns data strategy with organizational priorities.
Responsibilities
- Develop and execute the enterprise data engineering roadmap aligned with ClassLink's strategic technology and business objectives
- Define the long-term technical direction for enterprise data platforms, cloud-native data services, AI-enabled data engineering, data integration, and modern data architectures that support analytics, automation, and AI-powered products
- Establish engineering standards, architectural principles, and governance frameworks that improve data quality, security, reliability, scalability, and maintainability
- Evaluate emerging technologies, AI capabilities, cloud services, and engineering methodologies to drive innovation and organizational effectiveness
- Oversee the design, architecture, and evolution of enterprise data platforms, ETL/ELT pipelines, APIs, integrations, and cloud-native data services
- Guide the design and optimization of enterprise cloud data warehouse platforms (including Snowflake), data models, metadata management, and enterprise data architecture
- Ensure data engineering solutions support business requirements while meeting enterprise standards for security, performance, scalability, resiliency, and operational excellence
- Drive adoption of modern engineering practices, automation, Infrastructure as Code, CI/CD, and cloud-native architectures across the Data Engineering organization
- Lead initiatives that improve data platform reliability, operational resilience, engineering productivity, and delivery efficiency through automation, AI-assisted engineering, and continuous improvement
- Establish operational metrics, monitoring, observability, alerting, capacity planning, disaster recovery, and service reliability practices for enterprise data platforms
- Develop governance processes for data quality, documentation, compliance, data lifecycle management, and operational reporting
- Identify opportunities to modernize platforms, automate manual processes, optimize infrastructure, and improve engineering effectiveness across the organization
- Partner with Product Management, Engineering, Architecture, Infrastructure, Security, Analytics, and executive leadership to define data priorities and deliver strategic initiatives
- Translate business objectives into enterprise data architecture, implementation roadmaps, engineering priorities, and investment strategies
- Represent Data Engineering in technology leadership forums, architecture reviews, strategic planning, and cross-functional governance activities
- Foster strong partnerships across technical and business organizations to ensure enterprise data capabilities support organizational growth and innovation
- Lead, coach, and develop a high-performing Data Engineering organization by providing strategic direction, performance coaching, mentoring, and professional development opportunities
- Build organizational capability through hiring, succession planning, workforce planning, and leadership development
- Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, innovation, continuous learning, and engineering excellence
- Establish performance expectations and ensure consistent execution, operational discipline, and alignment with organizational values and strategic priorities
Skills
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Data Engineering, Software Engineering, Information Technology, or a related field, or equivalent combination of education and experience
- 10+ years of progressive experience in data engineering, software engineering, platform engineering, or cloud-native application development
- 5+ years of experience leading Data Engineering teams, technical leaders, or enterprise data platform initiatives
- Demonstrated success developing enterprise data engineering strategy, technical roadmaps, and organizational engineering standards
- Deep expertise in Python, SQL, ETL/ELT architectures, REST APIs, distributed systems, and enterprise data integration
- Extensive experience designing and optimizing cloud data warehouse platforms (such as Snowflake), relational databases (such as PostgreSQL), and modern enterprise data platforms
- Strong experience with AWS cloud services and cloud-native architectures
- Experience implementing modern engineering practices including AI-assisted software development, CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code, observability, automation, and Agile delivery methodologies
- Strong understanding of data governance, metadata management, data quality, security, compliance, and enterprise architecture principles
- Proven ability to influence executive leadership, drive organizational change, and align technology strategy with business objectives
- Exceptional leadership, communication, strategic planning, and organizational development skills
- This role is remote with quarterly in-person strategy meetings
- Master's degree in Computer Science, Data Engineering, Information Systems, Business Administration, or a related discipline
- Experience leading enterprise data modernization or cloud transformation initiatives
- Expertise with AI-enabled data engineering, intelligent automation, machine learning data pipelines, or advanced analytics platforms
- Experience with event-driven architectures, streaming technologies, or real-time data processing platforms
- Experience with Infrastructure as Code (Terraform), Kubernetes, platform engineering, or Site Reliability Engineering practices
- AWS Professional or Specialty certifications, Snowflake certifications, Azure certifications, or equivalent cloud credentials
- Experience participating in enterprise architecture governance, technology strategy, or executive leadership planning
- Experience building and developing high-performing engineering organizations in a SaaS or technology environment
- Experience implementing enterprise data governance, data catalogs, lineage, master data management, or data mesh principles
- Experience with Azure and Google Cloud Platforms
Benefits
- Bonus opportunity
- This role is remote with quarterly in-person strategy meetings.
- Generous paid time off: 4+ weeks of vacation and 13+ paid holidays
- 12 weeks fully paid parental leave for all parents
- 401(k) with 0.5:1 company match
- Medical, dental, and vision plans
- Company-paid life, short-term disability, and long-term disability insurance
- Voluntary supplemental life, accident, and pet insurance
- Paid volunteer days through ClassLink Cares
- Tuition reimbursement for continued education
- Coaching and internal programs to support career and personal growth
- Annual company retreats and team events
Company Overview
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