Senior Manager to lead enterprise data initiatives built on the Databricks Lakehouse Platform, with a strong focus on AI/ML strategy, data governance, and

Full-Time, Permanent

Hybrid - 3 days onsite (Near King Station)

Our client is seeking a Manager / Director - Data, AI & ML to lead enterprise data initiatives built on the Databricks Lakehouse Platform, with a strong focus on AI/ML strategy, data governance, and innovation. This role will own the evolution of the Databricks platform on AWS, guide AI/ML roadmaps, and provide leadership to a team of Data Engineers supporting advanced analytics and machine learning use cases within the financial services industry.

This position requires hands-on Databricks experience combined with strategic leadership across enterprise data, AI, and cloud platforms.

Key Responsibilities

Databricks Platform & AI/ML Strategy

• Own and lead the enterprise Databricks Lakehouse strategy, including architecture, governance, and roadmap
• Define and execute AI and ML roadmaps leveraging Databricks for analytics, ML development, and deployment
• Drive innovation programs, proofs of concept, and scalable AI/ML solutions
• Ensure best practices across Delta Lake, Spark, and Databricks-native tooling

Leadership & Delivery

• Lead, mentor, and grow a team of Senior Data Engineers and Data Engineers
• Provide architectural oversight and delivery leadership for Databricks-based data pipelines and ML workloads
• Establish standards for data engineering, ML lifecycle management, CI/CD, and operational excellence
• Drive Agile delivery, prioritization, and cross-team collaboration

Cloud, Architecture & Integration

• Provide leadership across AWS-based Databricks environments (S3, Glue, Lambda, IAM)
• Contribute to enterprise architecture decisions across multiple cloud platforms
• Define scalable integration patterns; API experience is a plus
• Ensure performance optimization, cost management, and reliability of Databricks workloads

Data Governance & Risk

• Lead data governance, data quality, lineage, and metadata management initiatives within Databricks
• Define and enforce security, access control, and compliance standards
• Ensure alignment with financial services regulatory and risk requirements

Stakeholder Engagement

• Act as a strategic partner to business, analytics, digital, and technology leaders
• Translate business needs into Databricks-enabled data and AI solutions
• Communicate strategy, progress, and outcomes to senior and executive stakeholders

Must Haves:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field
• 5+ years leading enterprise-scale data initiatives
• Hands-on experience with the Databricks platform
• Proven experience delivering Databricks Lakehouse and Delta Lake architectures
• Demonstrated leadership in AI and ML strategy and enablement
• Strong experience with AWS and exposure to other cloud platforms
• Experience establishing data governance frameworks
• Background in financial services or regulated environments is strongly preferred
• Strong leadership, communication, and stakeholder management skills

Nice-to-Have Experience

• API strategy and integration experience
• Hands-on exposure to ML model lifecycle management in Databricks
• Experience leading digital or enterprise modernization programs