Associate Director – Data Platform & Operations

My client is seeking a senior leader to drive the strategy, delivery, and operations of a hybrid enterprise data platform powering AI, BI, and analytics. This role blends technical leadership + hands-on execution, ensuring platforms are scalable, secure, and self-service enabled.

🔧 Key Responsibilities:

• Lead architecture & operations across Azure, Kubernetes/OpenShift & on-prem storage
• Drive CI/CD, IaC (Terraform/Ansible) & platform automation
• Oversee big data ecosystem (Spark, Kafka, Delta Lake, SingleStore)
• Implement observability (monitoring, logging, lineage, alerts)
• Own platform reliability, scalability & cost optimisation (FinOps)
• Enable self-service for Data, AI & BI teams
• Manage delivery, dependencies & production readiness
• Mentor teams and embed DevOps/DataOps best practices

⚙️ Platform Stack
Azure * Kubernetes/OpenShift * Spark * Kafka * Delta Lake * Parquet * SingleStore * VAST * Azure DevOps

👥 Leadership & Impact:

• Partner with CTO, CDO & AI leadership on platform strategy
• Own roadmap delivery, performance metrics & cost reporting
• Lead and grow platform, DevOps & operations teams
• Drive modernisation & cloud-native adoption

✅ Requirements:

• 8+ years in platform engineering / DevOps / data infrastructure
• 4+ years in leadership roles
• Strong hands-on experience with Kubernetes, CI/CD & IaC
• Expertise in big data platforms (Spark, Kafka, Delta Lake)
• Experience in hybrid cloud & on-prem environments
• Strong understanding of observability, self-service platforms & performance tuning

🎓 Education & Certifications

• Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field
• Preferred: Kubernetes (CKA/CKAD), Azure DevOps, or cloud certifications

Salt is acting as an Employment Agency in relation to this vacancy.