Director, Data Engineering

The role

This leader will lead the architecture, engineering, and delivery of AI products, data products, and scalable data solutions. They will drive the transition toward a product-centric data operating model to power analytics, AI/ML initiatives, and enterprise decision-making.

What you will do

• Collaborate with Data leadership on strategy for Data Products Engineering and AI-powered solutions
• Establish a product-centric operating model for data capabilities
• Partner with stakeholders to deliver strategic data products aligned to enterprise goals
• Drive creation of scalable enterprise data assets for fraud, risk, and analytics
• Lead strategic architecture and engineering decisions for domain data solutions
• Design scalable, resilient, and AI-ready data architectures
• Collaborate on enterprise standards for data modeling, ETL, and governance
• Lead and scale high-performing Data Product Engineering teams
• Oversee development of cloud-native data pipelines and services
• Build, mentor, and develop high-performing teams

Required qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Engineering, Statistics, Mathematics, Information Systems, or related field
• 10+ years of progressive leadership experience in Data, Analytics, or AI/ML organizations
• 5+ years leading enterprise-scale analytics, data science, or AI engineering teams
• Strong hands-on expertise in predictive analytics, machine learning, recommendation systems, decision intelligence, and AI-enabled analytics
• Proven experience building scalable enterprise data products
• Deep experience with Snowflake, Dataiku, dbt, Fivetran, Apache Iceberg, and Looker / LookML
• Strong technical expertise in Python, SQL, ML frameworks, AI tooling, and AWS
• Strong executive communication and stakeholder management skills
• Experience leading within complex, matrixed organizations

Nice to have

• Master’s or PhD
• Experience within fintech, payment processing, transaction platforms, fraud analytics, or regulated financial services
• Experience with real-time analytics and streaming architectures
• Familiarity with MLOps platforms, Feature stores, Vector databases, Semantic retrieval architectures, or Agentic AI frameworks
• Knowledge of PCI, SOC2, GDPR, and financial data governance requirements
• Experience integrating predictive AI and analytical AI capabilities with broader GenAI enterprise initiatives

Benefits

• Competitive salary and benefits with growth-company options grant
• Stock options with standard startup vesting - 1 year cliff; 4 years total
• $50 monthly communication expense stipend
• $250 stipend to enhance WFH setup
• Premium medical benefits including vision and dental (100% coverage for employees)
• Company-sponsored life and disability insurance
• Paid parental bonding leave
• Paid sick leave, jury duty, bereavement
• 401k plan
• Flexible Time Off
• Volunteer Time Off
• 13 scheduled holidays

About the company

PayNearMe builds innovative technology to transform how businesses and customers experience payments through its PayXM platform. The company has over 300 employees and is headquartered in Silicon Valley.