Lead Data Platform Engineer

Job Title:
Lead Data Platform Engineer

Location:
100% Remote

Employment Type:
Long-Term Contract

Job Overview

We are seeking a
Platform Engineer Lead
to lead and manage the operational delivery of a modern enterprise data platform built on
Azure and Databricks
. This role combines
technical leadership, platform operations, and stakeholder management
, ensuring that the data and analytics platform remains reliable, scalable, and aligned with business needs.

The ideal candidate will have strong experience managing
cloud-based data platforms
, leading support and engineering teams, and overseeing infrastructure components such as
AKS, Databricks, DataIQ, Airflow, and Terraform
. This individual will serve as the operational leader responsible for platform stability, service delivery, and continuous improvement of the data ecosystem.

Key Responsibilities

Platform Operations & Service Delivery

- Lead the
day-to-day operations of the enterprise Data & Analytics platform
built on Azure and Databricks.
- Manage
platform intake, service requests, support tickets, and incident management
processes.
- Ensure
high availability, performance, and reliability
of platform services across data engineering and analytics workloads.
- Establish operational best practices for
monitoring, troubleshooting, and performance optimization
.

Team Leadership & Management

- Manage and mentor a team of
data engineers, platform engineers, and support specialists
.
- Provide technical direction and ensure the team follows
platform engineering and DevOps best practices
.
- Coordinate cross-functional collaboration with
data engineering, analytics, and infrastructure teams
.

Azure & Platform Infrastructure Oversight

Oversee infrastructure components supporting the platform including:

- Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
- Databricks
- DataIQ
- Apache Airflow
- Terraform-based infrastructure automation
- Ensure infrastructure is
secure, scalable, and cost optimized
.
- Implement governance policies and best practices for
cloud infrastructure and data platforms
.

Automation & DevOps

- Promote
Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
using Terraform to standardize platform provisioning.
- Implement automation for
deployment, monitoring, and platform maintenance
.
- Collaborate with DevOps teams to improve
CI/CD pipelines for data platform components
.

Stakeholder & Business Engagement

- Serve as the
primary operational contact for business and technical stakeholders
.
- Communicate platform updates, incidents, and roadmap initiatives to leadership and business teams.
- Manage expectations and ensure alignment between
platform capabilities and business requirements
.

Governance, Security & Compliance

- Implement and enforce
data platform governance standards
.
- Ensure platform security across infrastructure, data pipelines, and access management.
- Work with security teams to maintain compliance with
enterprise and regulatory policies
.

Required Qualifications

- 8+ years of experience in
Data Engineering, Data Platform Engineering, or Cloud Infrastructure
.
- Hands-on experience with
Databricks-based data platforms
.
- Strong experience with
Microsoft Azure cloud infrastructure
.
- Experience managing or supporting the following technologies:
- Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
- Databricks
- DataIQ
- Apache Airflow
- Terraform
- Experience with
data pipeline orchestration and workflow automation
.
- Strong understanding of
cloud platform operations, monitoring, and incident management
.
- Excellent
communication and stakeholder management skills
.