Manager, Data Operations

CI Financial; Toronto; On-site; CAD 130,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Modern HQ location

Training reimbursement

Paid professional designations

Employee savings plan

Corporate discount program

Enhanced group benefits

Parental leave top-up

Volunteer time off

Job summary

CI Financial is seeking a Manager, Data Operations to join the DNA team. You will lead a team of Data Operations engineers and developers, establishing operational standards and embedding production-grade data operations across the enterprise data ecosystem.

This role requires onsite work four days per week to support collaboration and business needs, driving reliability, security, and scalable data platforms including Snowflake and BI tools.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or related field.
• 7+ years in data engineering, Data Operations, or platform ops, with 2+ years in leadership.

Responsibilities

• Own day-to-day operational health of enterprise data platforms and pipelines.
• Lead Data Operations and CI/CD practices for pipelines and platform changes.
• Standardize deployment, rollback, and release management processes for data assets.
• Ensure automation-first approaches across testing, deployment, and monitoring.

Skills

Leadership

Snowflake

CI/CD

SQL

Python

Cloud platforms

Monitoring & observability

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/IS/Engineering

Tools

Airflow

Snowflake

BI platforms

Job description

At CI, we see a great place to work as one that is a safe place for everyone to have a voice, where people are empowered to take ownership over meaningful work, where there is an opportunity to grow through stretching themselves, where they can work on innovative products and projects, and where employees are supported and engaged in doing so.

CI Financial is seeking a Manager, Data Operations to join our Data, AI & Analytics (DNA) team. In this role, you will be accountable for the reliability, scalability, and operational excellence of enterprise data platforms and pipelines, ensuring that data products are delivered consistently, securely, and at scale.

You will lead a team of Data Operations engineers and developers, establish operational standards, and partner closely with Data Engineering, Analytics, Governance, and Technology teams to embed production-grade data operations, CI/CD practices, and monitoring across the enterprise data ecosystem.

This role follows our in-office work model and requires employees to be onsite four days per week to support collaboration and business needs.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Data Platform Operations & Reliability

• Own the day-to-day operational health of enterprise data platforms (e.g., Snowflake, orchestration tools, CI/CD pipelines, BI platforms).
• Enforce change management and release controls for production data systems.
• Ensure high availability, performance, and reliability of data pipelines and analytical workloads.
• Establish and track SLAs, SLOs, and operational KPIs for data services.

Data Operations & CI/CD Leadership

• Lead the implementation and continuous improvement of Data Operations and CI/CD practices for data pipelines, transformations, and platform changes.
• Enforce change management and release controls for production data systems.
• Standardize deployment, rollback, and release management processes for data assets.
• Ensure automation-first approaches across testing, deployment, and monitoring.

Monitoring, Incident & Problem Management

• Implement proactive monitoring, alerting, and observability for data pipelines and platforms.
• Lead incident response, root-cause analysis, and post-incident reviews for data-related outages or quality issues.
• Drive continuous improvement to reduce operational risk and manual intervention.

Team Leadership & Capability Building

• Lead, coach, and develop a team of Data Operations engineers and developers.
• Set clear priorities, performance expectations, and development plans.
• Foster a culture of operational excellence, accountability, and continuous learning.

Data Quality, Testing & Controls

• Enforce change management and release controls for production data systems.
• Partner with Data Engineering and Analytics teams to embed data quality checks, validation, and automated testing into pipelines.
• Ensure operational controls align with data governance, security, and compliance requirements.
• Support audit, risk, and regulatory inquiries related to data operations.
• Collaborate with data engineering and architecture team to design scalable, cost-efficient, and resilient data platform architectures.
• Coordinate data refreshes and environment management for non-production environments (e.g., TST/UAT).
• Drive performance tuning, cost optimization, and capacity planning for Snowflake and related platforms.
• Evaluate and onboard new tooling to enhance Data Operations maturity.

Documentation & Operational Standards

• Establish and maintain operational runbooks, standards, and documentation for platforms, pipelines, and processes.
• Ensure transparency and knowledge sharing across teams.

Stakeholder Collaboration

• Partner with Data Engineering, Analytics, Governance, Security, and Technology teams to align on priorities and delivery.
• Act as the primary operational point of contact for data platform reliability and service health.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent experience).
• 7+ years of experience in data engineering, Data Operations, or platform operations, with at least 2+ years in a leadership or management role.
• Strong hands-on experience with Snowflake as an enterprise data platform, including performance optimization and cost management.
• Proven experience implementing CI/CD pipelines and operational best practices for data workflows.
• Experience with orchestration tools (e.g., AWS Managed Service for Apache Airflow or similar).
• Proficiency in SQL and Python, with the ability to guide technical design and review solutions.
• Strong understanding of cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP) and cloud-native data operations.
• Experience with monitoring, alerting, and observability tools for data platforms.
• Solid understanding of data security, privacy, and regulatory requirements.
• Excellent leadership, communication, and stakeholder management skills.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Experience in asset management, wealth management, or financial services environments.
• Experience operating data platforms at enterprise scale with multiple downstream consumers.
• Familiarity with modern data tooling (e.g., Snowflake, DBT, Openflow, AWS Services, Airflow).
• Experience partnering with Data Governance and risk teams.
• Snowflake or cloud platform certifications.

CI Financial is an independent company offering global wealth management and asset management advisory services through diverse financial services firms. Since 1965, we have consistently anticipated and responded to the changing needs of investors. We are driven by a commitment to provide individuals and institutions with the highest-quality investments and advice. Our commitment to the highest levels of performance means that whatever their position, CI employees must be comfortable in a fast-paced environment that will stretch them to tap into their highest potential. Employees with a healthy dose of ambition, a desire to commit to a curious mindset for continuous learning, and a willingness to go the extra mile thrive at CI.

A Supportive Environment for Success

We offer an in-office environment, competitive benefits, and a supportive workplace to help our employees thrive both personally and professionally.

WHAT WE OFFER

• Modern HQ location within walking distance from Union Station
• Training Reimbursement
• Paid Professional Designations
• Employee Savings Plan (ESP)
• Corporate Discount Program
• Enhanced group benefits
• Parental Leave Top-up program
• Paid time off for Volunteering

CI Financial Corp. and all of our affiliates ("CI") are committed to fair and accessible employment practices and provide reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities. If you require accommodations in order to apply for any job opportunities, require this posting in an additional format, or require accommodation at any stage of the recruitment process please contact us at [e-mail], or call 416-364-1145 ext. 4747.