Head of Data & Intelligence

Creandum; Berlin; On-site; EUR 120,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Creandum seeks a hands-on leader to own the data platform, intelligence layer, and governance that underpins the firm's most sensitive work. You’ll report to the Operating Partner and collaborate with every function, shaping a scalable foundation for decision-making.

You will lead end-to-end data architecture, ingestion, entity resolution, and data quality, while embedding risk controls and compliant processes throughout the stack.

Qualifications

• Shipped a real data or AI product end to end with user adoption.
• Deep hands-on data architecture, warehousing, and governance.
• Fluent with embeddings, retrieval, and agents that act, not only answer.

Responsibilities

• Own the firm's data platform from end to end and ensure data quality.
• Build an intelligence layer with retrieval and agent tooling for firm-wide use.
• Define access, provenance and risk controls with legal/regulatory input.

Skills

Data architecture

Data warehousing

Governance

Embeddings

Retrieval

Agents

Access control

Product mindset

Stakeholder collaboration

Job description

Who we are

Creandum's edge has always been people: the network, the judgment, the hustle. To sharpen our edge, we need to make everything those people learn compound: every meeting, every diligence process, every founder relationship feeding a shared foundation instead of evaporating into inboxes and individual heads.
You will build and own that foundation: the firm's data platform, the intelligence layer on top of it, and the governance that makes partners willing to trust it with their most sensitive work.
This is a new function, and you are its first hire. You'll start hands-on-keyboard and stay that way for the time being; but you're building an estate the firm will run on, and the mandate grows with what you prove.
You report to the Operating Partner, but work directly and independently with every member of the firm.
We believe different viewpoints drive our growth, and we welcome applicants from all backgrounds.

What you'll own

The data platform.

The firm's data architecture end to end: warehouse, ingestion from core systems (CRM, meeting transcripts, documents, email/calendar), entity resolution, and data quality. One person, one company, one deal – consistent across every source. This is foundational; everything else flows from it.

The intelligence layer.

Retrieval, search & agent tooling that give everyone's AI real firm context, serving both individual workflows (bottom-up) and firm-wide platforms (top-down). Built for passive compounding: the system gets better as people work and as models improve, without depending on anyone's discipline.

Access, trust, and AI risk.

The access model as structural enforcement, not instructions: who sees what, with identity, provenance, and audit. Sensitive fund and partner data protected to a standard the partnership will trust, plus the AI-specific risk judgment (injection containment, egress, tool guardrails) for everything the function ships, in collaboration with legal/regulatory counsel.

Technology strategy and the tool estate.

Accountability for whether the firm's tools are the right ones: evaluation, integration, and replacement of the systems and data sources the firm runs on, in close partnership with the stakeholders who use them. Buy when buying is better; build when building is better. You have the mandate to choose, and then execute on your decision. Make sure security, compliance and budget are part of the equation.

What you'll deliver

First 6 months.

A complete map of the firm's data and systems. The foundational data platform stood up. Two or three lightweight tools shipped that visibly improve how a team works. A clear, prioritized 12–18 month roadmap, authored by you and agreed with the partnership.

By 12 months.

V1 of the firm's shared intelligence layer live and in daily use. The diligence process made genuinely multiplayer; firm knowledge and meeting history informing live deals instead of sitting unused. Measurable adoption, reported honestly, with failures killed as quickly as the wins are shipped.

Beyond.

The roadmap is yours to define. Candidates for the frontier: productizing how the firm wins deals, network intelligence that answers \"who do we know\" in seconds, platform tools founders can self-serve, and operational automation across finance, events, and admin.

How you'll work

• Builder first. You ship personally. This is not a role for someone who wants a team of ten doing the building.

• Co-creation, not solo genius. Stakeholders across the firm (investment, platform, marketing, operations, etc.) steer, test, and tune what you build. Within a year, everyone at the firm should be able to point at something they had a hand in shaping.

• Product discipline. Prototype, validate with real users, kill what doesn't get adopted. Usage is the metric; expect and budget for churn.

• Scale deliberately. You start solo. As the foundation proves out, you'll orchestrate internal or external build resources and potentially grow the function. You are prepared to identify, leverage and lead exceptional talent to help achieve results.

Who you are

• You've shipped a real data or AI product end to end (pipelines, retrieval, and the product surface) and people actually used it.

• Deep, hands-on command of data architecture, warehousing, and governance. Fluent with embeddings, retrieval, and agents that act, not just answer.

• You treat access control and provenance as product features, not compliance chores.

• Low ego, high agency, energized by a blank page. Excited to tackle the unglamorous work (entity resolution, data hygiene, permissions) that everything depends on.

• You can sit with an investor, an EA, and a founder in the same week and design for all of them. Venture experience isn't required, but you'll need to earn a front-line view of the work fast.

• You can say \"no\" and \"not yet\" to smart, senior people and make them glad you did.

What this role is not

• Not IT operations: endpoint, device & office infrastructure are handled by our managed IT partner.

• Not reg compliance: policy & DORA workstreams are owned by legal, with your input on anything AI.

• Not a reporting function: you build systems that answer questions, not dashboards on request.

Why this role

You’ll have a blank page, real budget influence, direct partnership access, and a firm small enough that what you build touches everyone within weeks. The firms that figure this out will compound differently from the ones that don\'t. This is the seat where that happens.