Associate Director, Data Engineering — AI‑Driven Pharma Platform

Formation; Town of Boston (NY); Hybrid; USD 214,000 - 267,000; Full time

Job summary

Formation Bio is seeking an Associate Director of Data Engineering to lead the data platform team responsible for pipelines, the Snowflake warehouse, and data products across clinical operations and asset evaluation. This AI-native role emphasizes speed, quality, and growth in a fast‑moving environment.

You will partner with Data Science, Analytics, Clinical Operations, Biostatistics, and BD to set strategy, foster collaboration, and scale trusted data to drive decisions and achieve faster

Qualifications

• 7+ years total data engineering and people management experience.
• 3+ years directly managing Data Engineers, Analytics Engineers, or similar.
• Experience using AI tools (LLMs) in data engineering.
• Strong knowledge of Snowflake, Dagster/Airflow, and dbt.
• Familiarity with regulated data (clinical, PHI, or similar).
• Excellent cross‑functional collaboration and communication.

Responsibilities

• Hire, coach, and develop a team of data engineers.
• Set the technical direction and roadmap for data engineering.
• Partner with Data Science, Analytics, Clinical Operations, Data Managers, and Business Development.
• Oversee the architecture and maintenance of the data platform, including ingestion and Snowflake warehouse.
• Ensure data quality, observability, lineage, and documentation across the platform.
• Own data governance practices for regulated data including access controls and auditability.
• Review and provide feedback on requirements and design documents for new data products and pipelines.
• Drive knowledge sharing, training, and mentoring on data engineering fundamentals and modern tooling.
• Own the team's support rotation for data platform incidents and budgeting.
• Manage team budgeting, resourcing, and reporting.

Skills

People management

AI tooling use

Data governance

Cross-functional collaboration

Regulated data handling

Technical leadership

Team mentorship

Data platform architecture

Budgeting & resourcing

Communication

Tools

Snowflake

Dagster

Airflow

dbt

Python

SQL

Terraform/OpenTofu

Job description

Formation Bio is seeking an Associate Director of Data Engineering to lead the data platform team responsible for pipelines, the Snowflake warehouse, and data products across clinical operations and asset evaluation. This AI-native role emphasizes speed, quality, and growth in a fast‑moving environment.

You will partner with Data Science, Analytics, Clinical Operations, Biostatistics, and BD to set strategy, foster collaboration, and scale trusted data to drive decisions and achieve faster