Chief Engineer, Global Data Management

Jeppesen ForeFlight, Inc.; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 208,000 - 255,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision coverage

Open PTO policy

401(k) with employer matching

12 weeks parental leave

Volunteer days

Employee Assistance Program

Flight Training Stipend

Job summary

Jeppesen ForeFlight is seeking a Principal Engineer, Global Data to lead architectural strategy and modernize data platforms. This AI-forward senior IC role partners with Global Data leadership to align roadmaps, drive reviews, and raise engineering quality across data pipelines and products.

The ideal candidate connects strategy to execution, mentors teams, and thrives in ambiguity. Aviation data experience is preferred but not required for a technically strong leader focused on systems

Qualifications

• 13+ years of software engineering, data engineering, platform engineering, or architecture experience.
• Experience leading cross-functional technical initiatives.
• AI-forward mindset with practical AI applications in engineering, data quality, automation, or analytics.

Responsibilities

• Define and drive technical strategy across global data platforms and data delivery.
• Partner with Engineering, Product, Data Production, Architecture, Security and Operations to align roadmap and delivery.
• Lead technical reviews to ensure scalable, secure, and maintainable solutions.
• Identify opportunities to apply AI, automation, ML, and intelligent QA across Global Data.
• Modernize legacy systems and data pipelines while maintaining reliability for aviation data.
• Establish standards, patterns, and practices to improve quality and speed.
• Improve data quality, lineage, observability, and operational excellence.
• Create technical narratives and tradeoff analyses for major initiatives.
• Mentor engineers, architects, and technical leads.

Skills

Software engineering

Data engineering

Architecture

Cross-functional leadership

AI-forward

Communication

Data governance

Cloud-native

Builder mindset

Systems thinking

Job description

We are looking for a Principal Engineer, Global Data to serve as a senior technical leader for our Global Data organization. This role partners directly with Global Data leadership to shape technical strategy, improve execution, raise engineering quality, and accelerate the modernization of our data platforms, pipelines, products, and operating model.

This is a high-leverage technical leadership role for an experienced individual contributor who can connect strategy to execution, drive cross-functional alignment, identify technical risks, and help teams move faster with clarity. The ideal candidate is AI-forward, deeply technical, operationally sharp, and comfortable working across ambiguity. They understand data-intensive systems, software engineering, architecture, automation, and product delivery. Aviation data experience is strongly preferred, but not required for an exceptional technical leader with strong systems thinking and a builder mindset.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and drive technical strategy across global data platforms, data production systems, data quality, data governance, and data delivery.
• Partner with Engineering, Product, Data Production, Architecture, Security, Operations, and Customer Success to align roadmap, architecture, and delivery.
• Lead technical reviews for major initiatives, ensuring solutions are scalable, resilient, secure, maintainable, and aligned with long-term platform direction.
• Identify opportunities to apply AI, automation, machine learning, intelligent QA, data validation, workflow orchestration, and developer productivity tools across the Global Data organization.
• Help modernize legacy systems, processes, and data pipelines while maintaining the reliability and trust required for aviation data.
• Establish technical standards, architecture patterns, engineering practices, and decision frameworks that improve quality and speed.
• Drive improvements in data quality, lineage, observability, reliability, validation, and operational excellence.
• Create clear technical narratives, decision documents, and tradeoff analyses for major initiatives.
• Mentor engineers, architects, and technical leads across the organization.

Basic Qualifications

• 13+ years of software engineering, data engineering, platform engineering, or architecture
• Experience operating as a senior technical leader across complex, distributed, data-intensive systems.
• Strong architecture judgment across data platforms, APIs, pipelines, cloud infrastructure, distributed systems, integration patterns, and operational tooling.
• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional technical initiatives without relying solely on formal authority.
• AI-forward mindset with practical experience or strong fluency in applying AI to engineering, data quality, automation, analytics, knowledge workflows, developer productivity, or intelligent products.
• Strong ability to simplify complex technical issues into clear decisions and priorities for engineering teams.
• Strong understanding of data governance, data quality, data lineage, metadata, validation, and lifecycle management.
• Ability to work across legacy systems and modern cloud-native architectures.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills; able to engage deeply with engineers and clearly across the organization.
• Builder mindset: willing to prototype, inspect systems directly, ask sharp questions, and turn ambiguity into forward motion.
• High judgment, low ego, and strong bias for practical outcomes.

Preferred Qualifications

• Aviation, aerospace, navigation, geospatial, mapping, logistics, transportation, defense, or safety-critical software experience.
• Experience with aeronautical data, airport mapping, charts, routing, flight planning, weather, or operational aviation systems.
• Technical leadership experience
• Experience with AI-enabled data validation, anomaly detection, semantic search, RAG, agentic workflows, model evaluation, or human-in-the-loop review systems.
• Experience leading technical modernization in a private-equity-backed, high-growth, or transformation-oriented environment.
• Experience with regulatory, compliance-sensitive, or mission-critical data products.
• Experience with cloud platforms, data lake/lakehouse architectures, event-driven systems, APIs, geospatial data systems, and modern data observability tools.
• Pilot or aviation enthusiast.

About Jeppesen ForeFlight

Jeppesen ForeFlight is a leading provider of innovative aviation software solutions, serving the Commercial, Business, Military, and General Aviation sectors globally. Combining Jeppesen’s 90-year legacy of accurate aeronautical data with ForeFlight’s expertise in cutting-edge aviation technology, the company delivers an integrated suite of tools designed to enhance safety, improve operational efficiency, and sharpen decision-making.

Why You Should Join

At Jeppesen ForeFlight, we know you want a rewarding career. To do that, you need challenging projects, a good work environment, and awesome coworkers. We believe in our employees, and we empower them to make a direct impact on our products and services messaging. We strive to provide our team and their loved ones with a world-class benefits experience, focused on supporting their physical, financial, and emotional wellbeing. Our benefits package includes but not limited to the following:

• Medical, dental, vision insurance with employer-paid health premiums
• Open PTO policy
• 401(k) with company matching and immediate vesting
• 12 weeks paid parent leave
• 2 days off to volunteer annually
• Employee Assistance Program
• Flight Training Stipend

Pay is based upon candidate experience and qualifications, as well market and business considerations: Summary Pay Range: $208,000-$255,000 USD.

Jeppesen ForeFlight - EOE including Disability/Vets | Pay Transparency | E-Verify Participant | Equal Opportunity Employer