Data Platform Lead (Banking)

ITTConnect; Miami (FL); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

ITTConnect is seeking a Data Intelligence Platform Lead for a direct-hire, full-time role in a hybrid setting in Miami. The candidate will lead a 10-person team to modernize the bank's data platform from on-prem to a cloud-native stack on AWS, Databricks, and PySpark, aligning architecture, governance, and AI initiatives.

The role requires strong hands-on leadership across data governance, data quality, and platform operations while coordinating with security, compliance, and business

Qualifications

• 15+ years of IT experience.
• Experience leading data platform, data engineering, analytics engineering, or data architecture in complex environments.
• Hands-on with Databricks, AWS data services, SQL Server, Airflow, dbt, data ingestion patterns, orchestration, monitoring, and platform operations.
• Ability to translate governance, quality, metadata, lineage, access control, and observability into engineering standards.
• Experience migrating or modernizing from on-prem to cloud-based architectures.

Responsibilities

• Lead cloud data platform development and migration on AWS and Databricks.
• Define target-state ingestion, orchestration, processing, monitoring, security, and lifecycle for Databricks ecosystem.
• Oversee migration of on-prem data pipelines to governed, scalable data products.
• Coordinate DataSecOps practices for end-to-end monitoring and reliability.
• Drive AI governance, risk management, and identification of value-added AI initiatives.

Skills

Data platform leadership

Data engineering

Analytics engineering

Regulatory/compliance awareness

Cross-functional collaboration

Cloud migration strategy

Tools

Databricks

AWS

SQL Server

Airflow

dbt

Unity Catalog

CI/CD pipelines

Job description

ITTConnect is seeking a Data Intelligence Platform Lead for a direct-hire full time position with a client that is a large financial institution. Position is hybrid in Miami. Our client is at a strategic moment in our data platform transformation, migrating from an on premise environment to a modern cloud native stack based on AWS, Databricks, and PySpark. They are seeking a hands-on, business-oriented data platform leader to lead a 10 people team in order to manage the bank's end-to-end data intelligence platform. The successful candidate will coordinate the modernization of the current on-premises data environment while leading the design and implementation of a governed cloud data platform on Databricks and AWS. This is a strategic role for a professional who can connect architecture, governance, delivery execution, data quality, security, and AI adoption into a coherent enterprise data capability.

Key Responsibilities:

• Cloud Data Platform and Migration
  • Coordinate the structuring of the Databricks environment on AWS, including development pipelines, operational controls, governance parameters, data quality monitoring, alerting, and platform observability.
  • Define and align target-state solutions for ingestion, orchestration, processing, monitoring, security, and lifecycle management in the Databricks ecosystem.
  • Lead the migration of on-premises data pipelines to Databricks, ensuring they are rebuilt as reusable, scalable, governed, and well-documented data products.
  • Partner with technology, security, infrastructure, compliance, and business stakeholders to ensure the cloud platform meets banking-grade operational, regulatory, and information security expectations.
• Data Products, Governance, and Quality
  • Coordinate the definition, documentation, and dissemination of the data product concept across the Data team and the broader bank.
  • Establish the required governance, ownership, metadata, lineage, access, quality, monitoring, and lifecycle dimensions for data products.
  • Review and strengthen governance practices in the current data warehouse environment, including data access workflows, pipeline development standards, orchestration processes, and data domain definitions.
  • Define and document data quality dimensions, implement automated quality tests, and build end-to-end monitoring and alerting for critical data flows.
• On-Premises Platform Modernization
  • Coordinate DataSecOps practices to establish end-to-end monitoring and alerting across infrastructure, development environments, orchestration layers, and data pipelines.
  • Lead the inventory, technical assessment, rationalization, and recommendation process for SQL Server environments, including whether to migrate, retain, consolidate, modernize, or decommission each server.
  • Drive improvements in operational reliability, documentation, development standards, and production support for the current SQL Server, Airflow, and dbt environment.
• AI Enablement and Governance
  • Coordinate the establishment of AI governance practices, including principles, controls, accountability, observability, and risk management considerations.
  • Identify, prioritize, and coordinate AI initiatives that generate measurable business value on top of both the current on-premises environment and the future cloud data platform.
  • Support experimentation and delivery of AI-based use cases in collaboration with business, data, technology, compliance, and risk stakeholders.

Requirements

• 15+ years of experience in IT.
• Strong experience leading data platform, data engineering, analytics engineering, or data architecture initiatives in complex enterprise environments.
• Practical understanding of Databricks, AWS data services, SQL Server, Airflow, dbt, data ingestion patterns, orchestration, monitoring, and platform operations.
• Demonstrated ability to translate data governance, data quality, metadata, lineage, access control, and observability requirements into practical engineering standards.
• Experience coordinating platform migrations or modernization initiatives from legacy or on-premises environments to cloud-based architectures.
• Experience with Databricks Lakehouse architecture, Unity Catalog, data quality frameworks, CI/CD pipelines, and cloud-native monitoring practices.
• Experience with AWS services commonly used in data platforms, such as S3, IAM, networking, security controls, monitoring, and infrastructure automation.
• Familiarity with regulatory, security, and audit expectations in banking or financial services.
• Highly desirable fluency in Portuguese and/or Spanish.