Data Platform & Strategy Director

Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies; Irvine (CA); On-site; USD 219,000 - 359,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity in RSUs

Health coverage

Retirement savings

Paid time off

Family planning programs

Global benefit programs

Job summary

Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies seeks a Director of Data to own our data strategy and platform as we scale toward software-defined vehicles. This hands-on leader will set technical direction, review designs, and grow a high-performing team for vehicle and enterprise data.

The role is based in Palo Alto, Irvine, or Vancouver, with flexibility to work where you fit best. You’ll drive governance, security, and analytics partnering with engineering, product, and manufacturing teams.

Qualifications

• 8–10 years in data engineering/analytics with 3+ years leading data teams.
• Hands-on depth in large-scale data systems; SQL and Python required; Databricks experience.
• Experience designing scalable data architectures for ingestion, ETL/ELT, streaming, storage.
• Experience hiring, developing, retaining data talent and balancing IC with leadership.

Responsibilities

• Define and drive data strategy and roadmap across telemetry, manufacturing, and enterprise data.
• Own architecture for large-scale data platforms handling streaming and batch data.
• Review designs, diagnose issues, and set technical standards by example.
• Recruit, mentor, and grow a data engineering analytics team.
• Partner with quality, manufacturing, product, and software to support data needs.
• Establish data governance, quality, and security across pipelines.
• Build stakeholder-facing reporting on platform health and data quality.
• Evaluate and integrate Databricks, Spark, Kafka, and cloud data warehouses.
• Manage budget, vendor, and tooling decisions.

Skills

SQL

Python

Databricks

Data architecture

Team leadership

Cross-functional

Data governance

ETL/ELT

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related

Advanced degree a plus

Tools

Spark

Kafka

BI tools (Tableau, Power BI)

Job description

Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies seeks a Director of Data to own our data strategy and platform as we scale toward software-defined vehicles. This hands-on leader will set technical direction, review designs, and grow a high-performing team for vehicle and enterprise data.

The role is based in Palo Alto, Irvine, or Vancouver, with flexibility to work where you fit best. You’ll drive governance, security, and analytics partnering with engineering, product, and manufacturing teams.