Director, Data Platform & Lakehouse Strategy

Burtch Works; Des Moines (IA); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Burtch Works in Des Moines, IA, seeks a Director of Data Management to lead the design, delivery, and modernization of the enterprise data platform. This role will migrate from legacy Azure SQL Server to an Azure Databricks Lakehouse, creating a scalable single source of truth for analytics, reporting, and AI/ML across the insurance value chain.

As a senior leader, you will guide onsite and remote data engineering teams, set platform strategy, and ensure cloud-native, reliable data assets while

Qualifications

• 10+ years in data engineering, architecture, or platform leadership.
• At least 5 years in team management.
• Insurance or financial services experience required.
• Expertise with Azure Data Services and modern cloud analytics platforms.
• Experience migrating to Databricks Lakehouse and PySpark.

Responsibilities

• Define and own the enterprise data platform strategy for scalability and cloud optimization.
• Oversee data modernization, including migration to Azure Databricks Lakehouse.
• Lead and mentor data engineers, ensuring technical excellence and delivery accountability.
• Partner with architects to ensure models, pipelines, and designs meet business needs.
• Transform fragmented data ecosystems into a single source of truth for insurance domains.
• Drive CI/CD, DevOps, cost efficiency, and observability in cloud-native data engineering.
• Ensure data availability, scalability, and reliability for analytics and AI/ML.
• Collaborate with analytics and data science teams to enable advanced analytics.
• Manage enterprise data portfolio, investments, and operational outcomes.
• Oversee budget, resourcing, and vendor relationships to scale capabilities.

Skills

Data platform leadership

Team management

Data modeling

ETL/ELT

CI/CD

DevOps

Communication

Stakeholder influence

PHI/PII handling

AI/ML enablement

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS / Analytics / MIS / IT

Tools

Azure Data Services

Azure Databricks Lakehouse

PySpark

Delta Lake

Unity Catalog

Kafka

Event Hub

Azure DevOps

Terraform

GitHub Actions

Job description

Burtch Works in Des Moines, IA, seeks a Director of Data Management to lead the design, delivery, and modernization of the enterprise data platform. This role will migrate from legacy Azure SQL Server to an Azure Databricks Lakehouse, creating a scalable single source of truth for analytics, reporting, and AI/ML across the insurance value chain.

As a senior leader, you will guide onsite and remote data engineering teams, set platform strategy, and ensure cloud-native, reliable data assets while