Director, ZDC Operations

Zelis; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 153,000 - 194,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401k with employer match

Health benefits package

Paid time off

Job summary

Zelis, a leader in healthcare financial technology, seeks a Director of ZDC Operations to own the run-state of the Data Cloud foundation. You will lead a distributed team across L1-L3, drive data SLAs, and ensure reliable pipelines and AI workloads run on Snowflake with robust observability.

You will build a Data Reliability Engineering function, establish runbooks, and partner across Data Platforms to optimize delivery, performance, and security.

Qualifications

• 10+ years in data engineering / data operations.
• 4+ years leading teams (distributed onshore/offshore).
• Deep operational experience with Snowflake (AWS) in production.
• Strong orchestration background and modern DataOps practices.
• Experience in Agile / Scrum and Jira/Confluence.

Responsibilities

• Establish and lead a DataOps Center of Excellence (CoE) with onshore/offshore support.
• Own end-to-end run-state health for data pipelines and define data SLAs/SLOs.
• Drive availability via orchestration, scheduling, and recovery strategies.
• Implement data quality checks and data contracts (dbt tests, Great Expectations, Soda).
• Build and lead the Data Reliability Engineering (DRE) function and runbooks.
• Coordinate on-call, incident management, and DBA activities across Snowflake.

Skills

Data engineering

Data operations

Snowflake

Airflow

dbt

SRE

Data warehousing

Leadership

Agile/Scrum

Jira/Confluence

Education

Bachelor's in CS/IS

Tools

Snowflake

Airflow

dbt

Soda/Great Expectations

Job description

At Zelis, we Get Stuff Done. So, let’s get to it! A Little About Us Zelis is modernizing the healthcare financial experience across payers, providers, and healthcare consumers. We serve more than 750 payers, including the top five national health plans, regional health plans, TPAs and millions of healthcare providers and consumers across our platform of solutions. Zelis sees across the system to identify, optimize, and solve problems holistically with technology built by healthcare experts – driving real, measurable results for clients. At Zelis, AI is woven into the fabric of how we work. Every associate is expected - and empowered - to partner with AI to challenge the status quo, accelerate innovation, and amplify their impact. This is a place for builders with a growth mindset who act with agility, embrace change, and use modern technology to shape smarter solutions, exceptional experiences, and the future of our industry for our clients, customers, and our culture.

A Little About You You bring a unique blend of personality and professional expertise to your work, inspiring others with your passion and dedication. Your career is a testament to your diverse experiences, community involvement, and the valuable lessons you've learned along the way. You are more than just your resume; you are a reflection of your achievements, the knowledge you've gained, and the personal interests that shape who you are.

Position Overview

Zelis is becoming an AI‑Native company, and the Zelis Data Cloud (ZDC) is the data foundation that our analytics, AI, and agentic engineering are built on. The Director, ZDC Operations owns the run‑state of that foundation: the reliability, monitoring, and operational quality of every production data pipeline across the Snowflake platform. This leader establishes a best‑in‑class data operations function on a Center of Excellence (CoE) model – driving efficiencies and economies of scale, reliability, reusability, and repeatability while reducing duplication of technology and process and enabling automation. The role builds and runs the DataOps / Data Reliability Engineering (DRE) practice and assist in moving L1 to Global Operations Center (GOC) so that data products, dashboards, and downstream AI workloads run predictably and within SLA. This is a hands‑on leadership role — accountable for operational outcomes, not just coordination — leading a distributed onshore/offshore team across L1/L2/L3 support tiers.

What You’ll Do:

Operating model & Center of Excellence — establish a data operations CoE with a distributed onshore/offshore, tiered (L1/L2/L3) support structure; drive efficiencies and economies of scale, reduce duplication of tooling and process, and enable automation (including RPA) across the data lifecycle.

Production pipeline operations & SLA management — own end‑to‑end run‑state health for all ZDC data pipelines; define, measure, and hold to data SLAs/SLOs and reliability KPIs (freshness SLO attainment, MTTD, MTTR, change‑failure rate).

Orchestration & run‑time reliability — job orchestration, scheduling, dependency management, and recovery; drive down failed‑run rates and mean‑time‑to‑recovery.

Operational data quality & incident triage — operational data‑quality checks and testing frameworks (dbt tests, Great Expectations / Soda), data contracts and schema‑change management, freshness/latency monitoring, anomaly detection, and a disciplined incident‑triage and root‑cause process.

Build & lead the Data Reliability Engineering (DRE) function — hire, mentor, and set standards for a DRE practice that applies SRE discipline (error budgets, runbooks, blameless postmortems) to data.

Run‑state support, on‑call & DBA coordination — own the on‑call rotation, escalation, and incident‑management tooling (PagerDuty / Jira); coordinate Snowflake / DBA support for run‑state issues.

GOC enablement — build the runbooks, monitoring dashboards, alerting, and escalation paths that enable the Global Operations Center (GOC) to take on L1 support for ZDC around the clock.

Data observability — deploy and operate the team's data‑observability tooling for pipeline lineage, freshness, and incident detection.

Snowflake administration leadership — lead the Snowflake administration function, ensuring platform administration, RBAC, and PHI/DLP guardrails are maintained day‑to‑day; partner with the Data Platforms & Tooling team on standards and reference architecture.

Operational metrics, process & transparency — provide visibility into operational health through operational dashboards and KPIs; establish process and documentation templates and drive adherence; track and report work through Jira / Confluence.

Cross‑team partnership — partner with Data Platforms & Tooling on CI/CD and environment stability, and with Data Enablement on clean pipeline handoffs from build to run.

Cost, capacity & compliance stewardship — steward Snowflake compute / warehouse consumption from an operational‑reliability lens; ensure adherence to Zelis privacy and data‑handling standards.

What You’ll Bring to Zelis:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field — or equivalent experience; Master's preferred.
• 10+ years in data engineering / data operations, including 4+ years leading teams (ideally distributed onshore/offshore).
• Deep operational experience running Snowflake (on AWS) in production at scale.
• Strong orchestration background (Airflow, dbt, Snowflake Tasks/Streams, or equivalent) and modern DataOps / SRE practices — monitoring, alerting, incident management, on‑call.
• Solid foundation in data warehousing, data modeling, and BI & analytics concepts.
• Track record standing up reliability practices (SLAs/SLOs, runbooks, postmortems) and measurably improving pipeline reliability.
• Working knowledge of Agile / Scrum and operational tracking with Jira / Confluence.
• Excellent incident‑command and stakeholder‑communication skills under pressure.

Preferred qualifications

• Experience establishing an operations Center of Excellence and a distributed onshore/offshore, L1/L2/L3 support model.
• Experience with a data‑observability platform (e.g., Pantomath, Monte Carlo, or similar).
• Familiarity with data‑quality / testing frameworks (dbt tests, Great Expectations, Soda) and data‑contract practices.
• Experience driving automation (including RPA) across data operations.
• Healthcare data experience and working knowledge of HIPAA / PHI handling and controls.
• Familiarity with medallion architecture (Bronze/Silver/Gold), dbt, and OpenFlow‑style ingestion.
• Exposure to ModelOps / MLOps for production AI/ML workloads.

Leadership competencies

• Aligning performance for success — coach and develop the team; set goals and work plans and give timely feedback.
• Strategic thinking — formulate operational strategy aligned to business priorities; anticipate risks and opportunities with a long‑term view.
• Delivers results — set high goals, convey a sense of urgency, and drive issues to closure.
• Decision making — identify issues, gather and interpret information, weigh options, and commit to action.
• Planning & organizing — establish courses of action for self and others; prioritize and marshal resources in a fast‑changing environment.
• Facilitating & supporting change — champion innovative approaches and drive adoption of change across the team.
• Interpersonal skills & collaboration — build networks and alliances across functions and find common ground with a wide range of stakeholders.
• Communication — clear written and verbal communication with strong presentation skills for both technical and business audiences.
• Ethical conduct — instill trust; uphold high standards of ethics and corporate responsibility.

Location and Workplace Flexibility

Zelis is headquartered in the U.S., with multiple locations across the country and in Hyderabad, India. Check out our locations to learn more about our offices. All employee work locations are based on the needs of the position and are determined by the Leadership team. In‑office work and activities vary based on work and team objectives in accordance with Company policies. While location expectations vary by role, candidates within approximately 50 miles of a U.S. office are generally preferred to support collaboration when needed. Our hybrid approach is flexible, and in‑office presence is guided by team and business needs rather than a fixed weekly schedule.

Base Salary Range

Base Salary Range $153,000.00 - $193,800.00 At Zelis we are committed to providing fair and equitable compensation packages. The base salary range allows us to make an offer that considers multiple individualized factors, including experience, education, qualifications, as well as job‑related and industry‑related knowledge and skills, etc. Base pay is just one part of our Total Rewards package, which may also include discretionary bonus plans, commissions, or other incentives depending on the role. Zelis’ full‑time associates are eligible for a highly competitive benefits package as well, which demonstrates our commitment to our employees’ health, well‑being, and financial protection. The US‑based benefits include a 401k plan with employer match, flexible paid time off, holidays, parental leaves, life and disability insurance, and health benefits including medical, dental, vision, and prescription drug coverage.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Zelis is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and encourage you to apply even if you don’t meet 100% of the qualifications for the role. We believe in the value of diverse perspectives and experiences and are committed to building an inclusive workplace for all.

Accessibility Support

We are dedicated to ensuring our application process is accessible to all candidates. If you are a qualified individual with a disability or a disabled veteran and require a reasonable accommodation with any part of the application and/or interview process, please email [e-mail].

Disclaimer

The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by people assigned to this classification. They are not to be construed as an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties, and skills required of personnel so classified. All personnel may be required to perform duties outside of their normal responsibilities, duties, and skills from time to time.

Zelis maintains a transparent, fee‑free recruitment process. All genuine offers originate from our Talent Acquisition team using the “@zelis.com” domain. We do not use WhatsApp or personal emails for recruitment. Forward any suspected fraud to verify‑[e-mail] for prompt investigation. Thank you for staying vigilant.