Senior Data Platform Architect & AI/ML Lead

RingCentral; Belmont (CA); On-site; USD 185,000 - 225,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision

HSA/FSAs

401K match

Paid time off

Parental & pregnancy leave

Life insurance

Employee assistance program

Commuter benefits

Job summary

RingCentral is seeking a Sr. Manager/Lead Systems & Data Architect to own the architecture and roadmap for a cloud-native, enterprise-scale data platform. You will guide analytics, real-time processing, and AI/ML workloads at scale, while mentoring teams and aligning with senior stakeholders.

This role sits at the intersection of data engineering, cloud infrastructure, analytics, and AI. You will shape platform modernization, governance, and cost efficiency across Snowflake, Databricks, and

Qualifications

• 10+ years in data architecture, data engineering, or platform engineering.
• Deep hands-on with SQL, Spark, and Python; strong distributed processing.
• Experience designing and operating data platforms on AWS, Azure, or GCP.
• Background in data governance, metadata management, lineage, and cataloging.
• Experience with real-time and streaming architectures (Kafka, Kinesis, Pub/Sub) and orchestration tools (Airflow, dbt).
• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional teams and complex migration programs.
• Exceptional communication skills and executive-level presence.

Responsibilities

• Define and own cloud-native, enterprise-scale data architecture.
• Develop a multi-year modernization roadmap for the data platform.
• Lead ingestion, transformation, and serving layers with cross-functional teams.
• Establish data governance, quality, lineage, and access control frameworks.
• Drive DevOps, CI/CD, and Infrastructure as Code practices for data platforms.
• Design data foundations for AI/ML and LLM workloads.
• Mentor senior data engineers and architects.

Skills

SQL

Spark

Python

Distributed data processing

Tools

Snowflake

Databricks

Airflow

dbt

Purview

Collibra

Alation

Kafka

Kinesis

Pub/Sub

Terraform

Job description

Say hello to opportunities.

If you’re looking to be part of what’s next in communication, you’re in the right place.

At RingCentral, we believe the best customer experiences happen when humans and AI work together. Our agentic voice AI portfolio—AIR, AVA, and ACE—brings together automation, assistance, and insights across the entire conversation lifecycle. The result? More seamless, intelligent experiences for businesses everywhere.

With $2.5B+ in ARR and $250M invested in R&D annually, we’re building the future of AI-powered business communications.

We are seeking a Sr. Manager/Lead Systems & Data Architect with deep hands-on technical expertise and strategic vision to design and lead the next generation of our enterprise intelligence data platform. This role will own the architecture, roadmap, and execution of a modern, cloud-native data ecosystem that supports analytics, real-time processing, and advanced AI/ML and LLM workloads at scale.

This is a highly visible, high-impact role that sits at the intersection of data engineering, cloud infrastructure, analytics, and AI. You will serve as the technical authority for data architecture decisions while mentoring teams and influencing senior stakeholders across the organization.

If you thrive in complex modernization initiatives, enjoy solving hard distributed systems problems, and want to shape a platform that will power data-driven and AI-enabled products for years to come, this role is for you.

What You’ll Do

Architecture & Strategy

• Define and own a cloud-native, enterprise-scale data architecture that supports batch, streaming, analytics, and AI/ML workloads.
• Develop and execute a multi-year data platform modernization roadmap, balancing delivery speed, risk, cost efficiency, and business continuity.
• Drive architectural decisions across Snowflake, Databricks, and cloud-native services, ensuring scalability, security, and performance.
  
  
  

Platform & Engineering Leadership

• Partner closely with data engineering, analytics, infrastructure, security, and data science teams to design scalable ingestion, transformation, and serving layers.
• Define standards and best practices for data ingestion, transformation, integration, and data modeling across diverse structured and semi-structured sources.
• Establish robust data governance, quality, lineage, and access control frameworks aligned with enterprise and regulatory needs.
• Optimize performance and cost efficiency across Snowflake and Databricks environments, including workload isolation, query optimization, and storage strategies.
  
  
  

DevOps, Reliability & Security

• Lead the adoption of DevOps, CI/CD, and Infrastructure as Code practices (e.g., Terraform) for data platforms.
• Define patterns for environment management, observability, disaster recovery, and security-by-design.
• Ensure the platform meets enterprise standards for data privacy, compliance, and resilience.
  
  
  

AI / ML & Future Readiness

• Design the data foundation required for advanced analytics, ML, and LLM workloads, including feature stores, vector storage, and real-time data access.
• Stay ahead of emerging trends in AI, ML, and data platforms, translating innovation into practical, production-ready architectures.
• Influence the evolution toward lakehouse, data mesh, and data product–oriented architectures where appropriate.
  
  
  

Leadership & Influence

• Provide technical leadership and mentorship to senior data engineers and architects.
• Act as a trusted advisor to engineering leadership and business stakeholders.
• Clearly communicate complex architectural concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.
  
  
  

Required Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in data architecture, data engineering, or platform engineering roles.
• Deep hands-on expertise with SQL, Spark, and Python, and strong understanding of distributed data processing.
• Strong experience designing and operating data platforms on AWS, Azure, or GCP, including compute, storage, networking, and security.
• Solid background in data governance, metadata management, lineage, and cataloging (e.g., Purview, Collibra, Alation).
• Experience with real-time and streaming architectures (Kafka, Kinesis, Pub/Sub) and orchestration tools (Airflow, dbt).
• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional teams and complex migration programs.
• Exceptional communication skills and executive-level presence.
  
  
  

Nice to Have

• Snowflake, Databricks, or cloud provider certifications (AWS, Azure, GCP).
• Hands-on experience building ML and AI pipelines on Databricks or similar platforms.
• Experience with multi-petabyte-scale data platforms.
• Familiarity with data mesh, lakehouse, and domain-oriented data product concepts.
• Exposure to LLM pipelines, vector databases, or retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) architectures.
  
  
  

What we offer:

• Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, disability, life insurance
• Health Savings Account (HSA), Flexible Spending Account (FSAs) and Commuter benefits
• Voluntary supplemental health coverage and life insurance
• 401K match and ESPP
• Paid time off and paid sick leave
• Paid parental and pregnancy leave
• Family-forming benefits (IVF, Preservation, Adoption etc.)
• Emergency backup care (Child/Adult/Pets)
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP) with counseling sessions available 24/7
• Free legal services that provide legal advice, document creation and estate planning
• Employee bonus referral program
• Student loan refinancing assistance
• Employee 1:1 coaching, perks and discounts program
  
  
  

RingCentral’s Engineering team works on high-complexity projects that set the standard for performance and reliability at massive scale. What kind of scale? Millions of users today and hundreds of millions tomorrow. This is your chance to help imagine, develop and deliver products that raise the technological bar, and power human connections. If you’re a talented, ambitious, creative thinker, RingCentral is the perfect environment to join a world class team and bring your ideas to life. RingCentral’s work culture is the backbone of our success. And don’t just take our word for it: we are recognized as a Best Place to Work by Glassdoor, the Top Work Culture by Comparably and hold local BPTW awards in every major location. Bottom line: We are committed to hiring and retaining great people because we know you power our success.

About RingCentral

RingCentral, Inc. (NYSE: RNG) is a leading provider of business cloud communications and contact center solutions based on its powerful Message Video Phone™(MVP™) global platform. More flexible and cost effective than legacy on-premises PBX and video conferencing systems that it replaces, RingCentral® empowers modern mobile and distributed workforces to communicate, collaborate, and connect via any mode, any device, and any location. RingCentral is headquartered in Belmont, California, and has offices around the world.

RingCentral is an equal opportunity employer that truly values diversity. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities during our application and interview process. If you require such accommodations, please click on the following link to learn more about how we can assist you.

If you are hired in Belmont, California, the compensation range for this position is between $184,600 and $225,000 for full-time employees, in addition to eligibility for variable pay, equity, and benefits. Benefits may include, but are not limited to, health and wellness, 401k, ESPP, vacation, parental leave, and more! The salary may vary depending on your location, skills, and experience.