Senior Director, Data Architecture & Engineering

The Coca-Cola Company; Atlanta (GA); On-site; USD 202,000 - 229,000; Full time

Job summary

The Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta, GA seeks a Senior Director, Data Architecture & Engineering to define and execute a modern data platform strategy across NAOU. You will lead the design and evolution of data lakes, lakehouses, warehouses, and AI-enabled analytics to deliver trusted insights.

This role requires a visionary yet hands-on leader who can build high-performing teams, promote MLOps, and collaborate with Global Data and business stakeholders to accelerate growth and self-service

Qualifications

• 12+ years engineering leadership experience.
• 8+ years in data processing and Spark
• Strong communication skills bridging business and technology.
• Experience leading large-scale data projects and mentoring senior staff.
• Cloud analytics architectures and data platform delivery.

Responsibilities

• Lead strategic technical leadership across Data Lake, Lakehouse, Data Warehouse, AI/ML, and self-service analytics platforms.
• Mentor data engineering leads and professionals, fostering learning and career progression.
• Promote software engineering best practices with modular design, testing, and CI/CD adoption.
• Architect reusable data engineering frameworks and internal libraries across Medallion architectures.
• Tune Spark workloads, optimize memory/partitioning, and optimize batch/streaming pipelines.
• Partner with cloud and Fabric teams to balance performance with cost efficiency.

Skills

Engineering Leadership

Stakeholder Engagement

Delivery Leadership

Agile Development

Data Architecture

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/Engineering/Data Science

Advanced degree preferred

Tools

Microsoft Fabric

Azure Data Services

OneLake

Synapse

Databricks

Spark

Power BI

Job description

At The Coca-Cola Company, data is a strategic asset that powers personalized experiences, accelerates decision-making, and enables sustainable growth in a digital-first world. As part of the North America Operating Unit (NAOU) Digital & Data organization, the Data Analytics & Engineering team is responsible for delivering scalable data, analytics, and AI capabilities that empower the business with trusted insights and intelligent decision support.

The Senior Director, Data Architecture & Engineering serves as a key technology leader responsible for defining and executing the NAOU data architecture, engineering, and AI-enabled data platform strategy. This role leads the design and evolution of modern data ecosystems, ensuring scalable, secure, governed, and high-performing data foundations that support advanced analytics, artificial intelligence, and enterprise reporting capabilities.

Working closely with the Global Data organization, Data Solution Owners, Data & Insights teams, enterprise architects, and business stakeholders, this leader aligns NAOU priorities with enterprise standards while driving innovation, modernization, and operational excellence across the data landscape. The role requires a strong balance of strategic vision and technical depth, with accountability for translating complex business needs into scalable data products, platforms, and architecture roadmaps that deliver measurable business value.

The ideal candidate is a visionary yet hands‑on leader who champions modern engineering practices, data product thinking, AI‑first capabilities, and platform enablement. They will cultivate high‑performing teams, foster a culture of innovation and continuous improvement, and ensure data investments accelerate growth, enhance productivity, enable self‑service analytics, and strengthen Coca-Cola's digital capabilities across North America

Core Responsibilities

• Provide Strategic Technical Leadership: Champion modern data engineering principles and a systems‑thinking approach across multiple teams, ensuring architectural integrity and alignment with Coca-Cola's Enterprise Data Engineering strategy. Lead modernization initiatives across Data Lake, Lakehouse, Data Warehouse, AI/ML, and self‑service analytics platforms.
• Develop and Inspire High‑Performing Teams: Lead and mentor a diverse team of data engineering leads and professionals, building capabilities in advanced data architectures, fostering a culture of learning, and supporting career progression.
• Drive Engineering Excellence: Promote software engineering best practices by advancing modular design, functional programming standards, and continuous testing across all data pipelines, products, and platform solutions. Drive adoption of Microsoft Fabric, OneLake, Azure Data Services, Power BI, AI, and machine learning capabilities.
• Architect Reusable Frameworks and Libraries: Drive the design and development of extensible, shared data engineering frameworks and internal libraries. Standardize pipeline creation, accelerate the delivery of robust data products, and minimize code duplication across Medallion architectures and distributed workloads.
• Enhance Performance and Optimization: Apply advanced techniques for Spark workload tuning, addressing memory, partitioning, and query planning to deploy efficient, large‑scale batch and streaming data engineering processes.
• Enable Platform Resiliency and Cost Efficiency: Partner with cloud and Fabric service teams to optimize data infrastructure workloads at scale, balancing operational performance with fiscal stewardship while supporting Coca-Cola's digital transformation objectives.

Required Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, Engineering, Data Science, or a related field; advanced degree preferred.
• Engineering Leadership (12+ years): Proven experience managing, mentoring, and scaling software or data engineering teams, with a strong track record of leading complex data projects and developing senior engineering staff.
• Stakeholder Engagement: Strong communication skills, partnering effectively across business, technology, and product teams to deliver scalable data solutions aligned to enterprise objectives.
• Software Engineering (8+ years): Experience leading managers, architects, and engineering teams in large‑scale enterprise environments.
• Data Processing & Spark Expertise (8+ years): Deep, hands‑on experience building, debugging, and optimizing distributed computing applications and large‑scale data pipelines using Apache Spark. Deep understanding of Data Lake, Lakehouse, Data Warehouse, Data Mesh, Data Products, and modern cloud analytics architectures.
• DevOps & CI/CD: Proven ability to build automated release cycles. Hands‑on expertise with Git, GitHub Actions, and other DevOps tools is preferred.
• Delivery: Experience in Agile development (Scrum, lean techniques) and collaborating with global engineering teams.
• Strong expertise with Microsoft Fabric, Azure Data Services, OneLake, Synapse, Databricks, Spark ecosystems, and Power BI.

Preferred Qualifications

• Proven success establishing enterprise DataOps, MLOps, DevOps, and governance frameworks.
• Experience working in a global enterprise environment and managing strategic vendor partnerships.
• Background in platform cost governance and workload performance modeling at enterprise scale.

The Coca-Cola Company will not offer sponsorship for employment status (including, but not limited to, H1-B visa status and other employment‑based nonimmigrant visas) for this position. Accordingly, all applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full‑time basis and must not require The Coca-Cola Company's sponsorship to continue to work legally in the United States.

Big Data Architecture, Data Architecture Development, Data Designing, Data Lakehouse Architecture, Data Warehouse Architecture, Microsoft Data Architecture

Pay Range

United States of America: 202,000 USD - 229,000 USD

Base pay offered may vary depending on geography, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. A full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits, dependent on the position, is offered.

Annual Incentive Reference Value Percentage

30

Annual Incentive reference value is a market‑based competitive value for your role. It falls in the middle of the range for your role, indicating performance at target.

Location(s)

United States of America

City/Cities

Atlanta

Travel Required

00% - 25%

Relocation Provided

No

Job Posting End Date

August 28, 2026

Our Purpose And Growth Culture

We are taking deliberate action to nurture an inclusive culture that is grounded in our company purpose, to refresh the world and make a difference. We act with a growth mindset, take an expansive approach to what's possible and believe in continuous learning to improve our business and ourselves. We focus on four key behaviors – curious, empowered, inclusive and agile – and value how we work as much as what we achieve. We believe that our culture is one of the reasons our company continues to thrive after 130+ years. Visit Our Purpose and Vision to learn more about these behaviors and how you can bring them to life in your next role at Coca‑Cola.

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and do not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, sex, age, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, status as a veteran, and basis of disability or any other federal, state or local protected class. When we collect your personal information as part of a job application or offer of employment, we do so in accordance with industry standards and best practices and in compliance with applicable privacy laws.

Pay Range:United States of America: 0 USD - 0 USD

Base pay offered may vary depending on geography, job‑related knowledge, skills, and experience. A full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits, dependent on the position, is offered.

Annual Incentive Reference Value Percentage:30

Annual Incentive reference value is a market‑based competitive value for your role. It falls in the middle of the range for your role, indicating performance at target.

Long‑term Incentive Reference Value Percentage:0 - 20

Long‑term Incentive reference value is a market‑based competitive value for your role