Senior Director, Data Operations Center (DOC)

Equifax, Inc.; Alpharetta (GA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Equifax, Inc. seeks an experienced Operational Architect and acceleration leader for the Data Operations Center. You will guide a US-based team to scale data observability, implement AI-driven anomaly detection, and deploy automated remediation, ensuring data integrity across consumer and commercial exchanges.

You will bridge operational engineering with real-time vigilance, drive transformational initiatives, and ensure audit-ready compliance in a heavily regulated landscape.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a quantitative field.
• 7+ years of progressive leadership experience in data operations, systems monitoring, or data observability within a regulated or enterprise environment.
• 5+ years directly managing technical or analytical staff (data observability analysts, data engineers).
• Experience leading digital transformation from manual checks to automated, alert-driven, self-healing models.
• Strong familiarity with enterprise data architectures and cloud data warehouses (Snowflake, BigQuery).

Responsibilities

• Architect and scale a Data Operations Center-style control tower with end-to-end data observability.
• Lead and develop a US-based DOC team, fostering adoption of modern observability tools and automation.
• Drive AI integration, anomaly detection, and automated remediation scripts to reduce manual interventions.
• Oversee incident management lifecycle and RCAs, improving MTTD/MTTR.
• Develop Data Quality Scorecards and governance practices to meet regulatory standards.

Skills

Data observability

Leadership

Incident management

SQL

Python

dbt

Automation

AI integration

Education

Bachelor's degree in a quantitative field

Tools

Snowflake

BigQuery

Monte Carlo

Anomalo

Bigeye

Job description

You will be the operational architect and acceleration leader for our Data Operations Center (DOC), taking charge of an already active, tech-enabled control tower that ensures system integrity and data health across our Consumer and Commercial exchanges. While core data contributor teams focus on working in the business, you and your team focus on working on the business—architecting trust, engineering pipeline observability, and scaling automated alerting systems that catch and quarantine defects upstream before they impact downstream products or clients. Directing a team of professionals, you will bridge deep operational engineering with real-time operational vigilance.

This is a high-visibility, transformative leadership role for an operational process innovator. We treat data errors like a security breach, moving beyond manual "firefighting" to a SOC-inspired, AI-enabled control tower powered by advanced anomaly detection, validation gatekeepers, and automated remediation logic. You will step in to propel this transformation forward—scaling key operational metrics (e.g., MTTD, MTTR, Data Uptime), leading a team through ongoing technological evolution, driving furnisher quality advocacy, and maintaining continuous, audit-ready compliance in a heavily regulated landscape.

What You’ll Do

• Architect & Scale Data Observability: Lead the expansion of our SOC-inspired control tower, overseeing continuous monitoring of "data in motion" across key dimensions: accuracy, completeness, timeliness, consistency, distribution shifts, volume, schema, and lineage.
• Lead and Develop DOC Team: Empower, mentor, and direct a US-based team of professionals. Coach your team as they deepen their adoption of modern observability tools (e.g., Anomalo), elevate their analytical agility, and build automated, self-healing pipelines.
• Drive Next-Gen Automation & AI Integration: Partner closely with Technology, Data & Analytics, and AI leaders to build on our existing capabilities—deploying validation gatekeepers, ML-driven anomaly detection, and automated remediation scripts (SQL, Python, dbt) to eliminate manual patching and prevent false-positive alert fatigue.
• Command Incident Management & Root Cause Analysis: Oversee the end-to-end incident management lifecycle for data downtime incidents. Establish rigorous operational reviews to improve Mean Time to Detection (MTTD) and Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR), while reducing escaped defect rates.
• Drive Furnisher Advocacy & Quality Scorecards: Translate technical pipeline insights into business strategy by establishing programmatic "Data Quality Scorecards" to coach data furnishers on ingestion formats, Metro 2® guidelines, and commercial compliance standards.
• Execute with Urgency and Ownership: Drive cross-functional execution of complex observability projects on time against key SLAs and metrics. Proactively eliminate uncertainty, allocate resources effectively, and hold your team accountable for rapid incident resolution and low anomaly recurrence.
• Safeguard Regulatory & Enterprise Integrity: Serve as a trusted steward of data governance, ensuring all monitoring frameworks, quarantine procedures, and system controls adhere strictly to FCRA, Metro 2, and commercial regulatory guidelines.

What Experience You Need

• Bachelor’s degree in Data Science, Data Analytics, Computer/Management Information Systems, Mathematics, Statistics, Engineering, or a related quantitative field.
• 7+ years of progressive leadership experience in data operations, systems monitoring, site reliability/operations center management (DOC/SOC/NOC), data quality engineering, or data observability within a regulated industry.
• 5+ years directly managing technical or analytical staff, with a proven track record of guiding, upskilling, and developing senior individual contributors (e.g., Data Observability Analysts, Data Engineers).
• Proven experience stepping into an ongoing operational or digital transformation—transitioning teams from manual data checking to automated, alert-driven, and self-healing operational models.
• Strong familiarity with enterprise data architectures, cloud data warehouses (Snowflake, BigQuery), pipeline observability platforms (Monte Carlo, Anomalo, Bigeye), and scripting frameworks (SQL, Python, dbt).

What Could Set You Apart

• Direct experience designing or scaling a Data Operations Center (DOC) utilizing ML-driven anomaly detection, automated self-healing logic, or AI agentic workflows.
• Proven success managing external data provider compliance through programmatic Data Quality Scorecards and SLA enforcement.
• Deep domain expertise spanning Consumer and Commercial credit reporting standards (FCRA, Metro 2®).