VP, Data Experience

Merkle Italia; New York (NY); On-site; USD 136,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, vision, and dental insurance

Life insurance

Short-term and long-term disability

401k

Flexible paid time off

15 paid holidays per year

Paid sick and safe leave

Paid parental leave

Job summary

Carat in New York seeks a senior data leader to own the end-to-end data experience for a dedicated client team. You will drive the vision for data solutions, dashboards, and the underlying LT pipelines on a Databricks lakehouse, delivering through Dentsu Connect.

You will guide cross-channel data connections, lead dashboarding with Power BI, automate pipelines, and apply AI/LLM capabilities to data QA and insights. Requires 10+ years in analytics and client-facing leadership.

Qualifications

• 10+ years across analytics, data engineering, and media data with progressive leadership responsibility
• Deep media fluency — how media is planned, bought, and measured and how ad server, DSP, search, social, and site-served data fit together
• Hands-on experience performing crosswalks between media platforms — de-duplicating and connecting data
• Thorough understanding of reach and frequency data — attribution windows and de-duplication across channels
• Thorough understanding of site-served digital direct partners
• Strong Databricks and Spark experience — lakehouse architecture and data modeling for analytics
• Enterprise dashboarding experience (Power BI preferred)
• Track record building and leading data teams, including client-facing delivery at senior client altitude
• A product mindset — roadmaps, iteration, and durable data products

Responsibilities

• Own the end-to-end data experience — data solutions, dashboarding, and the data engineering behind them
• Design and run load-and-transform (LT) pipelines on Databricks
• Lead the dashboard build — Power BI dashboards on governed data products
• Deliver through Dentsu Connect — using Data Refinery and Taxonomy Monitor & Manager
• Own cross-channel data connection — design crosswalks to deduplicate and join data
• Manage ingestion and QA for partner data where standard tracking isn’t available
• Translate media into data models with planning, investment, and analytics teams
• Automate pipelines, orchestration, monitoring, and alerting
• Push AI into the product with LLM capabilities for QA and insights
• Recruit, develop, and lead onshore and offshore engineers and BI developers

Skills

Leadership

Data strategy

AI/ML mindset

Client-facing

Tools

Databricks

Power BI

Data Refinery

Taxonomy Monitor & Manager

Job description

The purpose of this role is to set the strategic direction for the team, taking ownership of the overall vision and outcomes, liaising with other channels to ensure an integrated approach/roadmap. Job Description: You will own data solutions and dashboarding end to end — the data engineering underneath them, the load-and-transform (LT) pipelines that feed them, and the Databricks lakehouse they run on — delivered through Dentsu Connect using our proprietary technologies, including Data Refinery and Taxonomy Monitor & Manager. This is media-fluent, client-facing leadership: you know how media works, how channel data connects, and how to make it trusted. Product-minded, automation-forward, and AI-obsessive is the operating posture - you ship data products, not one-off reports.

Key Responsibilities

• Own the end-to-end data experience — data solutions, dashboarding, and the data engineering behind them — as the single-threaded data leader on a dedicated client team
• Design and run load-and-transform (LT) pipelines on Databricks that land media data into a normalized, analysis-ready structure — retiring manual pulls and one-off feeds as you go
• Lead the dashboard build — scope, engineer, and ship Power BI dashboards on governed data products using DEx templates, engineered for reuse rather than one-off reporting
• Deliver through Dentsu Connect — putting dentsu's proprietary technologies to work, including Data Refinery for standardized data ingestion and Taxonomy Monitor & Manager for naming governance
• Own cross-channel data connection — design the crosswalks that de-dupe and join media data across platforms, reconciling ad server delivery with DSP activity into a single trusted view
• Manage site-served and digital direct partner data — establish ingestion, mapping, and QA for partner-supplied data where standard ad-server tracking doesn't reach
• Translate media into data models — partner with planning, investment, and analytics teams so the data foundation supports pacing, performance, and effectiveness use cases
• Automate relentlessly — replace recurring manual work with pipelines, orchestration, monitoring, and alerting; treat any repeated manual step as a defect to engineer away
• Push AI into the product — apply LLM and agentic capabilities to data QA, taxonomy compliance, insight generation, and the dashboard experience itself
• Recruit, develop, and lead the team — onshore and offshore engineers and BI developers; set standards, review the work, and grow the talent

Required Qualifications

• 10+ years across analytics, data engineering, and media data with progressive leadership responsibility
• Deep media fluency — how media is planned, bought, and measured, and how ad server, DSP, search, social, and site-served channel data fit together
• Hands-on experience performing crosswalks between media platforms — de-duplicating and connecting data between an ad server and a DSP, and reconciling delivery across sources
• Thorough understanding of reach and frequency data — the complexity of attribution windows, and how unique reach is measured and de-duplicated across channels and partners
• Thorough understanding of site-served digital direct partners and the realities of working with their data
• Strong Databricks and Spark experience — lakehouse architecture, pipeline development, and data modeling for analytics
• Enterprise dashboarding experience (Power BI preferred) — semantic models, governed datasets, and template-driven build
• Track record building and leading data teams, including client-facing delivery at senior client altitude
• A product mindset — roadmaps, iteration, and shipping durable data products rather than deliverables that die in an inbox

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with CPG or FMCG clients or brands
• Experience in media agency or advertising technology environments
• Experience with data sourcing, standardization and taxonomy governance tooling
• Demonstrated AI adoption — LLM-assisted workflows, agentic automation, or AI-powered analytics in real production use
• Experience managing offshore engineering teams
• Knowledge of media data sources (CM360, SA360, Amazon Ads, Meta, TTD, programmatic exchanges)

The annual base salary range for this position is $136,000-$240,000. Placement within the salary range is based on a variety of factors, including relevant experience, knowledge, skills, and other factors permitted by law. Additionally, this position is eligible for discretionary incentive compensation.

Benefits

• Medical, vision, and dental insurance
• Life insurance
• Short-term and long-term disability insurance
• 401k
• Flexible paid time off
• At least 15 paid holidays per year
• Paid sick and safe leave
• Paid parental leave

Dentsu also complies with applicable state and local laws regarding employee leave benefits, including, but not limited to providing time off pursuant to the Colorado Healthy Families and Workplaces Act, in accordance with its plans and policies.

For more information regarding dentsu benefits, please visit www.dentsubenefitsplus.com.

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Our way of working combines flexibility with in-person collaboration to spark ideas and strengthen our teams.

Employees who live within a commutable distance of one of our hub offices, currently located in Chicago, metro Detroit, Los Angeles, and New York City, are required and expected to work from the office three days per week (two days per week for employees based in Los Angeles). Dentsu may designate other Hub offices at any time. Those who live outside a commutable range may be designated as remote, depending on the role and business needs. Regardless of your work location, we expect our employees to be flexible to meet the needs of our Company and clients, which may include attendance in an office.

Location: New York Brand: Carat Time Type: Full time Contract Type: Permanent

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