VP, Data Platforms

LendingClub; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 240,000 - 270,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental and vision plans

401(k) match

Flexible time off + parental leave

Job summary

Happen Bank is seeking a VP of Data Platforms to own the enterprise data and AI platforms, ensuring secure, scalable analytics and decisioning across Marketing, Lending, Risk, and Compliance. You will lead strategy, architecture, and operations, delivering self‑service tooling and a trusted customer data foundation.

This role requires 13+ years in software engineering, 10+ years leading engineering teams, and strong cloud data platform experience in regulated environments.

Qualifications

• 13+ years of software engineering experience.
• 10+ years leading engineering teams.
• 5+ years leading enterprise data platforms in public cloud.
• Experience building scalable data platforms for analytics and ML.
• Bachelor's degree or higher or equivalent experience.

Responsibilities

• Define strategy, architecture, and roadmap for enterprise data and AI platforms.
• Own the customer data foundation and CDP for trusted data across departments.
• Oversee end-to-end data lifecycle from ingestion to BI/AI consumption.
• Lead modernization balancing priorities, resiliency, and scalability.
• Drive governance, security, and regulatory compliance for data platforms.
• Partner with Product, Analytics, Risk, and business leaders to deliver capabilities.

Skills

Data platform strategy

Cloud data platforms

Data governance

Engineering leadership

AI/ML platform

Stakeholder collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree or higher

Tools

Databricks

dbt

Fivetran

Data catalogs

Observability tooling

Job description

Happen Bank (formerly LendingClub) is built around a simple purpose: to clear the way to help people turn intention into action, and action into financial progress. That means offering focused products, a frictionless mobile-first experience, and clear terms with no gotchas. Respect and fairness is part of our DNA, and that ideal shapes how we work, how we treat each other, and how we invest in our employees and our community. Join us in using data, bold thinking, and a commitment to innovation to help clear the way for millions of Americans to achieve more.

About the Role

The VP, Data Platforms is responsible for the data platform, infrastructure, governance, and engineering services that power every business at Happen Bank — from Marketing, Personal Loans, Deposits, Credit Risk, Fraud, Operations, and Compliance. This leader owns the strategy, architecture, and operation of Happen Bank’s enterprise data and AI platforms, ensuring secure, scalable, and reliable capabilities that power analytics, machine learning, operational decisioning, and business intelligence across the company. Driven by Happen Bank’s mission of improving the financial health of everyday Americans, this role will deliver the platform capabilities, self‑service tooling, and unified customer data foundation that enable teams to make better decisions faster. The VP will be a champion of a company‑wide data‑first culture, a key shaper of responsible AI adoption in a regulated environment, and an engineering leader who transforms data into a durable enterprise asset.

What You’ll Do

• Data Platform Strategy & Architecture
  • Define and execute the strategy, architecture, and roadmap for Happen Bank's enterprise data and AI platforms
  • Own the customer data foundation, including canonical data models and the Customer Data Platform (CDP), enabling a trusted single source of truth across Marketing, Lending, Credit Risk, Fraud, Operations, and Compliance
  • Oversee the end-to-end lifecycle of enterprise data, from source-system ingestion through canonical modeling, certified marts, and BI / AI consumption
  • Lead modernization of the data ecosystem while balancing business priorities, platform resiliency, and long‑term scalability
  • Build platform capabilities that support analytics, operational decisioning, customer experiences, experimentation, and AI-powered products
• AI & Data Enablement
  • Shape Happen Bank's AI strategy from a data platform perspective, including feature stores, model serving, MLOps, and responsible AI adoption in a regulated environment
  • Build self‑service analytics and activation capabilities that enable teams to access trusted data without requiring engineering intervention
  • Partner with Product, Analytics, and business leaders to translate business needs into scalable platform capabilities
  • Enable AI and machine learning teams through robust data, platform, and governance capabilities that accelerate innovation while maintaining compliance and risk standards
• Governance, Reliability & Compliance
  • Establish enterprise standards for data governance, Critical Data Elements (CDEs), metadata, lineage, quality, privacy, and regulatory compliance
  • Lead Data SRE, observability, resiliency, production support, and operational excellence initiatives that ensure secure, reliable, and scalable platform operations
  • Ensure platforms meet security, risk management, and regulatory requirements appropriate for a digital bank
  • Drive data quality, monitoring, and governance programs that support trusted business and regulatory reporting
• Engineering Leadership
  • Lead and develop high‑performing teams across Data Engineering, Platform Engineering, Governance & Enablement, ML Platform, and Production Support
  • Foster a culture of accountability, innovation, operational excellence, and continuous improvement Build organizational capabilities, succession plans, and leadership pipelines that support long‑term growth
  • Attract, coach, mentor, and retain exceptional engineering leaders and individual contributors
• Business & Executive Partnership
  • Partner with executive leadership to align data and AI investments with company strategy and measurable business outcomes
  • Manage strategic vendor relationships, platform investments, and technology spend to ensure efficient delivery and responsible economics
  • Drive a data‑first culture by enabling teams across the organization to make faster, better‑informed decisions
  • Communicate platform strategy, investment priorities, risks, and outcomes to executive leaders, business stakeholders, and regulators

About You

• 13+ years of software engineering experience, including 10+ years leading and developing engineering teams
• 5+ years of experience leading enterprise data platforms, data products, or data engineering organizations in a public cloud environment
• Demonstrated experience building and scaling data platforms that support analytics, machine learning, customer experiences, and operational decision‑making
• Strong understanding of modern data architectures, governance frameworks, observability, metadata management, and AI/ML platforms
• Experience building and operating cloud‑based data ecosystems using technologies such as Databricks, dbt, Fivetran, data catalogs, observability tooling, and modern data governance platforms
• Proven success leading large‑scale platform modernization and cloud transformation initiatives
• Strong knowledge of production operations, reliability engineering, incident management, and platform support models
• Experience partnering with Product, Analytics, Risk, Compliance, and business leaders to deliver enterprise data capabilities
• Strong executive communication skills with the ability to influence business, technology, and regulatory stakeholders
• Demonstrated ability to translate business objectives into platform strategy and measurable outcomes
• Hands‑on familiarity with advanced analytics, machine learning, and data science workflows and the platform requirements they impose
• Experience operating within highly regulated industries such as financial services, healthcare, or similar environments
• Bachelor's degree or higher, or equivalent combination of education and experience

Nice to Have

• Experience working in both high‑growth organizations and large‑scale enterprises
• Understanding of consumer financial products, personal financial management, or regulated marketing environments
• Experience leading enterprise AI enablement initiatives and modern data platform transformations
• Experience supporting highly regulated consumer products and operating within complex compliance and governance frameworks

Work Location

San Francisco. The above locations are eligible offices for this role. The locations have been determined to foster in‑person collaboration with this role’s team or the related business lines. We utilize a hybrid work model, and our teams are in‑office Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. In‑person attendance is essential for this role’s success, and remote placement will not be considered.

Time Zone Requirements

Primarily PT. While the position will primarily work local hours, Happen Bank is headquartered in Pacific Time and our ideal candidate will be flexible working across time zones when necessary.

Travel Requirements

As needed travel to Happen Bank offices and/or other locations, as needed.

Compensation

The target base salary range for this position is 240,000-270,000. The base salary of the role will be determined by job‑related knowledge, experience, education, skills, and location. Base salary is just one part of Happen Bank’s Total Rewards package. You may also be eligible for long‑term awards (equity) and an annual bonus (which is based on company performance, employee performance and eligible earnings). We’re creating new financial services solutions for our members based on fairness, simplicity, and heart, and we treat our employees the same way. We offer a competitive benefits package that includes medical, dental and vision plans for employees and their families, 401(k) match, health and wellness programs, flexible time off policies for salaried employees, up to 16 weeks paid parental leave and more.

• Medical plans for employees and their families
• Dental plans for employees and their families
• Vision plans for employees and their families
• 401(k) match
• Health and wellness programs
• Flexible time off policies for salaried employees
• Up to 16 weeks paid parental leave

Happen Bank is an equal opportunity employer and dedicated to diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace.

We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, reproductive health decisions, or related medical conditions), gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status, political views or activity, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.

We believe that a variety of perspectives will make our teams and business stronger as we work together to transform the traditional banking system.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities in our job application process. If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, please contact us at [e-mail].

Notice on AI Tool Use For select roles and locations, candidate interviews may be recorded, transcribed and summarized by tools such as artificial intelligence (AI) to assist our hiring managers with the application process. You will have the opportunity to opt out of recording, transcription, and summarization prior to any scheduled interviews. We will not discriminate against you if you choose to opt out. During the interview, we will collect the following categories of personal information from or about you: contact information, identifiers, professional and employment-related information, sensory information (audio/video recording), and any other categories of personal information you choose to share with us. We will use this information to evaluate your application for employment. We will only share your interview, transcription, or summary with persons whose expertise or technology is necessary to process your application, evaluate your fitness for a position, and administer or support the tool. We will not sell your personal information or disclose it to any third party for their marketing purposes. For more information about how we will handle your personal information, please refer to our Privacy Disclosure. We will delete any recording of your interview promptly but in no event later than 30 days after making a hiring decision.

Happen Bank (formerly LendingClub) is built around a simple purpose: to clear the way to help people turn intention into action, and action into financial progress. That means offering focused products, a frictionless mobile-first experience, and clear terms with no gotchas. Respect and fairness is part of our DNA, and that ideal shapes how we work, how we treat each other, and how we invest in our employees and our community. Join us in using data, bold thinking, and a commitment to innovation to help clear the way for millions of Americans to achieve more.

To learn more visit us at happen.com

Please review Happen Bank Work-related Privacy Disclosure.