Simple Machines
Data
DirectorDataPlatformEngineering
“Director - Data Platform Engineering at Simple Machines. Skills: Data Platform Engineering, Data Strategy, AI Enablement, Cloud Data Platforms, Data Mesh. Part of the Global Data Practice leadership team. Helping define and evolve Simple Machines’ data platform propositions, technical direction, and strategic positioning”
What You'll Achieve.
Strengthening our technical capability; Helping clients modernise their data ecosystems; Evolve from traditional centralised data platforms toward AI-native, real-time, and data product-oriented operating models; Capability uplift; Practice development; Market positioning; Growth initiatives
Industry & Context.
London-based role with expectation of 2-3 days per week in the office, Occasional travel across Europe, Australia, and New Zealand required
What They're Looking For.
Must Have
10+ years’ experience across data engineering, data platforms, analytics engineering, or data architecture, Proven consultancy and enterprise client-facing experience, pre-sales, proposal development, and solution shaping capability, Demonstrated experience architecting and delivering modern cloud-native data platforms at enterprise scale, experience developing solutions centred around data products and reusable enterprise data capabilities, Deep understanding of data mesh principles, federated governance, and scalable domain-oriented data ownership models, Experience designing platforms and architectures to support AI-native use cases, machine learning systems, agentic workflows, and intelligent software platforms, understanding of real-time and event-driven architectures, including streaming data systems and low-latency processing patterns, Experience building platforms that support governed, discoverable, reusable, and operationalised data products across large organisations, Familiarity with contemporary data stack technologies and modern engineering practices, understanding of platform architecture, distributed data systems, orchestration, governance, and scalable data product design, Experience with technologies and ecosystems such as GCP, AWS, Azure, Databricks, Snowflake, Kafka, Spark, dbt, Kubernetes, Airflow, ML/AI enablement, or similar modern platform tooling, commercial acumen and ability to engage credibly with senior technical and business stakeholders, Experience leading major enterprise initiatives and high-performing engineering teams, Comfortable operating in a fast-moving, high-performance consultancy environment
Nice to Have
Point of view on the future of enterprise data platforms, Point of view on modern data operating models, Point of view on the convergence of data engineering and AI enablement
What You'll Do.
Part of the Global Data Practice leadership team
Helping define and evolve Simple Machines’ data platform propositions
and strategic positioning
Advising enterprise clients on modern data platform strategy
Supporting organisations as they evolve from traditional centralised data platforms toward AI-native
and data product-oriented operating models
Working closely with Engagement Managers and senior leadership across major strategic initiatives
Leading architecture and technical direction for complex enterprise data platform and transformation programs
Acting as a senior technical counterpart across strategic client engagements and partner relationships
technical solution shaping
and executive stakeholder engagement
Building trusted relationships with strategic technology partners and staying current with emerging platform capabilities and market direction
Supporting recruitment
and practice development across the broader engineering organisation
Leading major client initiatives across data engineering
platform modernisation
and operational data systems
Contributing to thought leadership
and growth initiatives across the UK and Europe
How You'll Work.
Team & Collaboration
Working closely with Engagement Managers and senior leadership across major strategic initiatives; Acting as a senior technical counterpart across strategic client engagements and partner relationships; Building trusted relationships with strategic technology partners; Supporting recruitment, mentoring, capability uplift, and practice development across the broader engineering organisation
Communication Scope
Engage credibly with senior technical and business stakeholders; Executive stakeholder engagement
Process & Methodology
Leading architecture and technical direction for complex enterprise data platform and transformation programs, Leading major enterprise initiatives and high-performing engineering teams
Applying for this Director - Data Platform Engineering role?
Most applicants get filtered before a human reads their resume. See if yours makes the cut.
ANONYMOUS · UNFILTERED
What do employees actually say about Simple Machines?
Real rants from real employees. Read before you apply.