Senior Director of Data Management and Engineering

At Real Chemistry, making the world a healthier place isn’t just an aspiration—it’s our everyday reality. Our drive to transform healthcare is informed by our blend of deep scientific expertise, human-centred creativity, and AI-driven insights, fostering a unique environment where innovation thrives and our people are impact-obsessed. As a global agency, we provide a full suite of services across healthcare communications and marketing to our clients, including top players in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries.

Our #LifeatRealChem culture is rooted in our people—we believe we are best together and are committed to excellence for both our clients and colleagues. Whether you're a seasoned professional or just starting your career, if you share our passion for healthcare and connection, we invite you to explore our opportunities.

Discover your purpose. Embrace innovation. Experience #LifeatRealChem.

We're looking for an experienced and highly skilled Data Management and Engineering Lead to build and lead our AI data infrastructure, strategy, and execution. This role sits in our AI organization and will report to the Chief AI Products and Solutions Officer. You will be responsible for designing, building, and maintaining scalable and robust data pipelines and architectures that support the entire organization's AI related data needs. This is a hands-on technical leadership role where you will not only guide the team but also contribute to the code, set best practices, and collaborate with cross-functional stakeholders to drive data-informed decisions.

Key Responsibilities: 

• Data Architecture & Strategy: Lead the design and implementation of the data architecture especially focusing on unstructured data strategy and metadata curation. Develop and execute a long-term AI data strategy (covering both unstructured and structured data) that aligns with business objectives and supports scalable AI products and solutions.
• Pipeline Development, Automation & Management: Design, build, and optimize scalable data pipelines (ETL/ELT) that efficiently ingest, transform, and load data from various internal and external sources. Ensure data pipelines are reliable, fault-tolerant, and performant.
• Team Leadership & Mentorship: Build and lead a team of data engineers, providing technical guidance, mentorship, and code reviews. Foster a collaborative environment and help your team grow their skills and careers.
• Data Governance & Quality: Establish and enforce best practices for data governance, quality, and integrity. Implement automated data validation and monitoring to ensure high-quality data is available to all users.
• Stakeholder Collaboration: Work closely with data scientists, machine learning engineers, product managers, IT team and business stakeholders to understand their data requirements and translate them into technical solutions. Communicate complex data concepts to non-technical audiences.
• Innovation & Technology: Stay current with emerging data technologies and tools. Research and propose new solutions to improve data infrastructure and processes, driving innovation within the data team.
• Operations & Automation: Manage the operational health of data systems, automate deployments and systems management.

Qualifications & Skills: 

• Education & Experience: 
  • Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Data Engineering, or a related technical field.
  • Minimum of 10+ years of experience in data management and engineering, with at least 2+ years in a leadership or senior role.
• Technical Skills:
  • Expertise in SQL and proficiency in at least one modern programming language such as Python or Scala.
  • Proven experience with data warehousing and big data technologies (e.g., Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift, Databricks).
  • Hands-on experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP) and their data services (e.g., Amazon S3, Azure Data Lake, Google Cloud Storage).
  • Strong knowledge of data modeling, schema design, and ETL/ELT principles.
  • Familiarity with distributed computing frameworks like Apache Spark or Apache Flink.
• Leadership & Soft Skills:
  • Proven ability to lead and mentor a technical team.
  • Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, with the ability to articulate technical concepts to diverse audiences.
  • Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with a keen attention to detail.
  • Experience with project management methodologies like Agile or Scrum.
• Preferred Qualifications
  • Experience with streaming data technologies like Apache Kafka or Kinesis.
  • Experience with CI/CD pipelines for data applications.
  • Experience with DataBricks is desirable but not essential.
  • Relevant professional certifications (e.g., AWS Certified Data Analytics, Google Cloud Certified Professional Data Engineer).
  • Experience in marketing, commercial and sales functions in biotech, pharma or healthcare domain is highly desired.
  • Experience with agency/consulting companies is highly desired

Pay Range: $220,000 - $240,000 

This is the pay range the Company believes it will pay for this position at the time of this posting.  Consistent with applicable law, compensation will be determined based on job-related, non-discriminatory factors including but not limited to work experience, skills, certifications, and geographical location. The Company reserves the right to modify this pay range at any time. 

Real Chemistry is proud to be Great Place to Work® certified; check out what our people shared about our culture and workplace on our Great Places to Work Profile here.

We believe we can do our best when feeling our best, which is why we’ve put together a benefits program designed to give you the support you and your family need at every stage of life. Real Chemistry offers a comprehensive benefit program and perks, tailored to your region. Globally, this includes offices in our key markets with free snacks to keep you running all day long, generous holiday and paid time off, options for private medical, dental, and vison plans, and support in saving for the future. Other perks include mental wellness coaching and support and access to more than 13,000 online classes with LinkedIn Learning.  Learn more about our great benefits and perks and search specific offerings in your region at: www.realchemistrybenefits.com.

Working with Real HART: Since the pandemic, we have adapted to how our people told us they want to work. We have office locations in cities in the US, UK, and Europe with many employees and clients that serve as hubs where and when they need us. For employees who are within an hour of one of our offices, we expect attendance in the office two days per week, either at a Real Chemistry office or onsite with clients. We are also actively opening new office locations, so if one opens near you, our Real HART policy will apply. We are not looking for attendance for the sake of attendance but believe that the opportunity to coordinate in-office team meetings, 1:1 meetings with managers, taking advantage of on-site learning, and connecting with client partners is a critical to delivering on our purpose of making healthcare what it should be. Outside of these offices, we have regions, where people work remotely but come together quarterly for collaboration, culture and learning opportunities. We call this our Real Hybrid and Regional Teams (Real HART) approach. Real Chemistry believes we are best together – and our workplace strategy fosters connection and collaboration in person – but also supports flexibility for our people.

Real Chemistry is an Equal Opportunity employer. We continually strive to build and sustain an inclusive and equitable work environment where our employees feel empowered to leverage all they bring from their personal lived experience and professional expertise, to make our team the best in the industry. We encourage motivated and qualified applicants to apply without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, ethnic or national origin, age, physical or mental disability, genetic information, marital information, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local employment discrimination laws where Real Chemistry operates. Should you require accommodations throughout the interview process please let your recruiter know.

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