Director – Data & AI Engineering

About Ascendion

Ascendion is a full-service digital engineering solutions company. We make and manage software platforms and products that power growth and deliver captivating experiences to consumers and employees. Our engineering, cloud, data, experience design, and talent solution capabilities accelerate transformation and impact for enterprise clients. Headquartered in New Jersey, our workforce of 6,000+ Ascenders delivers solutions from around the globe. Ascendion is built differently to engineer the next.

Ascendion | Engineering to elevate life

We have a culture built on opportunity, inclusion, and a spirit of partnership. Come, change the world with us:

• Build the coolest tech for the world’s leading brands
• Solve complex problems - and learn new skills
• Experience the power of transforming digital engineering for Fortune 500 clients
• Master your craft with leading training programs and hands-on experience

Experience a community of change makers!

Join a culture of high-performing innovators with endless ideas and a passion for tech. Our culture is the fabric of our company, and it is what makes us unique and diverse. The way we share ideas, learning, experiences, successes, and joy allows everyone to be their best at Ascendion.

About the Role

We are seeking a Director – Data & AI Engineering to lead the strategy, architecture, engineering, and delivery of modern data and AI platforms for enterprise customers. This is a senior technology leadership role requiring a strong combination of data engineering, cloud, AI/ML, industry domain expertise, customer engagement, and executive presence. The ideal candidate will have deep experience in at least one of the following industries: Banking/Financial Services, Healthcare, or Retail, along with hands-on leadership experience across modern cloud data platforms such as Snowflake, Databricks, or MS Fabric, and AWS, Azure, or GCP.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and drive enterprise Data, AI, and Analytics strategy, architecture, and transformation roadmaps, leading modernization across data platforms, engineering, analytics, ML/AI, and GenAI.
• Provide hands-on technical and architectural leadership across Snowflake, Databricks, and/or MS Fabric, leveraging AWS, Azure, and/or GCP to build scalable, secure, governed, and high-performing data platforms and Lakehouse architectures.
• Lead enterprise AI and GenAI initiatives from strategy through production, leveraging LLMs, RAG, AI agents, vector databases, ML models, prompt engineering, MLOps, and responsible AI practices to deliver measurable business value.
• Bring deep industry expertise in Banking/Financial Services, Healthcare, or Retail, translating industry-specific data, regulatory, operational, and customer challenges into high-value, ROI-driven data and AI solutions.
• Serve as a trusted executive and customer advisor, leading C-suite discussions, technology strategy sessions, architecture reviews, workshops, and transformation roadmaps while driving alignment across business and technology stakeholders.

Required Qualifications

• 15+ years of overall technology/engineering experience, with significant leadership experience in data and AI.
• Proven experience leading large-scale Data Engineering, AI/ML, Analytics, or Cloud transformation programs.
• Strong experience with at least one modern data platform: Snowflake/Databricks/MS Fabric
• Strong experience with at least one major cloud platform: AWS, MS Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
• Demonstrated expertise in data architecture, data engineering, cloud platforms, analytics, AI/ML, and/or GenAI.
• Strong understanding of modern data architectures including Lakehouse, Data Mesh, streaming/event-driven architectures, data products, and cloud-native platforms.
• Significant experience in at least one domain: Banking / Financial Services/ Healthcare / Life Sciences/Retail / Consumer
• Strong customer-facing experience with the ability to operate effectively with C-suite and executive stakeholders.

Salary and Other Compensation: The annual salary for this position is between $180,000 - $230,000 annually. Factors that may affect pay within this range may include geography/market, skills, education, experience, and other qualifications of the successful candidate.

Benefits: The company offers the following benefits for this position, subject to applicable eligibility requirements: [medical insurance], [dental insurance], [vision insurance], [401(k) retirement plan], [long-term disability insurance], [short-term disability insurance] [5 personal days accrued each calendar year]. The paid time off benefits meet the paid sick and safe time laws that pertain to the city/state. [10-15 days of paid vacation time] [6 paid holidays and 1 floating holiday per calendar year]

Want to change the world? Let us know.

Tell us about your experiences, education, and ambitions. Bring your knowledge, unique viewpoint, and creativity to the table. Let’s talk!