Senior Director - Data Engineering & Machine Learning

Join Us as Our Next Senior Director of Data Engineering & Machine Learning Remote | Full-Time Lead the Data Revolution at Modus Create At Modus Create, we empower the world's most ambitious companies through thoughtful, modern, data-driven digital solutions. As Senior Director of Data Engineering & Machine Learning, you'll help shape the future by leading inclusive, collaborative teams that architect and scale data platforms, and deliver intelligent AI/ML-powered products. Our work drives transformative outcomes across healthcare, finance, life sciences, automotive, and beyond. We're seeking a strategic, hands-on leader with a passion for mentoring others, who bridges deep technical expertise with business-driven vision—someone who can shape data and ML strategy, guide clients through transformation, and empower a new generation of data leaders. What You'll Do As Senior Director, you'll guide and empower a global, distributed team of Data Engineering and ML practitioners. You'll bring deep data and machine learning experience, a consulting mindset, and a strong commitment to improve both our craft and our client outcomes. This role reports to a VP of Product Engineering Services and works cross-functionally with Growth, Operations, and Partnerships to scale our data capabilities. You'll play a key role in creating a culture where people feel seen, supported, and motivated to do their best work. Build Modern Data Platforms • Design and oversee architecture for cloud-native data platforms, pipelines, and streaming systems on AWS, Azure, or GCP. • Ensure robust solutions using platforms such as Databricks, Snowflake, Redshift, BigQuery, Spark, Kafka, Airflow, dbt, and Kubernetes. Deliver Products that are Intelligent • Define and drive responsible ML strategy, from model development to integration, using platforms like SageMaker, Azure ML, or TensorFlow. • Enable smarter client experiences by embedding ML into applications, automation, and analytics. Lead & Grow Teams • Foster a culture of trust, continuous learning, and experimentation by hiring, mentoring, and empowering distributed teams of data and ML engineers. • Define career paths, feedback frameworks, and learning programs grounded in a culture of experimentation,continuous growth, and a sense of belonging at every level. Shape Technical Strategy & Best Practices • Develop modular runbooks, tooling standards, and engineering frameworks optimizing for scalability, observability, and security. • Champion collaborative practices like Agile/Lean development, dataOps, MLOps, and CI/CD for data pipelines and models. Business Development & Sales Enablement • Partner with Sales, Partnerships, and Account Teams to find and co-create thoughtful, outcome-driven data & ML engagements. • Translate client needs into solution designs, shareable collateral, and winning proposals and estimates that reflect both technical strength and business empathy. • Serve as a technical leader in pitches, RFPs, and client workshops, establishing Modus as a trusted data, AI, and ML advisor, while building client confidence through clarity and consultative engagement. Cross-Functional Collaboration • Work with product, design, platform, and engineering teams on integrated, end-to-end data solutions. • Translate capabilities into human impact by aligning closely with both client technical and business stakeholders. What Sets You Apart • Empathetic Leader: 15+ years in data or software engineering roles, with 7+ years leading Data Engineering/ML teams—ideally at scale or in global consulting contexts. • Technical Depth: Hands-on experience with cloud data platforms, big data toolchains (Spark, Kafka), data transformation tools (Airflow, dbt), and ML platforms. • Business Savvy: Success in pre-sales, solutioning, and growing data/ML engagements within enterprise or mid-market accounts. • Builder and Mentor: Demonstrated ability to create enablement programs, uplift team capabilities, and grow inclusive, high-performing engineering cultures. • Client-Centric: Deep empathy for client pain points and the ability to craft and deliver impactful, measurable solutions. • Communicator & Collaborator: Excellent across technical, executive, and cross-functional settings, with an ability to successfully navigate diverse cultural differences. Founded in 2011, Modus is a global, fully remote team of world-class technologists who thrive in a collaborative, innovative environment. We were fully remote before it was cool! We support organizations on their digital transformation journey through strategic consulting and full lifecycle product development, partnering with industry leaders including Atlassian, GitHub and AWS. Recognized as one of the Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Private Companies for nine years and a top remote work company by FlexJobs, we have helped some of the world's largest brands deliver powerful digital experiences. We combine boutique expertise with enterprise-scale capabilities, help