Director, Data Engineering

* Leads the data engineering squad in Data Enablement for AI, setting engineering and modelling standards and building enterprise data products consumed by ML and AI teams. * The role remains hands-on in SQL and Python, owns the datamart and data product roadmap with Product Owners, partners with Data Platforms, Architecture, Data Science and Governance teams, and turns ML outputs into business intelligence. * With a strong focus on Corporate and SME Banking data.

Job Overview:

• Data Engineering Leadership & Strategy: Set data engineering standards, medallion design patterns and delivery practices that enable scalable, reusable data products across Group Digital & AI.
• Hands-on Engineering: Design, build and optimise complex SQL on Amazon Redshift and Microsoft SQL Server (stored procedures, views, materialized views, functions) and Python pipelines on AWS.
• ML & AI Enablement: Deliver feature-ready datasets for ML and AI teams and use model outputs to create business intelligence for Corporate and SME Banking.
• Data Modelling & Architecture Standards: Define dimensional modelling standards (star schema, SCDs) and conformed enterprise models that integrate multiple data sources at enterprise function level.
• Platform Collaboration: Partner with Data Platforms and Architecture teams on AWS services, orchestration and CI/CD to ensure performant, secure and cost-efficient data products.
• Data Quality, Governance & Controls: Embed data quality checks, lineage, access controls and documentation to meet data governance standards and CBUAE regulatory requirements.
• Squad Leadership & People Development: Lead, hire and mentor the data engineering squad, conduct code reviews and drive delivery performance, capability building and agile ways of working.

Required:

• 15+ years of experience in Data Engineering and Data Warehousing.
• Solid industry experience in banking, working with Corporate and SME Banking data.
• Hands-on experience with AWS and Amazon Redshift.
• Proven experience leading a data engineering team or squad.
• Experience delivering medallion-based data products and datamarts for ML and AI consumption.
• Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Technology or related discipline; Master’s Degree preferred.
• AWS Certification (Data Engineer or Solutions Architect) preferred.