Senior Director, Data Platform and AI

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in United States.

📋 Description

• Lead the organization-wide AI strategy: transitioning localized AI projects into centralized production systems that deliver measurable business outcomes.

• Take ownership of extensive, impactful AI initiatives with cross-functional implications: shifting our AI application from previous narrow or isolated automation instances to facilitate a comprehensive operational transformation.

• Collaborate with Product, Engineering, and operational leaders to integrate AI capabilities into our customer-facing platform, internal business workflows, and essential processes.

• Act as the primary technical authority for our data and AI infrastructure, making crucial architectural decisions regarding MLOps pipelines, LLM orchestration frameworks, and distributed data systems.

• Supervise the creation of a scalable corporate data platform that acts as the foundational base for all AI and machine learning functionalities.

• Revamp our internal knowledge base by establishing the systematic data architecture required to convert unstructured information into intelligent, searchable, and actionable assets.

• Redesign and enhance our organization-wide data structures and connectivity pipelines to be optimized for the efficient deployment, operation, and maintenance of AI models while reducing costs.

• Establish the company-wide tooling standards, uphold technical quality guidelines, and implement engineering best practices for embedded AI specialists in various business units.

• Provide active support for the execution of essential local solutions developed by decentralized specialists, ensuring they have the necessary tools and centralized platform support to thrive.

• Uphold high ethical standards by ensuring that all global AI initiatives comply with data privacy, platform security, and ethical compliance regulations.

• Educate and empower teams throughout the organization to effectively scale their own AI applications, equipping them with the structural frameworks to safely innovate within their functions.

• Collaborate closely with the People and Operations teams to promote organizational AI capabilities, replacing operational uncertainties with structured technical training that transforms manual specialists into proficient users of automated solutions.

• Lead the change management and literacy initiatives necessary to redefine daily workflows, transitioning company culture and practices from traditional manual processes to AI-assisted operations.

⛳️ Requirements

• A genuine enthusiasm for artificial intelligence that extends beyond mere product feature delivery. You demonstrate a clear interest in and evidence of driving internal organizational transformation, particularly in how AI alters daily employee workflows and behaviors.

• Proven experience in a service-delivery model or a complex operational business environment, where data strategy significantly influences intricate, real-world workflows and a variety of stakeholder ecosystems.

• A strong background primarily in data engineering, distributed systems development, platform services infrastructure, or system architecture, rather than front-end application product design.

• A well-documented technical expertise in distributed data systems, MLOps pipelines, and LLM orchestration. You can adeptly assess complex models and emerging technologies, serving as the definitive technical authority for our infrastructure.

• Demonstrated success in building, testing, and scaling complex asynchronous data structures, machine learning routing layers, or high-volume API integrations within contemporary software platforms.

• The capability to view the organization as a whole. You apply your understanding of how interconnected technical platforms, business processes, and human teams interact, crafting data and AI solutions that enhance entire workflows rather than isolated silos.

• A proven history of facilitating internal adoption of significant technological or workflow changes. You can simplify complex AI frameworks for non-technical teams, guide employees through operational shifts, and effectively transition daily practices from manual tasks to AI-assisted functions.

• Extensive familiarity with model validation systems, technical anomaly logging, data pipeline health metrics, and automated governance frameworks (e.g., custom logging models or open-source pipeline validation stacks).

• BONUS: Experience in architecting semantic search solutions, internal retrieval-augmented generation engine layers, or multi-tenant customer data structures from inception phases.

• A reliable home internet connection and proficiency in both written and spoken English.

🏝️ Benefits

• Work from anywhere: Oyster has no geographical restrictions or central headquarters. As long as your work is timely, your team is supported, and you have authorization to work where you reside, you can work from anywhere.

• Paid time off: Enjoy 40 days off per year (including holidays and vacation), or more as required by your country.

• Mental health support: Access to Plumm, our mental well-being service.

• Wellbeing allowance: Each month, receive a wellbeing allowance in your ThanksBen wallet. You can spend it on a diverse range of options; check the benefits catalogue for ideas.

• Flexible parental leave: All new parents are entitled to at least three months of paid leave, with job protection for up to 12 months or as mandated locally.

• WFH stipend: Receive a stipend for your laptop and home office equipment to facilitate a quick setup.