Director, Data Platforms and Tooling

Director, Data Platforms & Tooling

Zelis is becoming an AI-Native company, and the Zelis Data Cloud (ZDC) is the data foundation that our analytics, AI, and agentic engineering stand on. The Director, Data Platforms & Tooling owns that foundation's engineering layer: Snowflake platform engineering and scalability, foundational tooling, CI/CD and DevOps for data, and platform governance and security — including the PHI/DLP guardrails required for healthcare data. This leader sets the reference architecture and standards that the other ZDC teams build against. This is a builder-leader role: accountable for a production-grade, secure, scalable platform — not a coordination seat.

What You'll Do:

• Snowflake platform engineering & scalability — own platform architecture, scalability, and roadmap across data-warehouse, data-lake, and Data Sharing use cases, including open table formats (Apache Iceberg on AWS S3); manage multiple Snowflake accounts (consolidation, migration, modernization); design for resilience (replication, disaster recovery / failover); ensure the platform scales with ingestion volume, AI workloads, and business demand.
• Foundational tooling, CI/CD & DevOps for data — build and own the data DevOps stack: version control, CI/CD for Snowflake / dbt objects, environment automation, infrastructure-as-code, secrets management (Vault / AWS Secrets Manager), and release discipline.
• dbt project administration & standards — own dbt project configuration, model architecture standards, test-coverage enforcement, and model-promotion workflows across environments.
• Platform governance, security & PHI/DLP guardrails — set and enforce governance, security, and data-protection standards (masking, access control, tokenization, encryption, Snowflake Horizon) across environments; partner with Security and Compliance on HIPAA / PHI.
• Reference architecture & standards — define the patterns, standards, and guardrails the other teams adopt — including medallion layering (Bronze/Silver/Gold), semantic views, and ELT/ETL patterns; act as the technical authority for platform decisions.
• Snowflake capability adoption — evaluate emerging Snowflake features (e.g., Cortex AI, Horizon, Data Sharing) and drive adoption to improve performance, scalability, security, and cost.
• Lead & grow the platform team — build and lead the platform engineering, tooling, and release-engineering function; partner closely with the Snowflake administration function on platform standards and reference architecture.
• Enable the AI layer — ready the platform for Cortex AI / Relational AI and agentic workloads (governed access to semantic / ontology layers, safe compute patterns).
• Cost & FinOps stewardship — own platform-level cost governance and consumption efficiency in partnership with Data Operations.

What You'll Bring to Zelis:

• 10+ years in data platform / data engineering, including 4+ years in engineering leadership.
• Deep Snowflake platform architecture experience at enterprise scale, including performance tuning and cost optimization.
• Strong DevOps / CI/CD / IaC background for data platforms (Terraform, dbt, schemachange, Git-based workflows).
• Proven ownership of platform governance and security, ideally including sensitive-data protection.
• Experience setting reference architecture and standards adopted across multiple teams.
• Deep experience running Snowflake on AWS (S3, storage integrations, networking) and familiarity with core AWS services and cloud cost management.

• Healthcare data experience; strong grasp of HIPAA / PHI and DLP in a cloud data platform.
• Experience preparing a platform for AI/ML and agentic (Cortex / Relational AI) workloads.
• Familiarity with OpenFlow ingestion, medallion architecture, ontology / semantic layers, and Sigma.
• Track record building durable platform teams and maturing platform capabilities.
• SnowPro Advanced: Architect certification a plus.

Please note at this time we are unable to proceed with candidates who require visa sponsorship now or in the future.

Location and Workplace Flexibility

Zelis is headquartered in the U.S., with multiple locations across the country and in Hyderabad, India. Check out our locations to learn more about our offices. All employee work locations are based on the needs of the position and are determined by the Leadership team. In-office work and activities vary based on work and team objectives in accordance with Company policies.

While location expectations vary by role, candidates within approximately 50 miles of a U.S. office are generally preferred to support collaboration when needed. Our hybrid approach is flexible, and in-office presence is guided by team and business needs rather than a fixed weekly schedule.

Base Salary Range

$169,000.00 - $213,750.00

At Zelis we are committed to providing fair and equitable compensation packages. The base salary range allows us to make an offer that considers multiple individualized factors, including experience, education, qualifications, as well as job-related and industry-related knowledge and skills, etc. Base pay is just one part of our Total Rewards package, which may also include discretionary bonus plans, commissions, or other incentives depending on the role.

Zelis' full-time associates are eligible for a highly competitive benefits package as well, which demonstrates our commitment to our employees' health, well-being, and financial protection. The US-based benefits include a 401k plan with employer match, flexible paid time off, holidays, parental leaves, life and disability insurance, and health benefits including medical, dental, vision, and prescription drug coverage.

Equal Employment Opportunity Zelis is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and encourage you to apply even if you don't meet 100% of the qualifications for the role. We believe in the value of diverse perspectives and experiences and are committed to building an inclusive workplace for all.

Accessibility Support We are dedicated to ensuring our application process is accessible to all candidates. If you are a qualified individual with a disability or a disabled veteran and require a reasonable accommodation with any part of the application and/or interview process, please email

Disclaimer

The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by people assigned to this classification. They are not to be construed as an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties, and skills required of personnel so classified. All personnel may be required to perform duties outside of their normal responsibilities, duties, and skills from time to time.