Sr Director of Data Engineering

Yahoo is seeking a dynamic, hands-on Head of Data to lead their data organization, focusing on strategy, delivery, and operations. The Senior Engineering Director will be responsible for delivering critical data infrastructure that supports the development of Yahoo's world-leading products, working closely with various teams to integrate data and AI capabilities.

Responsibilities:

• Define and drive the Mail data strategy end-to-end, from how raw data is collected until it’s used in user-facing AI features or for internal decision making
• Make critical architecture and systems design decisions, ensure that systems are scalable, maintainable, secure, and performant
• Collaborate with Engineering, Product, and Design to deeply integrate the right data capabilities into teams, ensuring data and AI are core to how we build
• Ensure our data & AI platforms empower the user-facing teams to build valuable product functionality at a high velocity while maintaining effectiveness and correctness
• Represent Data to the executive team, surface key insights, communicate technical tradeoffs, risks, and timelines in terms non-tech stakeholders understand
• Develop and grow talent through effective mentoring, development, coaching, and inspiring with a strong focus on talent management and instilling a data-driven culture that thrives in a fast-paced environment
• Stay current with technology trends/innovations and evaluate/adopt where beneficial, particularly in rapidly evolving areas like modern AI
• Model best practices, processes, and culture to elevate engineering excellence and improve the overall developer experience

Requirements:

• 12+ years of software development experience with a strong track record of delivering complex, high-impact projects
• Comfortable using AI tools and techniques—whether for coding, planning, design, or workflow optimization
• Track record of designing and launching large scale user-facing data or AI driven product capabilities with measurable impact
• Track record of transforming organisational culture to become data driven, including self-service insights and experimentation
• Deep technical expertise in data science, ML, AI as well as relevant engineering aspects such as data and AI platforms
• Proven track record of direct contributions at technical level, even as leader
• Excellent leadership, mentoring, and people-management skills; ability to recruit and retain strong talent
• Strong collaboration, communication, ability to simplify & explain technical issues to executives and cross-functional teams
• Empathy for the day-to-day challenges developers face, and an understanding of the tools and processes that reduce friction and improve well-being
• Comfortable adapting to new technologies and contributing in a fast-moving, team-focused environment