Executive Director, Cloud Data Platforms & Engineering

Reinsurance Group of America, Incorporated is a purpose-driven organization working to solve today’s challenges through innovation and collaboration. The Executive Director, Cloud Data Platforms & Engineering is responsible for defining and executing the enterprise strategy for modern, cloud-based data platforms, overseeing the design, delivery, and reliable operation of scalable data platforms that power analytics and data science initiatives.

Responsibilities:

• Build, lead, and develop an established, high-performing, globally distributed platform engineering team, fostering a culture of technical excellence, accountability, and continuous improvement
• Define and execute the enterprise cloud data platform strategy, aligning platform investments with business priorities, data/AI objectives, and long-term technology roadmaps
• Lead the engineering and operations of the full data platform ecosystem — including cloud data warehouses/Lakehouses, data integration, transformation, orchestration, observability, and data quality services
• Establish and enforce technology standards, reference architectures, and engineering guardrails that ensure platform consistency, scalability, security, and interoperability across the data ecosystem
• Drive platform adoption and enablement across analytics, data science, and business teams by delivering self-service capabilities, reusable data products, and well-documented platform services
• Partner with business, product, and technology leaders to translate data needs into prioritized platform capabilities and investment cases with clear ROI
• Embed robust data governance, security, and regulatory compliance controls into platform design and operations, ensuring least-privileged access, data classification, lineage, and auditability
• Own platform reliability, performance, and cost optimization (FinOps) — establishing SLOs/SLAs, monitoring frameworks, incident response protocols, and unit-cost accountability for cloud data services
• Manage strategic vendor relationships, technology evaluations, and licensing negotiations to optimize the platform ecosystem and maintain a forward-looking technology roadmap
• Define and track measurable outcomes (KPIs/OKRs) for platform value realization, adoption, delivery predictability, and operational excellence — reporting progress to executive leadership
• Operational Discipline Drives reliability, cost efficiency, and continuous improvement through metric-driven operations
• Talent Development Attracts, develops, and retains top engineering talent with clear career paths and a strong team culture

Requirements:

• Bachelor's Degree in Arts/Sciences (BA/BS) in computer science, Engineering, Information Systems, or related discipline
• 12+ Years of progressive experience in data engineering, data platform engineering, or enterprise data infrastructure, with 5+ years in senior or executive leadership roles
• Proven experience leading enterprise-scale cloud data platform initiatives, including modern data warehouses, Lakehouses, and cloud-native data ecosystems (e.g., Snowflake, Databricks, or equivalent)
• Experience implementing data governance, security, and regulatory compliance frameworks in cloud data environments, including access control, data classification, and lineage
• Deep understanding of modern data engineering tooling across the full platform lifecycle — including data integration, transformation (e.g., dbt, Informatica), pipeline orchestration (e.g., Airflow/Astronomer), and data observability (e.g., Monte Carlo)
• Strong knowledge of cloud architectures (AWS, Azure, or GCP) and experience designing secure, scalable, and cost-efficient data platform infrastructure
• Demonstrated ability to build, scale, and lead platform engineering teams supporting multiple business domains, global operations, or complex organizational structures
• Track record of driving platform standardization, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), CI/CD for data pipelines, and operational automation to reduce manual effort and improve reliability
• Strong business acumen with experience building investment cases, managing platform budgets, and aligning technology investments to measurable business outcomes (FinOps)
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to translate complex technical concepts for executive and non-technical audiences
• Master's degree in Arts/Sciences (MA/MS)
• Experience modernizing legacy data environments and leading large-scale platform migrations with minimal business disruption
• Insurance, reinsurance, or regulated industry experience
• Familiarity with data quality engineering, including automated testing, anomaly detection, and data contract frameworks at the dataset or metric level