Associate Director – Data Platform & Operations – Dubai or Abu Dhabi
Discover the Opportunity
We’re partnering with a leading organisation in the UAE that is investing heavily in building a modern, enterprise-scale data platform to power AI, analytics, and business intelligence capabilities.
This role sits at the core of the organisation’s data and AI ecosystem, responsible for leading the design, delivery, and ongoing evolution of a hybrid data platform spanning cloud and on-prem environments.
This is a high-impact leadership position combining deep technical expertise across platform engineering and big data with ownership of platform strategy, scalability, and operational excellence.
Discover the Role
As Associate Director – Data Platform & Operations, you will lead the architecture and operations of a large-scale data platform supporting AI, data engineering, and analytics use cases.
You will oversee platform engineering, DevOps, and operations teams, ensuring the platform is scalable, reliable, cost-efficient, and enables self-service capabilities for downstream teams.
This role requires a highly technical leader who is hands-on, capable of driving platform modernisation while ensuring strong delivery, governance, and performance across a complex data ecosystem.
Discover the Responsibilities
Lead architecture and operations across hybrid environments including Azure, Kubernetes/OpenShift, and on-prem storage
Build and scale modern data platforms using technologies such as Spark, Kafka, Delta Lake, Parquet, and distributed storage solutions
Drive CI/CD, infrastructure-as-code (Terraform, Ansible), and platform automation across data and AI environments
Implement observability frameworks including monitoring, logging, lineage, and alerting to ensure platform reliability
Own platform performance, scalability, and cost optimisation strategies (FinOps) across cloud and on-prem environments
Enable self-service capabilities for Data, AI, and BI teams to accelerate development and deployment
Manage end-to-end platform delivery, dependencies, production readiness, and performance benchmarking
Lead and mentor platform engineering, DevOps, and operations teams, embedding DataOps and DevOps best practices
Partner with senior stakeholders across technology and business functions to align platform strategy with organisational priorities
Discover the Requirements
8+ years of experience in platform engineering, DevOps, or data infrastructure roles
4+ years of leadership experience managing platform or engineering teams
Strong hands-on experience with Kubernetes, CI/CD pipelines, and infrastructure-as-code frameworks
Proven expertise in big data technologies such as Spark, Kafka, Delta Lake, and modern data platforms
Experience working across hybrid cloud and on-prem environments
Strong understanding of observability frameworks, platform performance tuning, and self-service architectures
Experience working with senior stakeholders and contributing to platform strategy and roadmap delivery
Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field
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