Senior Director, Head of Data

Work Details
This is a FREELANCE Contract role
Location REMOTE
40 Hrs/Week FREELANCE Individual Contractor
We do NOT offer any type of Visa Sponsorship or Support; candidates should have open work eligibility at their location.
We do NOT work with H1B/F1 Visas holders
Job Description
📌 Summary
We are seeking a visionary, executive-level Senior Director, Head of Data to serve as the enterprise leader for data strategy, data platforms, governance, data products, and the data operating model. As a key member of the technology leadership team, you will set the multi-year direction for how data is engineered, governed, shared, and activated—transforming enterprise data into a durable, growth-driving business capability.
In this "leader of leaders" position, you will serve as a strategic advisor to C-suite executives across Technology, Product, Actuarial, Finance, Distribution, and Operations. You will build and mature a multi-layered data organization, driving a transition toward a domain-oriented data ecosystem with governed data products, a unified semantic layer, and real-time operational data capabilities.
🏢 General Information (About the Client)
Our client is a premier, highly trusted financial services and life insurance provider dedicated to supporting millions of members and agents nationwide. They are actively executing a major enterprise modernization roadmap—transitioning legacy environments into a modern, cloud-native, and domain-driven technology platform.
They foster an executive culture grounded in strategic discipline, cross-functional accountability, and continuous innovation. Operating in a highly regulated domain, they prioritize building trusted, reliable data foundations that directly support member experiences, automated underwriting, operational excellence, and advanced AI readiness.
🗝️ Tasks and Deliverables
Enterprise Strategy & Operating Model: Author, own, and execute the multi-year enterprise data strategy, investment roadmap, operating model, and success metrics aligned with North Star architecture.
Platform Modernization & Architecture: Direct the target state for enterprise data platforms, including cloud ingestion, CDC/streaming, operational data layers, semantic models, APIs, and cost performance.
Data Product Governance: Establish and Chair the enterprise Data Council—governing data product portfolios, access, retention, privacy, lineage, quality standards, and SLA discipline across Member 360, policy, claims, and financial domains.
Organizational & People Leadership: Build and lead a high-performing data organization spanning data engineering, platform, modeling, governance, and analytics enablement—developing managers and senior technical leaders.
Financial & Vendor Stewardship: Manage the data function's budget, vendor portfolio, sourcing strategy, and technology partner performance to optimize long-term operational costs.
Executive Advisory & Modernization Support: Represent the data function in executive and board-level governance forums, supporting major initiatives such as legacy platform decommissioning, policy migrations, and AI/automation enablement.
✅ Required Experience
Professional Seniority: 12+ years of progressive experience in data, analytics, or technology, including 7+ years in direct people leadership and 3+ years leading managers/leaders within an enterprise-scale data function.
Regulated Industry Experience: Proven track record owning enterprise data strategy and managing multi-disciplinary data teams within insurance, financial services, or a closely regulated industry.
Modernization Ownership: Demonstrated experience setting strategy and leading large-scale data platform modernizations, data product rollouts, and governance frameworks that delivered measurable ROI.
Leadership Development: History of managing technical managers and principal architects, with direct accountability for org design, succession planning, workforce capability, and delivery discipline.
Educational Background: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or a related technical discipline (Advanced degree preferred).
Preferred Qualifications (Plus):
Practical experience implementing Data Mesh / domain-oriented data products, federated operating models, and enterprise semantic layers.
Deep exposure to modern cloud data ecosystems (preferably AWS), utilizing Snowflake, Redshift, PostgreSQL, dbt, or Kafka/MSK.
Experience with Change Data Capture (CDC), event-driven architectures, low-latency operational data stores, and API enablement.
Experience leading data strategies through legacy platform decommissioning and core policy administration migrations.
📢 Engagement Highlights
Top-Level Enterprise Authority: Serve as the definitive enterprise voice for data strategy, directly shaping how technology investments drive commercial strategy and member experience.
Greenfield Operating Model: Lead a high-visibility transition toward a cutting-edge, domain-oriented data mesh platform and unified semantic layer.
Strategic Executive Scope: Enjoy high autonomy and budget stewardship, operating as a core thought partner to C-suite and board-level leadership.

Work arrangement
Yes