Director - Data Quality & Observability Lead

The Opportunity
The Data Quality & Observability Lead is a director level role within Ookla’s Chief Data & Analytics Office responsible for building and leading the enterprise data quality framework, monitoring capabilities, and observability practices that ensure data used across analytics, AI/ML, and products is accurate, trustworthy, and fit for purpose. This role reports directly to the VP of Data Governance & Strategy.
This leader will define quality standards, operate data observability tooling, partner with data engineering and governance teams to embed quality into pipelines, and drive a culture of shared accountability for data health across the organization.
This position operates in a hybrid work environment and includes approximately 25% travel to support stakeholder engagement, quality program execution, and team collaboration.
Key Responsibilities
Design and implement Ookla’s enterprise data quality framework, including rules, standards, measurement practices, and ownership accountability.
Build and operate a data observability capability to monitor data health, freshness, volume, schema changes, and pipeline reliability.
Partner with data engineering, analytics engineering, and governance teams to embed quality checks and SLAs across data pipelines and data products.
Define and track data quality KPIs and metrics; communicate status, trends, and risk to
stakeholders and leadership.
Lead root cause analysis and remediation for data quality incidents across the data ecosystem.
Champion a data-as-a-product mindset, ensuring data quality is a shared organizational accountability across business and technology teams.
Evaluate, implement, and manage data quality and observability tooling in partnership with
engineering and architecture.
Manage and develop the Data Quality Analyst function and support cross-functional data steward networks.
Job Qualifications
Required Knowledge, Skills and Attributes
Deep expertise in data quality frameworks, da