Data Ops Lead

Job Description

Brief Description:

We are seeking a DataOps Lead to own and advance the operational reliability, quality, and scalability of our cloud-based data platforms . This role sits at the intersection of data engineering, platform operations, and reliability , supporting critical data pipelines that power analytics, reporting, and operational decision-making across oilfield and energy operations.

The DataOps Lead will be responsible for ensuring that data is available, accurate, timely, and trustworthy , while leading operational best practices across ingestion, processing, and delivery systems running primarily on Google Cloud Platform (GCP) .

This is a hands-on technical leadership role with strong expectations for ownership, cross-team collaboration, and continuous improvement.

Detailed Description:

• Data Platform Operations
  
  • Own the day-to-day operational health of cloud-based data pipelines and platforms
  • Ensure high data availability, freshness, accuracy, and completeness
  • Lead operational support for batch and streaming data workloads
• Data Reliability & Quality
  
  • Define and manage data SLAs, SLOs, and reliability metrics
  • Implement and maintain data quality checks, validations, and monitoring
  • Design processes for backfills, reprocessing, and failure recovery
• Cloud & Infrastructure
  
  • Operate and optimize GCP-based data services, including BigQuery, Cloud Storage, Pub/Sub, and GKE
  • Partner with platform and SRE teams on scalability, performance, and cost optimization
  • Manage data infrastructure using Infrastructure as Code (Terraform)
• Automation & Tooling
  
  • Build and maintain Python-based automation for data operations and monitoring
  • Improve reliability and repeatability through standardized tooling and workflows
  • Support and enhance data orchestration platforms (e.g., Airflow / Cloud Composer)
• Incident Response & Operational Excellence
  
  • Lead response to data incidents, including triage, mitigation, and root cause analysis
  • Drive post-incident reviews and track corrective actions
  • Create and maintain runbooks, operational documentation, and playbooks
• CI/CD & Governance
  
  • Implement CI/CD best practices for data pipelines
  • Promote testing, version control, and deployment standards across data workflows
  • Ensure data platforms align with security, governance, and access control requirements
• Leadership & Collaboration
  
  • Act as a technical leader within the DataOps function
  • Partner closely with:
    
    • Data engineering teams
    • SRE / platform engineering
    • Analytics and business stakeholders
  • Mentor engineers and help raise the operational maturity of the data organization

Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• 7+ years experience in Data Engineering, DataOps, or Data Platform Operations
• 3+ years experience operating cloud-based data platforms in production
• Strong hands-on experience with Google Cloud Platform , including:
• GCP : GKE, Compute Engine, Cloud Storage, Pub/Sub (or equivalents)
• Cloud Monitoring & Logging
• BigQuery
• Dataflow
• Datastream
• IAM and networking
• Composer/AIrflow
• Kubernetes: deployment, scaling, reliability patterns
• Observability : GCP Cloud Monitoring, Logging
• Strong proficiency in Python for data pipelines, automation, and operational tooling
• Experience with data orchestration frameworks (Airflow preferred)
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code (Terraform)
• Experience with Azure Devops
• Proven experience leading data incident response and operational improvements
• Strong SQL skills for data analysis and troubleshooting

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Information Technology, Computer Science, or a related field.
• 7+ years experience in Data Engineering, DataOps, or Data Platform Operations
• 3+ years leading or owning production data platforms in a cloud environment
• Demonstrated technical leadership of data operations initiatives or teams
• Ability to understand and speak English at a level of proficiency allowing employee to issue, receive and respond to both safety and operations-related directions in English

Preferred Qualifications:

• Oil and Gas Industry knowledge
• Technology/Digital Industry knowledge

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About Us

The Evolving Oil Field Demands Evolving Service Providers

NexTier is a leading provider of integrated completions that employs sustainable practices and equipment to support our customers' ESG goals while accelerating production in the most demanding US land basins.

Patterson-UTI is committed to a workplace free from discrimination and harassment, offering equal employment opportunities to all individuals regardless of personal characteristics protected by law. Employees are encouraged to report any concerns through multiple channels.