Sr. Director, Data Platform Engineering & Operations

Sr. Director, Data Platform Engineering & Operations

United States, San Diego, CA

Sony Interactive Entertainment isn't just the Best Place to Play it's also the Best Place to Work. Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) is the company behind the PlayStation brand. As a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation, we're part of a proud legacy of innovation and excellence. SIE is a dynamic technology company, delivering cutting-edge hardware and network services to more than 100 million people and an entertainment leader, home to some of the most beloved and recognizable intellectual properties (IP) in the world. Our role at SIE is to create and nurture the experiences under the PlayStation brand, a name synonymous with entertainment excellence and creativity.

Sr. Director Data Platform Engineering & Operations

San Diego, CA

The Sr. Director Data Platform Engineering & Operations is a critical leadership role at SIE, responsible for driving innovation and scalability across the company's data and AI platform ecosystem. This role oversees platforms including Data Infrastructure (Streaming, Ingestion, Warehouse, and Data Ocean), Experimentation and Audience Platforms, and Governance & Data Observability tools.

In this role, you will ensure SIE's platforms process massive volumes of data, delivering insights that enhance Player, Creator, Publisher, and Enterprise experiences. By enabling data-driven decisions at scale, you will drive the future of personalized gaming, efficient operations, and enterprise productivity through advanced AI and machine learning technologies.

As a strategic leader, you will define and execute the vision for SIE's data and AI platform ecosystem, ensuring scalable solutions that support key business objectives across gaming, content creation, and enterprise operations. Reporting to the VP of Data & AI, you will lead global teams of engineers and experts to build platforms that democratize data and transform decision-making across the company. Priority consideration will be given to candidates with proven experience in a previous or current Sr. Director level role.

This highly cross-functional role works closely with senior leadership in engineering, product, and business to align the platform ecosystem with the organization's strategic goals.

Strategic Leadership

• Define the long-term vision for SIE's Data and AI Platform ecosystem, aligning with business goals and driving value across Player, Creator, Publisher, and Enterprise touchpoints.
• Lead the development of platforms that process large-scale, real-time data from millions of users, delivering insights to enhance gaming experiences, content creation, and enterprise productivity.
• Build scalable platforms for personalized player experiences, content creation tools, and enterprise efficiency, optimizing performance and cost-effectiveness.

Platform Development & Operations

• Provide thought leadership in the design, architecture, and execution of the platform ecosystem, ensuring innovation and seamless integration with SIE's global gaming services and enterprise operations.
• Ensure platforms are optimized for performance, scalability, and reliability, processing billions of data points daily across Player, Creator, Publisher, and Enterprise activities.
• Champion operational excellence by driving continuous improvements in platform cost efficiency, performance, and security to support SIE's global user base.

Cross-functional Collaboration

• Collaborate with senior leaders to deliver data and AI solutions that drive value across gaming, content creation, and enterprise operations.
• Work with teams to ensure data platforms improve engagement, content creation, monetization, and efficiency.
• Ensure compliance with privacy, security, and regulatory requirements while supporting scalable data operations.

Innovation & Efficiency

• Lead efforts to optimize platform performance, reduce costs, and improve data accessibility across gaming and enterprise operations.
• Implement innovative solutions to scale data operations and maximize value from Player, Creator, Publisher, and Enterprise data.
• Drive AI/ML adoption to enhance gaming experiences, content discovery, operational efficiency, and enterprise workflows.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Data Engineering, or a related field.

Experience:

Technical Expertise:

• 15+ years of experience in data engineering, platform engineering, or related fields, with deep expertise in designing and building distributed data systems and large-scale data warehouses.
• Proven track record of architecting platforms capable of processing petabytes of data and supporting the real-time ingestion and processing of billions of data points daily across gaming and enterprise domains.
• Extensive experience in building and scaling cloud-native architectures (AWS, Azure, GCP) for data platforms, with a strong focus on high availability, fault tolerance, and cost-efficiency.
• Demonstrated success in growing and evolving data platforms to meet the needs of a rapidly scaling business, ensuring data-driven decisions are made at all levels of the organization.
• Extensive experience with Kafka for data streaming and real-time data ingestion.
• Strong hands-on knowledge of Databricks and Snowflake for scalable data engineering, analytics, and cloud data warehousing.
• Proven experience making buy vs. build decisions, assessing in-house development versus integrating third-party platforms based on cost, scalability, and business needs.
• Expertise with Data Governance tools such as Alation and Collibra for managing data catalogs, compliance, and data quality.
• Knowledge and experience with Data Observability tools to monitor data pipelines and ensure data accuracy, reliability, and transparency.
• Experience with experimentation platforms such as Optimizely, Statsig, and LaunchDarkly, with a focus on A/B testing and feature management.
• Expertise in AI/ML platforms like AWS SageMaker and Databricks MLflow for machine learning model development, deployment, and MLOps practices.

Leadership & Strategic Skills:

• Proven leadership (in a prior Sr. Director level role strongly preferred) building and leading high-performing global engineering teams, balancing short-term execution with long-term strategic growth.
• Strong strategic mindset, translating business objectives into scalable technical solutions that deliver value across the organization.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, driving impactful solutions across engineering, product, and business teams.