Director of Data Management & Operations

Job description

Data is foundational to how CHAOS develops, tests, and improves complex sensing systems. As the company scales, we need a data operating model that makes information consistent, trusted, secure, and usable across Engineering, AI, Test, and business teams

As Director of Data Management and Operations, you’ll own the end-to-end data lifecycle: how data is defined, collected, transported, governed, transformed, secured, and delivered for analysis

You’ll lead our data management and field data operations functions, partnering closely with the Foundry engineering team to ensure the platform meets company needs

This isn’t an analytics-only role. It’s a technical and operational leadership role spanning data governance, data-platform coordination, and test operations

You’ll build durable systems and teams while remaining close enough to field execution to understand where data quality and collection break down

Success means teams use the same definitions, analysts can trust the datasets they receive, test data is captured and available quickly, and access to sensitive data is controlled and auditable without becoming a barrier to execution

Establish company-wide governance for data definitions, ownership, quality, lineage, retention, and calculation change management

Create authoritative, documented analytical datasets and shared definitions so teams can work from consistent data and metrics

Work with the Foundry engineering team to ensure that data ingestion, ETL, modeling, transformation, validation, and monitoring align with stakeholder needs

Own permissions management and partner with Security and Compliance to implement least-privilege access, auditability, retention, and handling controls for sensitive data

Build a repeatable process for planning data capture at test events, including required sensor data, metadata, truth data, labels, logging, storage, and validation

Coordinate across teams to translate test objectives into clear data requirements and ensure collection systems are ready before testing begins

Establish pre-test readiness and post-test reconciliation processes so required data is captured, validated, transferred, cataloged, and available for analysis

Use test outcomes and data gaps to continuously improve collection methods, retention strategy, data quality controls, and the underlying data architecture

Build and manage teams responsible for data governance and field data operations, while establishing an effective partnership with the Foundry engineering team

Sustain data operations at CHAOS test sites, including contributing to test schedule strategy, extraction technology and logistics, , and data labeling

Create clear operating procedures, ownership, service levels, and metrics for pipeline reliability, test data capture, and data availability

Partner with Foundry engineering to balance immediate test and program needs with long-term investments in scalable architecture, automation, , and team capability

Work full-time on-site at our El Segundo, CA headquarters

Travel to CHAOS test sites and other company locations on a regular basis

Support critical test events and field operations outside standard business hours when needed

Benefits

Generous pre-IPO stock option grants, relocation assistance + (coming soon!) annual bonuses

Free daily lunch, ‘No meeting Fridays’, unlimited PTO (for exempt employees), casual dress code

Life, FSA, HSA, 401k (+ Company match), and more

Medical, dental and vision benefits will be 100% paid for by the company

You see data as both a technical platform and an operating discipline, not simply a reporting or analytics functionYou thrive in high-execution environments where requirements evolve quickly and ownership is expected10+ years of experience across data engineering, data platforms, data governance, analytics infrastructure, test data, or similarly complex technical environments, including significant team leadershipYou build governance creating clarity and trust without unnecessary bureaucracyYou enjoy building teams, systems, and operating rhythms from the ground upStrong cross-functional leadership and communication skills, with the ability to turn ambiguous needs into clear standards, systems, and operating processesStrong knowledge of ETL, data modeling, metadata, lineage, data quality, observability, and modern data engineering practicesDemonstrated ownership of production data pipelines from source ingestion through transformation, quality assurance, publication and consumptionYou are willing to get close to field operations and understand the practical realities of collecting, moving, and validating dataYou can move comfortably between data engineers, radar and test teams, security stakeholders, analysts, and senior leadership3+ years of management experience, ideally with prior experience managing teams incorporating non-exempt or contract employeesYou combine strong technical judgment with practical prioritization and can make sound tradeoffs across platform, operations, and complianceBachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, Information Systems, or a related technical fieldExperience with Palantir Foundry or a comparable enterprise data platform; deep Foundry experience is strongly preferredRadar or defense systems experienceExperience planning or supporting test events and coordinating the operational logistics required to reliably collect and transport dataExperience designing permissions and access-control processes in environments with significant security, compliance, audit, or data-handling requirementsExperience supporting data collection from physical systems, sensors, laboratories, manufacturing, or field testing

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Worksite address

el segundo, CA, 90245, US

Who can apply

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