Data Operations Lead
Hybrid · Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Job Summary
Lead and head the Data Integration & Operations team in Chennai as part of WPP's Databridge program. Own production data platform operations including CI/CD automation, deployment pipelines, monitoring, data quality enforcement, incident management, and support, with deep Databricks expertise (SQL Warehouses, Unity Catalog, Jobs/Workflows) and platform governance. Build reusable deployment patterns, standard operating procedures, and a Central Data Solution Repository; partner with DevOps and global teams to ensure SLA adherence, high uptime, and scalable data operations. Manage a growing team, mentor engineers, and drive DataOps practices across Azure and GCP environments using dbt, Databricks, Terraform, and GitHub Actions. Hybrid work arrangement with the Chennai office about four days a week; strong emphasis on operational excellence, data quality, and cross-functional collaboration.
Required Qualifications
- 7+ years in data operations, platform engineering, or data engineering with hands-on production experience
- 3+ years in technical leadership or team lead capacity
- Experience establishing DataOps practices and operational frameworks
- Deep, hands-on Databricks experience (Databricks SQL Warehouses, Unity Catalog, Jobs/Workflows)
- Databricks Asset Bundles for IaC
- Delta Lake performance optimization
- Proficiency with dbt (Core) including project structure, macros, tests, documentation, CI/CD integration
- Cloud platforms knowledge (Azure and/or GCP)
- Object storage (ADLS/GCS) and secret management
- Infrastructure as Code (Terraform)
- CI/CD with GitHub Actions (workflow design, secrets, automated tests/deployments)
- Python for automation and scripting (dlthub a plus)
- SQL for data validation and testing
- Operational design for monitoring, alerting, incident management, SLA tracking
- Production data platforms with high uptime requirements
- Excellent communication and documentation skills
- Mentor/leadership capabilities
- Experience with multi-cloud (Azure + GCP) is a plus
- Familiarity with Power BI or similar BI tools
- Understanding of FinOps practices for cloud cost optimization
Apply with one swipe on Sorce. We auto-fill applications and apply on your behalf — no cover letters, no 40-minute forms.
Hiring someone like this?
Get your role in front of qualified candidates on Sorce.