Director - Databricks Practice

About the Role:

We are looking for an exceptional Director - Databricks Practice to establish, build and lead a new offshore Databricks practice in Bangalore.

This is a high-impact leadership opportunity for a technically strong data engineering leader who can combine hands-on Databricks and Azure expertise with practice building, architecture, delivery leadership, team management, client engagement and consulting.

The successful candidate will be responsible for building and scaling a high-performing team of Data Engineers, Data Scientists and Data Architects, while providing technical and strategic leadership for enterprise Databricks and Azure data initiatives.

The role will work closely with stakeholders and clients, serving as a key technical liaison between the offshore team and onshore teams.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Practice Leadership & Strategy:

- Establish and build the offshore Databricks practice in Bangalore from the ground up.

- Define and execute the practice growth strategy in alignment with the broader global data strategy.

- Build, recruit, mentor and lead high-performing teams of Data Engineers, Data Scientists and Data Architects.

- Establish a culture of continuous learning, technical excellence and innovation within the Microsoft and Databricks ecosystem.

- Define technical standards, engineering best practices, delivery frameworks and operating processes.

- Oversee the end-to-end delivery of complex Databricks and data engineering solutions.

- Ensure projects are delivered within agreed timelines, budgets and quality standards.

- Optimize offshore delivery operations and ensure seamless collaboration.

2. Technical & Architectural Leadership:

- Provide hands-on technical leadership across Databricks, Apache Spark, Delta Lake and the Azure data ecosystem.

- Design and review scalable enterprise data architectures, modern data lakehouse solutions and complex data pipelines.

- Provide technical guidance to Data Engineers, Architects and technical leads.

- Review technical designs, architecture decisions and code where required.

- Act as the senior technical escalation point for complex Databricks and data engineering challenges.

- Design robust data pipelines for extracting, transforming and processing complex ERP data, with particular emphasis on NetSuite.

- Drive adoption of modern Databricks, Azure data engineering and AI/ML capabilities.

- Stay current with Azure Databricks product updates, AI/ML integrations and modern data engineering best practices.

- Ensure solutions are scalable, secure, maintainable and aligned with enterprise architecture standards.

3. Client Engagement & Stakeholder Management:

- Act as a key technical liaison between the offshore Bangalore team and stakeholders and clients.

- Lead technical discussions with international clients and business stakeholders.

- Translate complex technical concepts into clear business outcomes and value.

- Participate in architecture discussions, solution presentations and client workshops.

- Build strong relationships with senior client stakeholders and internal leadership.

- Communicate effectively with C-level executives and international stakeholders.

- Handle technical escalations and provide clear, business-oriented recommendations.

4. Consulting & Pre-Sales:

- Work closely with global sales and solution architecture teams on new opportunities.

- Participate in RFP/RFI and solutioning activities.

- Support project scoping and effort estimation.

- Contribute to solution architecture and commercial discussions.

- Present tailored Azure Databricks solutions to prospective clients.

- Help identify opportunities for new Databricks, data engineering and analytics engagements.

- Translate client business requirements into scalable technical solutions.

Required Qualifications & Technical Skills:

Experience:

- 10+ years of progressive experience in Data Engineering, Data Warehousing and/or Cloud Analytics.

- Proven experience working in an MNC or global delivery environment.

- Demonstrated experience progressing into senior technical leadership, architecture or practice leadership roles.

- Strong experience leading technical teams and mentoring engineers and architects.

Databricks & Data Engineering:

- Deep, hands-on experience with the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform.

- Strong expertise in Apache Spark.

- Strong hands-on experience with Delta Lake.

- Advanced SQL.

- Strong programming experience in Python and/or Scala.

- Experience designing enterprise-scale data pipelines.

- Strong understanding of modern Data Lakehouse architecture.

- Experience with enterprise data engineering and analytics platforms.

Azure Data Platform:

- Strong hands-on experience with Azure Databricks, Azure Data Factory (ADF), Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 (ADLS Gen2), Azure Synapse, Azure cloud data architecture and Azure-based enterprise data pipelines.

- Ecosystem Knowledge: Experience working with and extracting data from NetSuite ERP systems is highly desirable.

Leadership:

- Demonstrated experience building and managing technical teams. Proven ability to mentor junior and mid-level developers.

Communication:

- Exceptional verbal and written communication skills. Must be highly articulate, capable of commanding a room, and comfortable negotiating and presenting to C-level executives and international clients.

Preferred Qualifications:

- Databricks certifications, particularly Databricks Certified Data Engineer Professional and other relevant Databricks certifications.

- Microsoft Azure certifications, particularly Microsoft Certified: Azure Data Engineer Associate.

- Experience in IT consulting.

- Experience working with mid-sized enterprises.

- Experience working with ANZ clients and delivery teams.

- Experience with AI/ML integrations within the Databricks/Azure ecosystem.

Education:

- Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Data Engineering or another relevant technical discipline.

- Candidates from premier or tier-1 engineering institutions are preferred.

Why Join This Opportunity?:

- Opportunity to build a Databricks practice from the ground up.

- High-impact leadership role with significant technical and strategic ownership.

- Opportunity to build and scale a high-performing data engineering organization.

- Exposure to enterprise clients and stakeholders.

- Opportunity to influence Databricks, Azure data engineering and AI/ML strategy.

- Significant ownership across technology, people, delivery and business growth.

Skills

Python, Data Warehousing, Practice Management, Data Architect, SQL, Client Engagement, Presales, RFP, Technical Architect, Solution Architect