{"id":698301,"url":"https://alion.io/job/vml-executive-director-data-engineering","title":"Executive Director, Data Engineering","company":{"id":456023,"name":"VML","domain":"vml.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/vml","size_band":"5000+","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Greenhouse","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":78,"open_postings":92,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.87,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":52,"computed_at":"2026-10-28T05:59:10Z"}},"role":"Leadership","role_family":"Leadership","seniority":"head","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Detroit, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":155000,"max":390000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":390000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":20,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Agile","optional":false},{"name":"CI/CD","optional":false},{"name":"GDPR","optional":false},{"name":"Platform Engineering","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-09-11T00:23:18Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-09-11","last_verified_at":"2026-10-28T18:52:43Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":47,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":47},"description":"Who We Are\nVML is a global creative company that combines brand experience, customer experience, and commerce to create connected brands that drive growth. Guided by a Human First philosophy, VML is known for its innovative work for brands and consistently ranks among the world’s leading creative companies, including the WARC Creative 100. VML’s global network spans 55+ markets with principal offices in Buenos Aires, Kansas City, London, New York, São Paulo, Shanghai and Singapore. \nVML is part of WPP, the trusted growth partner for the world's leading brands. Powered by exceptional talent and our agentic marketing platform WPP Open, WPP unites cutting-edge media intelligence and data solutions, creativity, production, enterprise solutions and expert strategic counsel. \nFor more information, please visit www.vml.com and follow along on LinkedIn #WeAreVML.\nAbout the Role\nWe’re seeking a Executive Director of Data Engineering to lead the architecture, infrastructure, and engineering standards that power our global marketing intelligence capabilities. Reporting directly to the Chief Marketing Intelligence Officer, this leader will modernize our AI infrastructure, accelerate how we build and deliver, and set global data standards across every domain we touch - creative, CX/site, CRM, audience, and media data. The ideal candidate is a hands-on technologist and a strategic leader who can build best-in-class engineering practices at global scale while driving the move toward agile, automated, and AI-native data delivery.\nWhat You’ll Do\nAI Infrastructure & Engineering Modernization\nDesign and evolve scalable AI and data infrastructure that supports predictive, prescriptive, and generative use cases across the function.\nEstablish standards and tooling for accelerated delivery and faster coding - including AI-assisted development, reusable components, and automation that compresses time-to-value.\nEvaluate and introduce new technologies that enable innovation across creative, CX/site, CRM, audience, and media data domains.\nMature our MLOps and deployment practices so models and data products move from prototype to production reliably and repeatably.\nData Standards, Taxonomies & Governance\nDevelop comprehensive, future-proof data taxonomies and data standards that bring consistency and interoperability across domains and regions.\nSet and govern global data standards - architecture, quality, lineage, documentation, and metadata - that scale across the network and agency partners.\nEmbed data governance, privacy, and security by design, ensuring compliance with global regulatory requirements (e.g., GDPR, CCPA) and responsible AI practices.\nCreate a single, trusted foundation for data that improves accuracy, accessibility, and reuse across teams.\nDelivery Excellence & AI Integration\nDrive continuous progress toward agile, automated, and effective data delivery, embedding DevOps/DataOps practices and CI/CD across engineering workflows.\nDefine and uphold best-in-class standards for AI integration, from data pipelines through model deployment and monitoring.\nBuild and lead a high-performing, globally distributed engineering organization, raising the bar on technical excellence, velocity, and reliability.\nPartner with product, analytics, and agency teams to ensure infrastructure and standards translate into faster, higher-quality outcomes.\nWhat You’ll Bring\n20+ years of experience in data engineering, data architecture, or platform engineering, including senior leadership of global or distributed engineering teams.\nDeep expertise in modern data infrastructure, cloud platforms, and AI/ML engineering, with hands-on command of scalable pipeline and platform design.\nProven success establishing data taxonomies, standards, and governance frameworks across complex, multi-domain environments.\nExperience modernizing engineering practices toward automation, agile delivery, and AI-assisted development.\nStrong understanding of marketing and media data domains - creative, CX/site, CRM, audience, and media - ideally within automotive, broader industry, or agency/media agency contexts.\nTrack record of integrating AI responsibly and at scale, with fluency in MLOps, DataOps, and data governance.\nExceptional leadership, communication, and stakeholder-management skills at the executive level.\nThe base salary range for this position at the time of this posting is indicated below. Individual compensation varies based on job-related factors, including location, business needs, level of responsibility, experience, and qualifications. We offer a competitive benefits package, click WPP Benefits for more details.\n_\n$155,000—$390,000 USD\nWe believe the best work happens when we're together, fostering creativity, collaboration, and connection. That's why we’ve adopted a hybrid approach, with teams in the office an average of four days a week. If you require accommodations or flexibility, please discuss this with the hiring team during the interview process.\nWPP (VML) is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without discrimination or regard to characteristics. We are committed to fostering a culture of respect in which everyone feels they belong and has the same opportunities to progress in their careers. \nWhen you click \"Submit Application\", this will send any information you add below to VML. Before you do this, we think it's a good idea to read through our Recruitment Privacy Policy. California residents should read our California Recruitment Privacy Notice. This explains what we do with your personal data when you apply for a role with us, and, how you can update the information you have provided us with or how to remove it.","description_format":"text","description_chars":5722,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":20,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Advertising","Creative Agencies"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-11T02:24:20Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":37,"band":"fade","label":"Fading","p_open":1,"p_active":0.609,"p_room":0.6,"age_days":47,"expected_fill_days":52,"reasons":["conf:0","stale_co","velocity","win:late","crowd:brand"],"computed_at":"2026-10-28T05:59:10Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":390000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/vml-executive-director-data-engineering","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/vml-executive-director-data-engineering.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-28T22:37:16Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":30749,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-29T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":456023},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=456023"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fvml-executive-director-data-engineering"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fvml-executive-director-data-engineering"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fvml-executive-director-data-engineering"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/vml-executive-director-data-engineering\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fvml-executive-director-data-engineering"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":698301}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"vml.com","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":698301},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); https://alion.io/mcp with an Alion account has everything. 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