Associate Director, Core Technology

Job description

GALE is the world’s first and only Business Agency. We bring business strategy to brand storytelling to drive enterprise value. With expertise in strategy, media, CRM, creative, performance marketing, and technology, GALE creates integrated marketing systems and campaigns that grow businesses in significant ways. Founded in 2014, the agency has since been named AdAge’s Business Transformation Agency of the Year and Adweek’s U.S. Media Agency of the Year and has been recognized for its innovative creative at the Cannes Lions. We work with brands such as Delta, Uber, Starbucks, Chili’s, Hard Rock, MilkPEP, Diageo, Cotton, IHG and more. If you’re driven by a passion to build something great, a desire to innovate, and a commitment to achieve excellence in your craft, GALE is a great place for you! GALE has eight offices around the world, including New York, Toronto, Los Angeles, Austin, Denver, Kansas City, London, and Bengaluru. GALE embraces a hybrid, flexible workplace As an Associate Director, Technology at GALE, you will use data to guide your decisions and develop solutions to pursue some of the most exciting opportunities in the B2B SaaS space globally. You will architect, design, and lead the development and delivery of data platforms and applications with a strong focus on data engineering. You will also oversee core application and platform engineering and are expected to get hands-on with code when required and drive architecture, and reviews. We typically use open source frameworks including Python, Django on the backend and React, NextJS on the frontend. We also extensively use cloud services like EMR, Glue, Redshift, BigQuery along with Airflow, and Spark among others for Data Engineering. In this role, you are expected to be hands-on with this stack—comfortable diving into code, debugging complex data pipelines, and guiding the team through practical, implementation‑level decisions. **Who you are:** Experience10+ years of experience building data‑intensive Web/Mobile or SaaS products, ideally in B2B or B2C environments. 5+ years of supervisory experience, including manager‑of‑managers responsibilities. Experience leading engineering teams of 30+ members within a matrix organization structure. Ability to get Hands-on is a must for the role - Data & Backend Engineering Strong background in data engineering: designing and implementing ETL/ELT pipelines, data warehouses/lakes, and analytics‑ready data models (e.g., star schema, dimensional modeling). Very strong SQL skills and familiarity with relational/columnar/star schema database design. Working knowledge of MySQL, Postgres, AWS Redshift, and exposure to NoSQL databases such as MongoDB. - Cloud & Data Stack Hands‑on experience with AWS/GCP data and analytics services such as EMR, Glue, Redshift, S3, BigQuery Experience with workflow orchestration tools like Airflow, and distributed processing using Spark. - Full‑Stack & Frontend Team management experience Experience in managing and guiding teams in building front-end and back-end applications in frameworks like React, Django or similar. Alternately proven experience in collaborating and gilding engineers and teams working in these technologies. - Leadership & Ways of Working Experience managing globally distributed and multicultural teams, including working with North American stakeholders and time zones. Strong track record of delivering major releases and sustaining complex software/data systems in a geographically distributed, product engineering organization. Driving execution in an Agile/Scrum development model. Strong work breakdown, planning, and estimation skills, with the ability to juggle several initiatives and shift priorities as needed. - Soft Skills Exceptional communication skills (verbal and written), with the ability to explain technical concepts to non‑technical stakeholders and clients. Leadership skills necessary to manage, develop, and inspire a high‑performance, multi‑disciplinary team (data engineers + full‑stack engineers). **What you’ll be doing:** - Own Architecture & Technical Direction Architect, design, and lead the development of data platforms and full‑stack enterprise SaaS/Platform solutions, with a primary emphasis on data engineering. Define and champion architecture principles for data and application layers (security, performance, scalability, extensibility, simplicity), and ensure they are consistently applied across projects. - Build Client‑Specific Data Solutions Lead the creation of end‑to‑end data solutions for multiple client engagements, including ingestion, transformation, storage, and serving layers. Shape how data is organized and exposed to support analytics, CRM, personalization, and marketing performance use cases for North American clients. - Translate Strategy into Executable Roadmaps Translate broad corporate and client strategies into clear, specific objectives, roadmaps, and delivery plans for your teams. Work closely with product, analytics, CRM, media, and client teams to turn business requirements into technical designs and implementation plans. - Guide Engineering Execution Oversee implementation by data and full‑stack engineers, ensuring high code quality, reliability, observability, and cost‑efficient use of cloud resources. Ensure teams follow modern data engineering and software engineering practices, including testing, version control, CI/CD, and documentation. - Lead and Develop the Team Lead, mentor, and coach a team of data engineers, full‑stack engineers, and DevOps/cloud engineers, helping them grow technically and professionally. Own performance management, career development, compensation planning, and budget management for your area. - Drive Agile Delivery Execute in an Agile/Scrum environment using industry‑standard tools, with a focus on frequent, incremental delivery and continuous improvement. Plan and manage team deliverables and capacity across multiple concurrent client projects, proactively managing risks and dependencies. - Stakeholder & Client Collaboration Set and manage expectations with multiple stakeholders across geographies, including senior client stakeholders in North America. Communicate progress, trade‑offs, and technical decisions clearly to both technical and non‑technical audiences. - Foster a “No Silos” Culture Work in a “no silos” environment, frequently collaborating with clients, global teams, and cross‑functional roles (strategy, media, CRM, analytics, creative, technology). Promote knowledge sharing, documentation, and cross‑team collaboration to build reusable patterns and accelerators.