Director, Data Engineering and Platform

8116 - Midtown Office - 2220 W. Broad Street, Richmond, Virginia, 23220

CarMax, the way your career should be!

About this job

The Director of Data Engineering and Platform is a critical role for building the right data foundation, frameworks, standards, and platforms so that data and analytics engineering solutions and teams can rapidly scale and adjust based on business priorities. In this role, you will lead a team of product managers, solution architects, managers, data engineers, and database administrators to define, design, and deliver data engineering solutions (EDL/EDW), enterprise database systems, cloud platforms, DevOps, CI/CD, QA automation, and ML Ops solutions that serve critical business ops, sales strategy, logistics, and other business lines.

This role is critical to provide scalable, reliable, and real-time data to enable the best customer and associate experience. You will do strategic planning, stakeholder management, and roadmap and vision definition to drive engineering excellence while growing and motivating your associates. You will lead large teams (FTEs and contractors) with a solid track record of scaling cloud solutions and running data and analytics operations 24x7. You will also produce documentation and presentations for stakeholders and leadership, lead data training sessions, and partner with third-party vendors to facilitate data-sharing agreements and manage consulting partners.

This position is ideal for individuals with high accountability, a record of developing future leaders, strong analytical and financial skills, a clear communication style, and a partnership mentality. The individual must be comfortable in a dynamic environment, able to turn facts into recommendations, and able to influence cross-functional business partners and provide the Technology point of view on complex business issues to senior management, team members, and partners.

What you will do – Essential Responsibilities

Strategic planning and results focus

• Apply broad knowledge, seasoned experience, and critical thinking skills to set direction and identify the appropriate goals for the teams to achieve enterprise objectives.

• Prioritize objectives and provide a cross-functional holistic approach to solution recommendations that includes ROI, implementation plans, scalability, and alternative recommendations.

• Direct cross-functional partnerships throughout all the technology areas to deliver well-coordinated and robust data engineering, DevOps, ML Ops, database services, and automated QA solutions.

• Deliver on commitments by being results focused and efficiently leveraging team talent.

• Ensure 24x7 operations and meet SLAs on data, analytics and reporting workloads.

• Manage cloud/Azure spending to budget for databases, data, and analytics workloads, and continuously optimize spending using automation, monitoring, process improvements, and communication with users and engineers.

Communication

• Strong interpersonal skills are required to develop the vision by partnering with key stakeholders across the business, peer groups, and the Technology leadership team.

• Network across the organization at all levels, influencing others regardless of position.

• Ensure timely communication on critical outages to impacted teams across the organization at all levels.

• Present the vision to the leadership team at the appropriate level of detail to inspire others to achieve it.

• Communicate the vision that clearly articulates the direction for the team and deliver consistent key messages to support the strategic direction.

• Partner with third-party vendors to facilitate data-sharing agreements and manage consulting partners.

Team Leadership and Development

• Evaluate the talent landscape and create development and selection plans to fill future needs.

• Attract, recruit, and retain a strong bench of skilled and highly engaged associates.

• Create and promote an environment of development and continuous learning to develop teams and others to reach their full potential.

• Create a culture of empowerment where the team surfaces solutions and executes independently.

• Play an active role in assessing and developing talent across departments, support a succession plan to groom future leaders, and lead others to do the same.

• Be a mentor to others; get involved in the growth of others outside of the data area.

Technology

• Possess in-depth knowledge and stay current with industry trends in cloud data solutions, data engineering, database performance, data and analytics platforms, DevOps, and ML Ops.

• Formulate a technology plan and strategy for the EDL/EDW and the data and analytics platform based on an in-depth understanding of the current needs of technology, the future direction of CarMax technology, and the roadmap of data and analytics technology.

• Direct teams in the definition, direction, and maintenance of the data platform, databases, and solutions to ensure that critical business insights and end analyst needs are consistently met.

• Conduct and participate in the review, evaluation, and recommendation of software products, productivity tools, and external services.

• Direct the development of data engineering, cloud automation, Data DevOps, ML Ops, and QA standards, procedures, and processes. Ensure that the program and strategy are implemented and that technical and operational teams fully meet its requirements.

• Perform other duties as needed to meet business needs and support our values.

Qualifications and Requirements

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in computer science, management information systems, or related discipline

• 10+ years of experience in Technology leadership, with 7+ years managing direct reports architecting, building, and deploying data engineering solutions and platforms

• Extensive experience with data and analytics technologies, ETL, big data processing, reporting, database scaling and performance optimization, and CI/CD solutions/methodology

• 3+ years of experience in cloud computing, migrating, and building new data solutions using cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP, Snowflake/Databricks)

• 5+ years of experience in Agile/Scrum ways of working and delivering high-quality end solutions to stakeholders

• Experience leading large teams (FTEs and contractors) and running data and analytics operations 24x7

Work Location and Arrangement:  This role will be based out of the CarMax Midtown office, Richmond VA or CarMax Technology Hub, Plano TX and have a Hybrid work arrangement.

• Associates based in Richmond work onsite 4 days per week.

• Associates based in Plano work onsite 2 days per week.

Work Authorization: Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis. Sponsorship will not be considered for this specific role.

About CarMax

At CarMax, we revolutionized the used car buying experience over 30 years ago by introducing transparency and integrity into the process. Our commitment to customer experience, innovation, and community has made us the nation’s largest used car retailer. With over 250 store locations and over 30,000 associates, we are proud to have been recognized as one of the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For® and are committed to helping our communities thrive.

As an associate, you are part of an innovative movement to empower the modern customer and drive progress. Your work fuels change—sparking ideas, overcoming challenges, and shaping what’s next. Join us in creating a better future– for our company, our customers, and the communities we call home.

CarMax is an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified candidates will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

The annual salary for this positi