This is an opportunity for a Data Platform Lead position within First Orion’s Data Engineering organization, responsible for owning, governing, designing, and evolving our enterprise data platform built on Databricks. This role will serve as the primary steward of the platform that underpins customer success, billing, analytics, AI/ML workloads, and data sharing across the organization.
In this role, you will be accountable for establishing and maintaining a scalable, governed, and cost-efficient data platform aligned with Databricks best practices and industry standards. You will work closely with engineering, data science, DevOps, security, and business stakeholders to ensure the platform enables high-quality data products and accelerates innovation while maintaining strong governance and cost visibility.
We are looking for a team player who is positive, self-motivated, and highly analytical with a strong sense of ownership. A successful candidate must demonstrate systems thinking, strong technical leadership, and the ability to drive platform strategy while supporting cross-functional teams.
What you’ll be doing:
Own and operate the Databricks platform, ensuring overall platform health and reliability
Design and enforce data platform governance using Unity Catalog and hub-and-spoke architecture
Define and implement cluster policies, compute configurations, and data access controls
Manage identity and access lifecycle including SSO/SCIM integrations
Lead FinOps practices including tagging, cost monitoring, and compute optimization
Act as primary liaison with Databricks (support, QBRs, roadmap alignment)
Define and execute platform roadmap and evaluate new features
Establish best practices and enable engineering teams
Partner with engineering teams to ensure scalability and production readiness
Ensure separation of duties across platform, engineering, and security
What you’ll need:
Bachelor’s degree or higher in Computer Science or related field
4+ years of experience in data engineering, platform engineering, or cloud infrastructure
3+ years of experience with Databricks and Apache Spark
Strong Terraform experience (modules, state management, CI/CD pipelines)
Deep understanding of Unity Catalog, including privilege inheritance, securable objects, and governance models
Experience with AWS or similar cloud platforms
Strong understanding of data governance and access control
Experience with FinOps and cost optimization
Familiarity with identity management (SSO/SCIM)
Strong SQL and distributed processing experience
Ability to design scalable and secure data architectures
Strong communication and stakeholder management skills
Bonus Points:
Experience with hub-and-spoke or data mesh architectures
Experience with AI/ML platforms and model serving
FinOps tooling experience
Cloud or Databricks certifications
Telecom or high-scale data systems experience
Company Benefits:
Balancing the work-life flow is key to health and happiness! That is why we offer one of the most competitive packages in our industry with open PTO, company paid holidays, Flex Fridays and flexible work arrangements. We strongly value the health and wellness of our teammates and through our state-of-the-art fitness center we’re helping our teammates reach their wellness goals while at work. Add on generous health and dental/vision options, retirement plans, learning and development programs, career path frameworks, tuition reimbursement, company options and bonus potential you have many ways to take advantage of a comprehensive benefits package that means the most to you!
Learn More About First Orion:
First Orion helps businesses generate more revenue, increase efficiency, and improve the customer experience by empowering them to brand their phone calls with their name, logo and reason for calling. We are the market leader in branded communications technology, and a trusted partner to Fortune 500 companies and the largest U.S. mobile carriers.
First Orion has been voted a Great Place to Work with top rankings in every category.
Learn more about what our employees have to say on our First Orion Glassdoor page and watch our People First Diversity Statement/Video.
First Orion Culture Cornerstones are at the core of everything we do here.
Disclosure:
First Orion is an Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Employer. This job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Activities, duties, and responsibilities may change at any time with or without notice, based on the changing needs of our business.
This position is not eligible for employment-based immigration visa/status sponsorship. Employees are required to demonstrate proper work authorization as required by I-9 compliance.
First Orion is interested in every qualified candidate who is eligible to work in the United States. First Orion’s immigration sponsorship policy is applied in a nondiscriminatory fashion regardless of race, gender, ethnic origin, or any other classification protected by law.
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field
- 4+ years experience in data engineering, platform engineering, or cloud infrastructure
- 3+ years experience with Databricks and Apache Spark
- Strong Terraform experience (modules, state management, CI/CD pipelines)
- Deep understanding of Unity Catalog, including privilege inheritance and governance models
- Experience with AWS or similar cloud platforms
- Strong understanding of data governance and access control
- Experience with FinOps and cost optimization
- Familiarity with identity management (SSO/SCIM)
- Strong SQL and distributed processing experience
- Ability to design scalable and secure data architectures
- Strong communication and stakeholder management skills
- Experience with hub-and-spoke or data mesh architectures
- Experience with AI/ML platforms and model serving
- FinOps tooling experience
- Cloud or Databricks certifications
- Telecom or high-scale data systems experience
What We Do
First Orion is a global provider of digital call experiences for the world's leading carriers, enterprises, and developers. The First Orion Communications Protection services provide scam, fraud, and spoof defense solutions to hundreds of millions of consumers. The company's Branded Calling solutions, INFORM® and ENGAGE®, allow businesses to customize their calls with a name, logo, and short message. Our solutions are STIR/SHAKEN-capable to deliver RCD and other technologies in the future. First Orion powers enhanced branded communication experiences for T-Mobile, Metro by T-Mobile, Boost Mobile, Sky, AT&T, along with Fortune 500 brands, PrivacyStar®, and other mobile apps. First established in 2008, First Orion is headquartered in North Little Rock, Arkansas, with offices in Seattle, London, Dubai, and Sao Paulo, and over 350 people employed globally. Make the connection at www.firstorion.com, @FirstOrionCorp, or the First Orion Blog.
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