Samba is a media intelligence company. We know what the world is watching, reading, and thinking about — in real time, at scale, across every screen. Our data exists with the consent of over a billion people, organized into the most complete picture of consumer attention ever built. The biggest brands in the world use that picture to make smarter decisions. We think it’s the most interesting data asset on the planet, because it’s the most culturally relevant.
We're seeking a Senior Director to lead and transform our data platform and cloud services architecture. This role is not about incremental improvements – we need someone who can lead and execute a leap forward in our data infrastructure capabilities, positioning Samba at the forefront of TV data analytics and AI-driven insights.
What you’ll do:
Strategic Leadership
- Define and execute a transformative vision for our data platform architecture that scales to billions of daily events
- Partner with CTO and engineering leadership to align platform strategy with business objectives
- Drive adoption of next-generation technologies including vector databases and ML-powered analytics
- Build strategic roadmaps that balance innovation with operational excellence
Who you are:
- 12+ years in data platform/infrastructure roles, with 5+ years in senior leadership
- Proven track record of leading large-scale platform transformations
- Experience building production embedding systems and vector databases
- History of building and scaling teams of 20+ engineers
- Deep expertise in modern data architectures (data mesh, lakehouse, streaming-first)
- Proficiency with, Stream processing (Kafka, Flink, Spark Streaming), Modern data warehouses/lakes (Snowflake, Databricks, BigQuery), Workflow management (Airflow, etc), Container orchestration (Kubernetes, EKS/GKE), Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, CloudFormation), ML platforms (MLflow, Kubeflow, SageMaker)
- Exceptional communication skills to articulate complex technical concepts to diverse audiences
- Strategic thinking with ability to balance long-term vision with short-term deliverables
- Strong business acumen to connect technical decisions with business outcomes
- Track record of influencing without authority across organizational boundaries
- Knowledge of privacy-preserving analytics and clean room technologies
- Contributions to open-source projects in ML infrastructure or vector search
- Advanced degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or related field
Samba is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We strive to empower connection with one another, reflect the communities we serve, and tackle meaningful projects that make a real impact.
Samba may collect personal information directly from you, as a job applicant, Samba may also receive personal information from third parties, for example, in connection with a background, employment or reference check, in accordance with the applicable law. For further details, please see Samba's Applicant Privacy Policy. For residents of the EU , Samba Inc. is the data controller.
