Director, Data Engineering, Platform & Governance

About the Job

The LA Clippers have created the most seamless, fan-first experience in live sports at the Intuit Dome. The mission of this role is to advance the data-driven automated home-court advantage for the team and the business without losing authenticity for the fans.

The Director of Data Engineering, Platform & Governance will architect, build, and operate the Los Angeles Clippers' next-generation data platform powering fan engagement, business operations, and AI innovation across the Intuit Dome ecosystem.

This role is responsible for designing a secure, real-time, analytics- and AI-ready and unified data platform that transforms fan interaction data—including mobile app events, ticketing, marketing, concessions, computer vision, and biometric signals—into trusted, cataloged, governed datasets that power marketing, sales, operations, and AI applications.

Reporting to the Chief Data, Analytics & AI Officer, this role combines hands-on data platform leadership with enterprise data and AI governance responsibilities. During the initial phase, the Director will work with a small engineering team and will be expected to contribute directly to platform architecture, pipeline development, and governance implementation.

This is a full-time role based in Inglewood, CA and is eligible for our competitive benefit offering including medical, dental, vision, 401(k) plan with company contribution, Well-Being Allowance, and more. Due to the nature of the sports and live event industry, the candidate must be available to work a flexible schedule including evenings, weekends, and holidays, particularly around Clipper’s home games and other high-profile events.

What you'll do: 

Data Platform Architecture & Engineering; Define and deliver the Clippers' modern data and AI platform enabling real-time fan intelligence and AI.

• Architect and implement the end-to-end data platform, including edge ingestion, streaming pipelines, batch processing, and curated analytics and MLOps layers in collaboration with the infrastructure team
• Build and maintain scalable, low-latency data pipelines integrating ticketing, CRM, MarTech, concessions, IoT, and fan experience systems
• Design analytics-ready data models and marketing schemas that power segmentation, campaign orchestration, and revenue optimization
• Develop real-time data services and APIs supporting fan engagement and intelligence applications and AI products
• Establish engineering standards for data quality, observability, reliability, governance, security, and cost optimization in alignment with existing infrastructure and cyber standards and policies
• Ensure the platform supports advanced analytics, machine learning, and AI product development in collaboration with the infrastructure team

Data Engineering Leadership; Lead the design and execution of the organization’s data engineering strategy.

• Define and execute the data platform roadmap aligned with fan intelligence and AI initiatives
• Provide technical leadership across data engineering and MLOps environments
• Partner closely with AI, analytics, marketing, sales, product, security, and technology teams
• Influence vendor selection, tooling strategy, and platform architecture decisions
• Drive performance, scalability, and cost optimization across the data ecosystem
• Act as a hands-on technical leader, contributing to architecture design and engineering implementation

Data Governance & Data Trust; Establish enterprise-grade governance ensuring data is secure, trusted, and usable at scale.

• Define and enforce data governance policies and standards including quality, privacy, security, and retention
• Establish data ownership, stewardship, and enterprise data definitions
• Implement frameworks for data quality monitoring, lineage tracking, and metadata management
• Define controls for data access, sharing, and usage across internal teams and external partners in collaboration with the infrastructure team
• Partner with Legal and Security to ensure compliance with CCPA, GDPR, emerging AI regulations, and internal policies

AI Governance & Responsible AI; Establish the governance frameworks ensuring AI systems are safe, compliant, and trustworthy.

• Operational lead for the AI Governance Council, establishing governance frameworks and decision processes. Classify AI systems by risk level and regulatory impact and define approved vs restricted use cases
• Define standards for AI model lifecycle governance, including approval, monitoring, and auditability
• Implement controls for model monitoring, drift detection, bias mitigation, and human-in-the-loop oversight
• Establish guidelines for AI explainability, transparency, and customer impact review
• Ensure AI models are trained and deployed using approved, high-quality data sources and meet governance standards

Your Background, Skills and Qualifications

• 9+ years of experience in data engineering, data platform architecture, or data infrastructure
• Proven experience designing and operating modern data platforms at scale
• Strong experience with real-time streaming, batch processing, data lakehouse architectures and analytic data business logic
• Hands-on experience building data pipelines and distributed data systems
• Experience supporting AI/ML environments and MLOps pipelines
• Experience supporting MarTech stacks
• Experience implementing data governance, data quality, and privacy frameworks
• Ability to operate as a hands-on technical leader in a lean engineering environment

Technical Expertise:

• Cloud platforms (Azure , AWS, GCP)
• Data lakehouse technologies (Databricks, Azure Fabric, BigQuery, Snowflake, etc.)
• Streaming platforms (Kafka, Kinesis, Pub/Sub, or equivalent)
• Workflow orchestration (Airflow, Dagster, Prefect)
• Data transformation frameworks (dbt or equivalent)
• Data observability and monitoring tools
• API architecture and data services
• CI/CD and infrastructure-as-code practices

Governance & Leadership Experience

• Experience implementing data governance or data management frameworks
• Familiarity with AI governance, model lifecycle management, and responsible AI practices
• Experience working with privacy regulations (CCPA, GDPR)
• Ability to collaborate with legal, IT/security, marketing, product, and engineering stakeholders

About Intuit Dome: 

Intuit Dome is the new home of the LA Clippers located in Inglewood, California. Intuit Dome is built different -- it redefines fans’ expectations for live experiences and changes the music landscape in Los Angeles. 

Set to host the 2026 NBA All-Star game, Intuit Dome is over 1 million square feet and features our team training center, business operations offices, five full-sized basketball courts, an 80,000 square foot outdoor plaza and a double-sided Halo Board composed of more than an acre of LED. 

Compensation 

• The range for this position is $235,000 - $250,000 annual compensation with performance base bonus. Compensation package offered will be based on multiple individualized factors, including a candidate's job-related knowledge, skills, and experience.
• The role is classified as exempt.
• Unfortunately at this time, this position does not offer visa sponsorship. Candidates must be authorized to work in the US without sponsorship.

Benefits and Perks

We offer a competitive benefits program, including:

• Medical, Dental and Vision plans
• 401(k) plan with company contribution
• Wellbeing Allowance of up to $1,000 per year
• Paid vacation and sick time
• Paid parental leave
• Flexible Spending Accounts (Medical and Dependent Care)
• Company-paid Long Term Disability insurance
• Company-paid Life and AD&D Insurance
• Voluntary Life Insurance options for employee, spouse and children
• Employee Assistance Program
• Mind health support via Modern Health and Headspace

The LA Clippers are a proud equal opportunity employer. It is our desire and intent that all employees enjoy a professional business working environment that is free from discrimination and harassment. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment.

Qualified applications with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers and the California Fair Chance Act.

To view our employment privacy policy, please visit https://www.nba.com/clippers/california-employment-privacy-policy

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