Director, Data Platform

Description

At Credit Acceptance, we are building on the foundation of a successful business while investing in the future through technology, data, AI, and continuous improvement. As we continue to evolve, our Team Members play an active role in improving experiences, driving meaningful change, and shaping the future of our business. We foster an environment where people are empowered to contribute ideas, develop their careers, make an impact, and help lead our continued transformation.

Our Engineering teams are helping shape the future of Credit Acceptance through innovation. Team Members collaborate across the organization to solve complex challenges, build impactful solutions, challenge the status quo, and support informed business decisions. We value curiosity, continuous learning, and new ideas from people who are passionate about driving modernization and meaningful business impact.

Outcomes and Activities:

Develop and drive the long-term vision for enterprise data platforms and architecture, ensuring alignment with business growth and AI success

Formulate and implement data platform strategy across the data space including but not limited to big data, real time, transaction/operational, governance, that transform the way how we work with data in the era of AI

Oversee the architecture, design and development of scalable data platform that enable self-serve success with various use cases across the company by taking a platform and AI first approach

Ensure solid production success that meets business need and speed, establish strong finops discipline with timely and insightful info to continuously optimize our economics including forecast, runtime and “showback” to the business

Effectively communicate data technologies, strategies, roadmap and progress to executive leadership and stakeholders, ensuring alignment with the firm’s broader vision and goals.

Stay ahead of industry trends and emerging technologies, translating them into actionable initiatives to drive innovation and maintain the firm’s market leadership.

Build strong engineering organization and foster solid engineering discipline by leading with examples and mentoring team members

Collaborate both with the data team and cross engineering on technology and architecture strategy and decision

Exemplify technical innovation and contribute to critical system design, implementation and operation success

Formulate technology and architecture decision framework that embeds engineering discipline

Become an expert in the business process domain to better support the business and align technologies with the business outcomes

Work with the engineering leadership team to develop and execute on the company’s technical and business strategy

Conduct impact analysis to proactively identify impact of a change across multiple applications/systems

Perform technical due diligence and architectural assessments of third-party technologies and solutions.

Experiment and test ideas, validate assumptions against needs, reach conclusions and recommend solutions

Document standards, best practices, and engineering artifacts so others can easily understand, build and maintain best in class software systems

Debug the critical problems which arise in production and execute effective solutions within the application and across multiple applications/systems

Lead continuous learning and process improvement activities to improve design and overall engineering practices

Grow talent by participating in hiring and mentoring team members

Competencies:

Customer Empathy: Customer Empathy is the ability to understand the perspectives, pain points, and experiences of customers. It involves actively putting oneself in the customer’s shoes, comprehending their needs and challenges, and using that understanding to provide a better, more customer-centric experience.

Engineering Excellence: Engineering Excellence is about bringing great craftsmanship and thought leadership to deliver an outstanding product that delights customers and solves for the business. This involves the pursuit and achievement of high standards, best practices, innovation, and superior solutions.

One Team: A One Team mindset refers to a collaborative approach across the organization, where individuals work together seamlessly, without boundaries, as a single, cohesive team. Shared goals, open communication and mutual support create a sense of collective purpose. This enables teams to navigate challenges and pursue shared objectives more effectively.

Owner’s Mindset: Owner’s Mindset involves adopting a set of behaviors that reflect a sense of responsibility, accountability, strategic thinking, and a proactive approach to managing your domain. As an owner, you understand the business and your domain(s) deeply and solve for the right outcome for the domain(s) and the business.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or closely related field of study; or equivalent work experience
• Minimum 10 years of software engineering experience or comparable depth of experience
• Experience in the leadership role overseeing technical direction of data platform, technology and architecture
• Expert knowledge of software engineering best practices with experience building modern data platform, product and solutions, especially in enabling AI success
• Expert understanding and use of modern data technology end 2 end including but not limited to source system, data integration, data acquisition, data ingestion, data transformation, data aggregation, data governance, business intelligence, data warehouse, data lake, NoSQL, object storage, streaming etc.
• Extensive experience with building and driving adoption of software engineering best practices
• Strong understanding of AI, distributed systems, cloud computing, and microservices architectures
• Demonstrated success in building strong engineering organization and attract/recruit/grow/retain talents
• Demonstrated success in building mission-critical enterprise class data platform that delivers business impact
• Demonstrated ability to work with business partners, cross functional team members and coach and mentor experienced team members
• In-depth experience with building big data real time production system that delivers business success
• Experienced in communicating and articulating technology subjects in the context of business and providing timely and clear communication
• Well versed in delivery mechanisms such as Agile
• Candidates must reside in or be willing to relocate to one of the following hub locations: the greater Southfield, Michigan, area; the greater Bellevue, Washington, area; or the San Francisco Bay Area, California.
• Preferred:
• Financial services or FinTech industry experience
• Knowledge and Skills:
• Architecture and Design: Ability to implement world class solutions that meet the needs of the business and customer, and help deliver growth and innovation.
• Leadership: Be a thought leader and demonstrate leadership to mentor team members, influence change and drive for the business outcome
• Ability to challenge the status quo and influence stakeholders to create innovative solutions
• Be collaborative with other team members, seeking a diversity of thought to meet business outcomes
• Ability to foster strong relationships across the organization
• Bring a strong understanding of relevant and emerging technologies, provide input and coach team members and embed learning and innovation in the day-to-day
• Strong experience and understanding of how to connect the work being done and how it drives business value
• Ability to communicate complex technical information (both verbal and written) to all levels, including senior leadership
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team in a fast-paced, dynamic environment.
• Target Compensation: This position offers a competitive base salary, with a range of $250,513 - $350,718.
• This position is eligible for an annual variable incentive of cash and equity, between 20 - 60%. Actual amounts are based on individual performance.
• Final compensation within the range is influenced by many factors including assigned hub location, role-specific skills, depth and experience level, industry background, relevant education and certifications.
• This position follows a hybrid work model, offering two work-from-home days and three standard in-office days each week with the team and key stakeholders at a local office.
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Benefits

• Excellent benefits package that includes 401(K) match, adoption assistance, parental leave, tuition reimbursement, comprehensive medical/ dental/vision and many nonstandard benefits that make us a Great Place to Work
• Our Company Values:
• To be successful in this role, Team Members need to be:
• Positive by maintaining resiliency and focusing on solutions
• Respectful by collaborating and actively listening
• Insightful by cultivating innovation, accumulating business and role specific knowledge, demonstrating self-awareness and making quality decisions
• Direct by effectively communicating and conveying courage
• Earnest by taking accountability, applying feedback and effectively planning and priority setting
• Expectations:
• Remain compliant with our policies processes and legal guidelines
• All other duties as assigned
• Attendance as required by department
• Advice !
• We understand that your career search may look different than others. Our hiring team wants to make sure that this would be a fit not just for us, but for you long term. If you are actively looking or starting to explore new opportunities, send us your application!
• P.S .
• We have great details around our stats, success, history and more. We’re proud of our culture and are happy to share why – let’s talk!
• Required degrees must have been earned at institutions of Higher Education which are accredited by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation or equivalent.
• California Residents: Please click here for the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) notice regarding the personal information Credit Acceptance may collect from you.
• Play the video below to learn more about our Company culture.