Senior Managing Director - Head of Enterprise Data

TIAA•Frisco, TX

About The Position

Every worker deserves a secure retirement. For more than 100 years, TIAA has delivered it for millions of people. Founded to help educators retire with dignity, today we are a market-leading retirement company fueled by world-class asset management. We are not just another legacy financial services firm — we are fighting harder than ever before for our clients and the many Americans who need us. This Senior Managing Director (SMD), Head of Data is a foundational enterprise leadership role within TIAA's Data Office, reporting directly to the Chief Data and AI Officer. This leader will own the vision, strategy, and execution of TIAA's enterprise data function spanning data product development, architecture and governance, business partnership, and data infrastructure. This is not a project management or reporting function. The SMD sits at the intersection of Data Engineering, Enterprise Data Architecture, Enterprise Data Governance, and business domain expertise, and is accountable for the end-to-end lifecycle of Data Products from intake and design through delivery, certification, and ongoing operations. This leader will build a portfolio of durable enterprise data products that become the system of record for analytics, reporting, and future AI use cases across TIAA. These products are designed to be reusable across functions, scalable across domains, and governed by design reducing duplication, improving trust, and accelerating decision-making enterprise-wide. This role leads domain-aligned data product teams and partners closely with the CTO and CIO organizations to ensure data products are built on scalable patterns, shared infrastructure, and enterprise standards. By establishing strong product ownership, technical rigor, and operational discipline, this leader ensures TIAA's data assets evolve from one-off deliverables into long-lived, business-ready products that support growth, efficiency, and innovation across the enterprise. Strategic Accountability (What Success Looks Like) Data Product Excellence: Own a portfolio of enterprise-grade data products that serve as trusted, reusable assets across TIAA's business domains enabling consistent analytics, reporting, and decision-making at scale. Deliver measurable improvements in data product adoption, quality, and business impact. Enterprise Data Governance: Build and enforce the enterprise data management framework including standards, policies, data lifecycle management, and certification processes ensuring data quality, security, and trustworthiness across the organization. Business Impact & Alignment: Partner closely with business lines including Marketing, Finance, Product, and Retirement Solutions to translate business needs into scalable data product designs that directly influence strategy, growth, and operational efficiency. Technology & Infrastructure Leadership: Define data standards and align with CTO/CIO teams to improve data accessibility, infrastructure scalability, and analytical usability — ensuring TIAA's data platform evolves in concert with enterprise technology priorities. Analytical Rigor & Experimentation: Own company-wide metric definitions, experimentation standards, and analytics prioritization — driving clarity, consistency, and accountability in decision-making at the executive and operational levels.

Requirements

10+ years of experience in data, analytics, or data engineering roles, including senior leadership experience across analytics, analytics engineering, data engineering, and/or data science
Minimum 7 years in leadership roles managing distributed data teams and/or complex data programs
Proven track record building and leading data teams that drive meaningful business outcomes
Demonstrated success building enterprise-scale data products that are reusable across functions, governed by design, and trusted by the business
Experience managing data programs in highly regulated industries, particularly financial services, insurance, or fintech, with stringent data quality, compliance, and availability requirements
Demonstrated success leading data strategy during major platform migrations, data modernization initiatives, or enterprise data transformation programs
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, Statistics, or a related field preferred
Strong technical depth in data engineering, analytics architecture, and data modeling with the credibility to engage meaningfully with engineering teams
Deep expertise in data lifecycle management from ingestion and transformation through consumption and certification
Experience building and operating a modern data stack (e.g., Snowflake) with a focus on scalability, data modeling, and metrics design
Proficiency with data governance platforms including catalog, lineage, quality, and certification tooling
Familiarity with cloud data operations (AWS, Azure, GCP) and hybrid cloud data architectural models
Working knowledge of CI/CD pipelines, automation frameworks, and DataOps practices that support reliable, scalable data product delivery
Understanding of enterprise security, data privacy, and regulatory requirements affecting financial services data environments (SOC2, SOX, SEC regulations)
Exceptional ability to translate business needs into scalable data product designs with a track record of turning ambiguous business problems into clear analytical approaches and outcomes
Strong executive communication skills translating technical data concepts into business impact and risk language
Strategic thinking balancing immediate data quality and operational stability needs with the long-term imperative to build durable, enterprise-grade data capabilities
Demonstrated ability to build trust and credibility with business partners, engineering teams, and executive stakeholders
Talent development mindset committed to coaching senior leaders and their teams through technical and cultural transformations
Comfortable operating in ambiguity, driving clarity, structure, and execution discipline across complex, cross-functional data programs
Strong partnership mindset with platform engineering, governance, business domain, and technology leaders

Responsibilities

Lead a team of technologists supporting the data infrastructure across the business
Provide technology leadership as well as domain and data expertise
Lead the overall data vision and strategy while also ensuring the business' data strategy fits holistically with the enterprise
Own the data lifecycle from sourcing of data, contracts and vendor management, data integrity and governance as well as data infrastructure and engineering
Perform analysis and evaluation of new data sources, products, and solutions used
Provide technical leadership to business partners to guide an informed decision-making process and successfully execute projects on time and on budget
Interact with and drive other IT teams as required to leverage enterprise services and server as an advocate for the business
Manages performance of teams through regular, timely feedback as well as the formal performance review process to ensure delivery of exceptional services and engagement, motivation, and development of teams.
Business Partnership & Value Creation Collaborate directly and deeply with business lines and shared services to align data initiatives with business objectives and identify data-driven opportunities to drive growth and efficiency
Translate ambiguous business problems into clear analytical approaches and measurable outcomes
Own company-wide metric definitions and experimentation standards, driving clarity and accountability in how the organization measures performance and tests hypotheses
Communicate complex data concepts and trade-offs to non-technical executives in clear, business-oriented language
Leadership & Stakeholder Management Lead and develop a high-performing data organization with both internal staff and vendor partners to ensure consistent delivery, operational accountability, and continuous capability growth across all data disciplines.
Invest in the growth and development of senior leaders and their teams, with a strong emphasis on building technical credibility, enterprise thinking, and business partnership skills that elevate the entire data organization
Foster a culture of accountability, continuous learning, and data-driven decision-making setting the standard for how the Data Office operates and is perceived across TIAA
Data Product Development & Operations Set the strategic direction for the data product portfolio across TIAA's business domains, ensuring products align to enterprise architecture standards and business priorities while driving adoption across the organization
Champion the data product vision with executive stakeholders, business partners, and the CDAIO building organizational commitment, securing investment, and removing barriers to execution
Partner across the Dat & AI Office leadership team to ensure data products are not siloed deliverables but durable, reusable enterprise assets that support analytics, reporting, and future AI use cases at scale
Architecture & Governance Set and enforce the enterprise standards for data governance, data quality, and architecture ensuring TIAA has clear, working policies, procedures, and lifecycle management practices that teams can consistently apply and that hold up under regulatory scrutiny
Serve as the senior executive voice and sponsor for data governance in enterprise forums, steering committees, and cross-functional leadership discussions actively selling the value of governance as a business enabler rather than a compliance obligation
Represent the Data Office in enterprise architecture and technology strategy conversations, ensuring data governance and architecture decisions are aligned with TIAA's broader platform and cloud modernization roadmap
Technology & Infrastructure Alignment Define enterprise data standards and serve as the primary data leader in partnership with CTO and CIO teams to improve data accessibility, platform scalability, and infrastructure modernization
Align data tooling and architecture decisions with enterprise technology strategy and cloud migration roadmaps
Drive continuous improvement in data infrastructure metrics including pipeline reliability, data freshness, query performance, and consumption-layer usability

Benefits

The organization is committed to making financial well-being possible for its clients, and is equally committed to the well-being of our associates. That’s why we offer a comprehensive Total Rewards package designed to make a positive difference in the lives of our associates and their loved ones. Our benefits include a superior retirement program and highly competitive health, wellness and work life offerings that can help you achieve and maintain your best possible physical, emotional and financial well-being.

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