Role Overview:As the Head of Identity & Data Platform, you will own and evolve one of the most critical layers of Zeta's platform-the systems that power identity resolution, data ingestion, enrichment, and activation. You will lead a 50-60+ person engineering organization and define the long-term strategy for how identity and data power AI-native applications across the company.
This is a highly strategic and technical leadership role requiring deep domain expertise in identity management, strong organizational leadership, and the ability to operate at both architectural and executive levels. You will directly report to the EVP & Head of Engineering.
Key Responsibilities:- Own and define the strategic roadmap for the Identity & Data Layer, covering the full lifecycle (ingest 12 resolve 12 enrich 12 activate), with clear accountability for scalability, accuracy, latency, and reliability SLAs.
- Lead and inspire a team of ~50 engineers,
- Own the evolution of identity resolution and identity graph systems, advancing deterministic and probabilistic matching, cross-channel identity, and real-time enrichment as core competitive capabilities.
- Drive the evolution
- Collaborate cross-functionally with AI, marketing, and product teams to ensure seamless integration of identity services across Zeta's platform.
- Establish the data layer as the context engine for Zeta's AI-native platform, enabling real-time features, embeddings, and data access for models, agents, and downstream applications.
- Benchmark against industry leaders and innovate ahead of the market in identity solutions.
- Ensure compliance with privacy and data governance standards (e.g., CCPA, GDPR).
- Recruit, mentor, and develop top talent, while creating a strong succession plan for critical roles.
- Partner with executive leadership on strategy, investment, and prioritization, aligning platform evolution with business outcomes and long-term scalability.
- Collaborate with DevEx and AI Enablement teams to drive adoption of AI-native engineering practices across the data layer, improving developer productivity, code quality, and system evolution velocity.
Qualifications:- 12+ years of engineering leadership, including significant time leading large-scale identity or data platforms.
- Deep domain expertise in identity resolution, identity graphs, and data enrichment-preferably with experience from a top competitor or parallel industry.
- Understand applicability, pros & cons & effectiveness of data engineering design patterns & concepts such as Data Lakehouse, Data Table Format, Zero-Copy Data Sharing, Cleanroom, Real-Time vs Batch Data Processing, High throughput distributed system APIs
- Possess experience working on data technologies equivalent to:
- Snowflake, Redshift, BigQuery
- Iceberg, Hudi, Delta
- EMR, Airflow, Spark
- Aerospike, Scylla, DynamoDB
- Proven experience managing 50+ person organizations, including directors and senior engineering managers.
- Strong understanding of data governance, privacy, and compliance, including global standards such as GDPR and CCPA.
- Track record of innovation and driving measurable outcomes, including AI-driven or data-driven product capabilities.
- Exceptional communication skills
BENEFITS & PERKS- Unlimited PTO
- Excellent medical, dental, and vision coverage
- Employee Equity
- Employee Discounts, Virtual Wellness Classes, and Pet Insurance And more!!
SALARY RANGEThe compensation range for this role is $400,000 - $500,000.00, depending on location and experience.
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