At
American Express
, our culture is built on a 175-year history of innovation, shared
values
, and Leadership Behaviors — and an unwavering commitment to back our customers, colleagues, and communities. As part of
Team Amex
, you’ll experience this powerful backing through holistic well-being, continuous learning, and opportunities to grow as a leader and define the future of American Express.
We are seeking a
strategic and hands-on Director of Data Engineering
to lead the
Lumi Migration and Accelerator Engineering
initiatives, based in
Chennai, India
. This leader will drive Lumi’s data modernization journey by developing automation frameworks, accelerators, and validation tools that power large-scale migrations from legacy systems to Lumi’s
cloud-native (GCP) platform
. The ideal candidate combines deep engineering expertise with platform vision and strong execution capabilities to deliver automation-first, scalable, and resilient data transformation solutions.
This role will closely partner with the
Lumi Product team
on the enterprise data migration roadmap, the
UDM team
to leverage and enhance the Data Ingestion Framework (DIF), and the
Lumi Platform team
to coordinate platform-level engineering and integration efforts.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead design and delivery of
Lumi data accelerators
automating migration, transformation, and validation at scale.
- Own the
end-to-end migration lifecycle
— from planning and execution to validation and post-migration stabilization.
- Build
reusable tools, APIs, and frameworks
that standardize modernization workflows and enable self-service onboarding.
- Develop
automation pipelines
for metadata extraction, schema mapping, lineage, and code conversion to
GCP-native services
(BigQuery, Dataproc, Dataflow).
- Collaborate with
Lumi Product
,
UDM
, and
Platform
teams to ensure alignment of frameworks, governance, and platform capabilities.
- Define and enforce
engineering standards
for scalability, performance, and cost efficiency.
- Create
validation and reconciliation frameworks
ensuring accuracy, completeness, and data quality during and after migration.
- Integrate
data governance, lineage, and compliance controls
across all automation pipelines.
- Implement
observability and reliability engineering practices
using Prometheus, Grafana, or Stackdriver.
- Oversee
migration operations
, ensuring SLA adherence, data integrity, and proactive incident management.
- Define and track
KPIs/OKRs
for automation adoption, migration velocity, and operational excellence.
- Mentor and develop
high-performing teams
focused on automation, GCP engineering, and platform innovation.
- Foster a culture of
engineering excellence, collaboration, and continuous improvement
across Lumi’s global teams.
Minimum Qualifications
- 10–15 years in
Data Platform Engineering, Software Development
, or
Cloud Automation
, leading large-scale data migration or tooling initiatives.
- Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in
Computer Science, Engineering
, or a related field.
- Proven expertise in
automation frameworks, validation tools
, and
data migration engineering
.
- Strong experience with
distributed data frameworks
(Spark, Beam, Flink) and
GCP services
(BigQuery, Dataproc, Dataflow, GCS).
- Background in
metadata management, lineage
, and
governance integration
(Collibra, Apache Atlas, Informatica).
- Proficiency in
CI/CD
and
Infrastructure-as-Code
(Terraform, Jenkins, Argo, GitHub Enterprise).
- Solid understanding of
observability, SRE, and fault-tolerant design
for large-scale data platforms.
- Strong stakeholder management skills and proven ability to lead
Agile, globally distributed
engineering teams.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience in
BFSI or FinTech
data modernization or cloud migration programs.
- Exposure to
AI/ML data pipelines
for analytics, fraud, or risk modeling.
- Experience implementing
FinOps
and cloud cost-optimization strategies.
- Knowledge of
data compliance and risk management
in enterprise environments.
- GCP Professional Data Engineer
or
Cloud Architect
certification.
We back you with benefits that support your holistic well-being so you can be and deliver your best. This means caring for you and your loved ones' physical, financial, and mental health, as well as providing the flexibility you need to thrive personally and professionally:
- Competitive base salaries
- Bonus incentives
- Support for financial-well-being and retirement
- Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, life insurance, and disability benefits (depending on location)
- Flexible working model with hybrid, onsite or virtual arrangements depending on role and business need
- Generous paid parental leave policies (depending on your location)
- Free access to global on-site wellness centers staffed with nurses and doctors (depending on location)
- Free and confidential counseling support through our Healthy Minds program
- Career development and training opportunities
American Express is an equal opportunity employer and makes employment decisions without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran status, disability status, age, or any other status protected by law.
Offer of employment with American Express is conditioned upon the successful completion of a background verification check, subject to applicable laws and regulations.