Engineering Manager, AI and Data platform

Accomplishes results primarily through management and/or experienced specialists who exercise significant latitude and independence. Provides strategic direction to one or more departments. Establishes operating policies and procedures that affect departments and subordinate sections, disciplines and work units. Interprets company-wide policies and procedures. Develops budgets, schedules, and department objectives and metrics derived from organizational objectives. Collaborate and interacts frequently with internal and external key stakeholders and senior-level business partners concerning projects, operational decisions, scheduling requirements, and/or contractual clarifications. Leads briefings and technical meetings to support IT objectives.

The Data Platform Engineering Manager will lead the Platform Management Team at Thrivent Financial, ensuring the scalability, reliability, and security of our Databricks and AWS-based data ecosystem. This role requires expertise in platform engineering, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), DevOps, DataOps, and cloud infrastructure to support the organization’s data-driven decision-making and analytics capabilities.

Duties & Responsibilities:

Designing Solutions

• Guide technical solution design and architecture for the data platform.
• Review and provide direction on system architecture, scalability, and security.
• Collaborate with engineers to drive best practices in platform design and operations.

Developing Software & Platform Engineering

• Stay hands-on with code reviews, ensuring adherence to best engineering practices.
• Ensure platform observability and reliability with monitoring, logging, and alerting.
• Lead the automation of infrastructure, CI/CD pipelines, and deployments.

Learning & Applying New Techniques

• Promote innovation by fostering continuous learning and technical excellence.
• Stay ahead of emerging trends in data platforms, DevOps, and DataOps.

Collaborating within the Team

• Support Agile practices, sprint planning, and retrospectives.
• Work closely with Product Managers to align platform capabilities with business needs.
• Foster a culture of collaboration, psychological safety, and innovation within the team.

Collaborating Across Teams & Organization

• Work cross-functionally with Data Engineering, Data Science, and Infrastructure teams.
• Advocate for standardized platform practices across multiple product teams.
• Align the platform roadmap with Thrivent’s strategic goals and technology vision.

Setting Product/Platform Technology Strategy

• Define and execute the technical roadmap for Databricks and AWS platforms.
• Influence decisions on technology upgrades, cloud cost optimization (FinOps), and automation.
• Ensure the platform supports business intelligence, AI/ML, and data governance requirements.

Defining Engineering Standards & DevOps/DataOps

• Champion engineering best practices, including DevOps, DataOps, observability, and incident management.
• Define SLAs, SLOs, and error budgets to improve reliability and uptime.
• Optimize Databricks performance, AWS infrastructure, and automation pipelines.
• Implement DataOps best practices to enhance data pipeline reliability, quality, and governance.

Selecting & Managing Technology Vendors

• Guide build vs. buy decisions for data platform technologies.
• Manage vendor relationships for Databricks, AWS services, and observability tools.

Coaching Engineers & Building Talent

• Mentor and coach engineers, supporting career growth and technical development.
• Recruit and develop high-performing platform engineers to sustain growth.
• Foster a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and technical excellence.

Qualifications & Skills:

Required:

• 8+ years of experience in data platform engineering, cloud infrastructure, or SRE.
• 3+ years of leadership experience managing engineering teams.
• Deep expertise in Databricks, AWS, Kubernetes/OpenShift, Terraform, CI/CD automation, DevOps, and DataOps.
• Strong background in cloud cost optimization (FinOps), security, and compliance.
• Experience working in Agile environments, driving cross-team collaboration.

Preferred:

• Financial services or fintech industry experience.
• Experience with Snowflake, Kafka, Airflow, dbt, Apache Iceberg, and DataOps automation.
• MBA or relevant leadership certifications.

This role is critical to ensuring Thrivent’s data platform operates efficiently, securely, and at scale. It provides the technical leadership necessary to support Thrivent’s digital transformation and data-driven strategy.

Pay Transparency

Thrivent’s long-term growth depends on attracting, rewarding, and retaining people who are committed to helping others thrive with purpose. We accomplish this by offering a wide variety of market competitive compensation programs to attract, reward, and retain top talent. The applicable salary or hourly wage range for this full-time role is $136,721.00 - $184,976.00 per year, which factors in various geographic regions. The base pay actually offered will be determined by a variety of factors including, but not limited to, location, relevant experience, skills, and knowledge, business needs, market demand, and other factors Thrivent deems important.

Thrivent is unique in our commitment to helping people to be wise with money and live balanced and generous lives. That extends to our benefits.

The following benefits may be offered: various bonuses (including, for example, annual or long-term incentives); medical, dental, and vision insurance; health savings account; flexible spending account; 401k; pension; life and accidental death and dismemberment insurance; disability insurance; supplemental protection insurance; 20 days of Paid Time Off each year; Sick and Safe Time; 10 paid company holidays; Volunteer Time Off; paid parental leave; EAP; well-being benefits, and other employee benefits. Eligibility for receipt of these benefits is subject to the applicable plan/policy documents. Thrivent’s plans/policies are subject to change at any time at Thrivent’s discretion.

Thrivent provides Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) without regard to race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, pregnancy, national origin, age, disability, marital status, citizenship status, military or veteran status, genetic information, or any other status protected by applicable local, state, or federal law. This policy applies to all employees and job applicants.

Thrivent is committed to providing reasonable accommodation to individuals with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation, please let us know by sending an email to human.resources@thrivent.com or call 800-847-4836 and request Human Resources.