Director of Data Engineering

Insurance · E&S specialty

Head of Data Engineering

Function   Data engineering

Schedule   Hybrid, up to 25% travel

Line   E&S specialty insurance

Scope   Founding role

The opportunity

This is a founding role. The company is building its US data platform from the ground up, and the Head of Data Engineering owns the whole build: strategy, architecture, delivery, and the outcomes.

Every underwriting decision, pricing model, claim outcome, regulatory filing, and dollar reported to the parent runs on this platform. You set the data agenda for the enterprise and stand accountable for it at the executive level.

You'll build through an extended delivery organization: the group's global data capabilities, a strategic Snowflake partnership, and contracted vendor teams. You direct that output and own it as your own.

About the company

A US excess and surplus (E&S) specialty insurer, operating as the US platform of a London-based parent group. The US business is early enough that the data foundation is still being built, and connected enough that group finance and actuarial teams in London depend on what it produces.

What you'll own

Enterprise data strategy and architecture. Own how data is captured, modeled, governed, and distributed across every function and line of business. Define the canonical data model, the single semantic authority for policy, claim, billing, and financial data, and enforce it across vendor platforms. You have the authority to accept or reject integrations on data quality and schema conformance. You set the enterprise data standards, and you hold the organization to them.

Platform ownership and delivery. Own the whole platform: event ingestion from the Kafka backbone, the Snowflake analytics hub, dbt transformation layers, and the semantic and reporting layers above them, from greenfield to production on the timeline the business needs. Lead the Snowflake partnership as the company's primary data relationship, and direct its professional services and engineering resources as an extension of your function. Build automated pipelines for bordereaux ingestion, validation, and reconciliation across MGA programs, TPA claims feeds, and reinsurer reporting. Own platform reliability, scale, and cost as a production operation.

Financial and regulatory data. Own the architecture serving US GAAP, US Statutory, and IFRS 17 reporting from a single transaction-level foundation: one data spine, 3 frameworks, no re-keying. Stand personally accountable for the data behind statutory filings, NAIC reporting, AM Best submissions, and state examinations, for its accuracy, completeness, and auditability. Deliver the quarterly and annual data to the parent group, and own the relationship with group finance and actuarial consumers in London.

Governance, analytics, and AI. Own the enterprise data governance framework: ownership, stewardship, lineage, quality, and access control, enforced in the architecture itself. Lead compliance with data regulation (NYDFS Part 500, state privacy statutes, group data policies) alongside compliance and security leadership. Own the analytics estate and the data foundation for every AI capability the company deploys, and deliver a single trusted version of performance to leadership, underwriting, actuarial, and finance.

Extended team and partner leadership. Run a delivery model built on partners: mobilize group data engineering, lead contracted vendor teams, and own the commercial and performance management of every partner in the data estate. Define the operating model and standards of the function, and shape the case for internal hires as the platform grows. Represent the US platform to group data, finance, and technology leadership in London, securing group resources where they speed the build and holding startup-speed autonomy where they don't.

You'll also work across underwriting, claims, finance, operations, and product, and take part in enterprise planning and executive decision-making.

What we're looking for

Required

• A bachelor's degree in computer science, data engineering, information systems, or a related quantitative field
• 10+ years in data engineering, data architecture, or enterprise data platform leadership, including accountability for production data platforms at scale
• Hands-on depth with the modern cloud data stack: Snowflake, dbt, and event-streaming platforms like Kafka
• A record of leading enterprise data platform builds and vendor delivery teams from greenfield to production
• A working understanding of US Excess and Surplus specialty insurance products and underwriting dynamics
• Executive-level communication, and the ability to influence senior stakeholders

Preferred

• P&C insurance data structures (policy, claims, billing, bordereaux) and multi-framework financial reporting (US GAAP, US Statutory, IFRS 17)
• Snowflake, dbt, or cloud data platform certifications (SnowPro, AWS, Azure)
• Experience supporting executive teams and board-level discussions
• An MBA or equivalent

Core skills

Enterprise data strategy and architecture. Cloud data platforms (Snowflake, dbt, Kafka). Canonical data modeling and semantic layer design. Data governance, lineage, and quality. Financial and regulatory data (US GAAP, Statutory, IFRS 17). Bordereaux automation. Analytics, BI, and AI data enablement. Vendor and partner delivery management.

Logistics

Hybrid, with up to 25% travel for leadership meetings, broker and client engagements, and industry events. Full health, retirement, and wellbeing benefits.

How to apply

Lyneer Search Group is running this search. We're the specialist search firm for insurance, wealth management, and financial services, and one of HuntScanlon's 2025 America's Top 250. Apply through Lyneer Search Group at lyneersearch.com.

Evaluated through the Lyneer Executive Search Strategy™

Every candidate is assessed across four dimensions: technical skill, leadership capability, cultural alignment, and long-term growth potential.

In confidence: hello@lyneersearch.com · 646-543-8865