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All Firm Types / Hedge Fund
Data Platform Engineering Lead NEW
Multi-manager hedge fund managing over $3 billion in AUM is seeking a highly experienced technical Data Platform Engineering Lead to own and scale the firm’s data platform. This is a hands-on architecture and leadership role responsible for delivering reliable, well-governed data to the Front Office, Risk, and Business teams, supporting better investment decisions and stronger returns.
The role balances building the platform with making data usable for the people and systems that rely on it. The priority is to advance the architecture, raise the bar on data modeling and governance, and expand coverage and AI-enablement in deliberate phases. It suits an engineer who leads from the front, works closely with technology teams and the business to build what users actually need, and sets clear data standards.
Key Responsibilities
- Own and operate the enterprise data platform end to end on Databricks and AWS, setting the lakehouse architecture, medallion model, orchestration, and deployment patterns
- Set the standard for data modeling and structure, ensuring data is consistent, accurate, and reliable for the teams that depend on it
- Establish and enforce data governance: entitlements and access control, lineage, cataloging, and data quality SLAs
- Build the serving layer that delivers data to PMs and Analysts
- Partner with the investment teams as the platform’s primary users, along with Risk and Quant, keeping stakeholders aligned through clear communication, status, and planning
- Onboard and integrate new data sources across vendor, market, and alternative data
- Stay hands-on as a player-coach, working in the code and the data alongside the team
- Build and mentor a small, high-performing data team, promoting engineering excellence and strong standards
- Make the firm’s data AI-ready; structured and retrieval-ready for applied AI across the firm
- Partner with the Head of Development to define clean interfaces between application services and the data platform
Key Objectives for the First 12–18 Months
- Take full ownership of the existing platform, ensuring stability, consistent delivery, and confidence from the investment, risk, and operations teams
- Publish documented data modeling standards and enforce automated data-quality tests across all core datasets
- Enforce entitlements across all production datasets and deliver data lineage and a data-quality SLA view the business can monitor
- Onboard the priority datasets from the roadmap, each delivered against a documented data contract and SLA
- Define a clear data roadmap that sequences new sources, masters, and products by business value and technical priority
Qualifications
- 10+ years of hands-on data engineering experience, with recent ownership of production data platforms
- Proven success building and operating Databricks and AWS data platforms (Unity Catalog, Delta Lake, S3, serverless compute), with expert Python, SQL, and dbt in a medallion or equivalent tiered modeling approach
- Deep expertise in data modeling: dimensional and canonical modeling, security and reference masters, point-in-time data, and identifier resolution (FIGI, RIC, ISIN, CUSIP)
- Strong data governance background: entitlements, access control, lineage, cataloging, and data quality frameworks
- Strong architectural thinking, able to define clean data contracts and modernization paths
- High engineering standards and fluency in CI/CD, testing, and observability for data
- Experience leading small, high-impact teams – player-coach mentality preferred
- Strong communication skills and the ability to engage directly with business and investment stakeholders
- Prior hedge fund, asset management, or trading systems experience across market, reference, and alternative data highly desirable
Tech Stack
- Languages & Frameworks: Python, SQL, dbt
- Platform & Lakehouse: Databricks (Unity Catalog, Delta Lake, serverless compute), AWS (S3, Athena)
- Ingestion & Orchestration: Databricks Workflows, Airflow, managed connectors, web scraping
- Data Quality & Observability: dbt tests, Elementary, Datadog
- CI/CD & Version Control: Bitbucket Pipelines, contract and data testing frameworks
- Serving & Consumption: SQL endpoints/MCPs, Databricks dashboards and apps, Excel integration, email-ready reporting
Post ID: 00118
Oban Cooper
Director of Prop Trading & Technology Recruitment
Oban is the Director of Prop Trading & Technology Recruitment, joining Banyak Group in 2022. He is responsible for leading retained search practices for Prop Trading Firms, Crypto Trading Firms, and Market Makers, while cross-functionally working with Hedge Funds, Asset Managers, and Family Offices. Additionally, he operates as a software developer building proprietary tools and infrastructure to optimize our recruitment efficiency.
Prior to joining Banyak Group, Oban was a licensed Private Investigator in the State of Florida with one of the world’s largest full-service investigation firms, CoventBridge Group. He has also held positions in sales, web design, and customer service, and spent most of his early career as an entrepreneur in Ecommerce.
Oban holds a Masters in Public Administration, a Masters in Criminal Justice, and a Bachelors in Criminal Justice, all from the University of Central Florida. He prides himself on being a versatile talent and a curious mind. Oban currently resides in Orlando, FL, with dreams of owning a farm.
D. Alexander Gannes
Founder & Managing Principal
Alex is a Senior Retained Search Consultant and Advisor within the Investment Management Industry. He founded Banyak Group, a Retained Search, Consultancy, and Advisory firm to provide human capital management leadership to Hedge Funds, Asset Managers, Family Offices, Private Equity Funds, Venture Capital Funds, FinTech firms, Investment Banks, Market Makers, and Blockchain Technology companies. An expert in his field, Alex also serves as an advisor, coach, and mentor to those launching and scaling investment firms as well as those navigating their professional careers.
Prior to founding Banyak Group, Alex was a Senior Search Consultant and Head of the Quantitative Strategies and Risk Management Practice as well as the Director of Research with retained search firm, Bay Street Advisors. He began his career in executive search and recruitment with Strategic Workforce Solutions as a specialist to the investment management and investment banking industries.
Alex is a proud Michigan State University Eli Broad College of Business alumni, has an adventurous spirit, and is an avid world traveler. He is bi-coastal and resides in Laguna Beach, California with his family.
Lindsay Daher
Executive Assistant and Recruitment Coordinator
Lindsay is an Executive Assistant and Recruitment Coordinator, joining Banyak Group in 2022. As Recruitment Coordinator, she supports research and sourcing efforts and serves as the key point of contact across Banyak Group’s book of business. As Executive Assistant to the Managing Principal, Lindsay identifies, implements, manages, and enhances the firm’s operational processes and systems.
Prior to joining Banyak Group, Lindsay was an admin for a private medical practice and a researcher performing pre-employment background checks. With administrative experience exclusively supporting small businesses, she possesses a deep understanding in establishing trust and applying exceptional standards of service.
Lindsay discovered her aptitude for office management while completing her dual Bachelor degrees in International Security & Diplomacy and History at the University of North Texas. She is an outdoors enthusiast and avid astrophile. She is a South Florida native currently residing in Fort Lauderdale, FL.