Director, Data Platform & AI Acceleration

Dave vs. Goliath. We’re Dave.

Dave is a financial app on a mission to build products that level the financial playing field. It is redefining the financial landscape by leveraging technology to create an affordable, transparent, and user-centric access to liquidity for millions of Americans. As a leading innovator in the U.S. financial services sector, Dave’s digital financial platform offers products designed to meet the credit needs of those underserved by traditional financial institutions. Dave’s offerings include its flagship ExtraCash product, providing members up to $500 in short-term advances within minutes. The company is on track to launch several new product offerings in 2026, including a Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) option.

Dave is focused on serving Americans who are financially vulnerable or living paycheck to paycheck. Dave is leading the charge in creating a new era of credit products that prioritizes speed, affordability, and accessibility, making it the go-to financial partner for those who need it most.

The Opportunity

You’ll own the full data lifecycle (ingestion, transformation, modeling, serving, access, quality, lineage) and accelerate AI enablement across the company. Design and evolve data platform and AI Acceleration team. Measure and increase automation across all data and analytics surfaces. Help product, analytics, and science teams move faster because of the platform.

You’ll treat the data platform as a product. Your customers are internal teams. Their velocity is your scorecard.

What You’ll Build and Own

• Define and evolve the end-to-end data platform architecture across batch, streaming, and real-time use cases.
• Embed governance into infrastructure — data quality, lineage, semantic layer, access control, and compliance enforced by design rather than manual process.
• Build scalable ingestion, transformation, and modeling layers that create reliable, trusted, AI-ready datasets for analytics, product, finance, and science teams.
• Accelerate AI adoption through last mile tooling and increase automation.
• Establish operational excellence: clear SLAs, monitoring, observability, cost management and incident response practices that build trust across the company.
• Hire, develop, and retain strong data platform and AI engineers while fostering a culture of ownership, reliability, and thoughtful trade-offs.
• Partner closely with Analytics, Product, Science, Compliance, and Engineering to ensure the platform evolves with business needs.

The Impact

When the platform works well, teams ship faster. Decisions are grounded in trusted data and automation. AI moves from experiment to production responsibly. Your leadership directly increases company velocity and strengthens the products that serve our members.

What We’re Looking For

Experience & Technical Foundation

• 10+ years in data engineering or data platform roles.
• 5+ years leading and scaling engineering teams.
• Proven experience designing and operating end-to-end data platforms (ingestion → modeling → serving) in production environments.
• Deep understanding of data modeling approaches across raw, curated, and consumption layers.
• Proficiency with AI-native development workflows. You use LLMs, agentic coding tools, and AI-assisted automation is a regular part of how you build.
• Experience embedding data quality, lineage, access control, and compliance into platform infrastructure.
• Strong architectural judgment across batch and streaming systems.
• Experience building infrastructure that enables AI/ML teams (e.g., feature stores, experiment pipelines, model-serving integrations).

Bonus

• Experience in fintech or regulated environments.
• Experience modernizing or re-architecting legacy data platforms.

What Makes Someone Successful Here

You take ownership of the full lifecycle. You collaborate cross-functionally with Product, Eng, and scientists to design systems that hold up under scale and scrutiny. You balance speed with durability and understand when to invest in long-term platform integrity versus short-term. You improve workflows for others, not just the platform itself.

You think in systems. You understand how ingestion decisions affect modeling, how modeling affects analytics trust, and how governance choices affect product velocity. You build infrastructure that quietly enforces quality and compliance so teams don’t have to rely on manual checks.

You also lead with clarity. You hire thoughtfully, coach engineers into broader ownership, and create an environment where reliability and end-to-end ownership are shared. In a fully remote setting, you establish clear operating rhythms, visibility into work, and strong cross-functional alignment without micromanagement.

What to Expect

We operate fully remote with high autonomy and strong accountability. Priorities evolve as product and AI needs expand. You’ll have executive visibility and real influence over architecture, tooling, and team design. Decisions are data-informed and collaborative, especially when trade-offs affect multiple teams.

Why Join Dave

• Own the trusted data and AI foundation for a profitable, public fintech.
• Enable product and science teams to move faster and more confidently.
• Partner directly with senior leadership on long-term data and AI strategy.
• Contribute to products that improve financial outcomes for millions of members.
• Build governance into infrastructure.

Ready to build for the underdog?

Don’t let imposter syndrome get in your way of an incredible opportunity. We’re looking for people who can help us achieve our mission and vision, not just check off the boxes. If you’re excited about this role, we encourage you to apply. You may just be the right candidate for this or other roles.

Why you’ll love working here

At Dave, our people are just as important as our product. Our culture is a reflection of our values that guide who we are, how we work, and what we aspire to be. Daves are member centric, helpful, transparent, persistent, and better together. We strive to create an environment where all Daves feel valued, heard, and empowered to do their best work. As a virtual first company, team members can live and work anywhere in the United States, with the exception of Hawaii. 

A few of our benefits & perks:

💚 Opportunity to tackle tough challenges, learn and grow from fellow top talent, and help millions of people reach their personal financial goals

💻 Flexible hours and virtual first work culture with a home office stipend

🏥 Premium Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance plans

👶 Generous paid parental and caregiver leave

💰 401(k) savings plan with matching contributions

📈 Financial advisor and financial wellness support

🏖️ Flexible PTO and generous company holidays, including Juneteenth and Winter Break

🎉 All-company in-person events once or twice a year and virtual events throughout to connect with your team members and leadership team

Dave Operating LLC is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer and is dedicated to cultivating a diverse and inclusive workplace. We will consider for employment all qualified applicants and do not discriminate on any basis protected by federal, state, or local law, including the City of Los Angeles’ Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance relating to an applicant's criminal history.