Director, Platform Development

Versant Media’s Data Platforms team is the central data store across the enterprise. We unify disparate systems into a secure, well-governed, real-time data environment that powers downstream products, analytics, and content delivery experiences.

We are seeking a Director, Platform Development to lead the design, buildout, and evolution of our modern data platform. This is a hands-on leadership role for someone who is equally comfortable writing production code, setting architectural direction, and managing a small but growing team.

In the near term, this role will be a key individual contributor responsible for building foundational platform capabilities. Over time, the focus will shift toward people leadership, planning, and execution management as the team scales.

This role reports to the VP of Data Platforms and is expected to act as a technical and operational anchor for the organization.

Responsibilities

Lead the design and implementation of core backend services and data platform components using Node.js and TypeScript

Establish and evolve platform architecture, design patterns, and engineering standards

Own and triage intake requests, balancing short-term delivery with long-term platform health

Partner closely with governance, analytics, and downstream consumers to ensure the platform supports: Scalable data ingestion and access patterns

Lakehouse-style architectures

ELT pipelines

Metadata, lineage, and governance requirements

Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines that enable safe, repeatable, and observable deployments

Set expectations and best practices around: Object-oriented design and proven design patterns

Test-driven development (TDD) and strong automated test coverage

Secure development lifecycle (SDL) principles

Hire, mentor, and manage engineers as the team grows

Conduct code and design reviews, providing clear technical guidance

Collaborate effectively in a matrixed enterprise environment with both legacy systems and modern platforms

Gradually transition from primary IC to people and execution leadership as the platform matures

Deep foundation in software engineering fundamentals, including: Object-oriented programming

Design patterns

API and service design

Solid understanding of data engineering concepts, including: Lakehouse architectures

ELT pipelines

Data governance, metadata, and lineage

Experience building modular or microservice-based systems

Demonstrated experience leading or mentoring engineers (formal people management experience preferred, but not required)

Strong commitment to code quality, testing, and automation

Hands-on experience with CI/CD pipelines and modern DevOps practices

Comfortable operating with a high degree of ownership in a lean, fast-moving environment

Strong communicator who can translate between technical and non-technical stakeholders

Nice to Have

Experience with ML platforms or services (e.g., Databricks, AWS Bedrock)

Familiarity with analytics and BI tools (Tableau, Power BI, or similar)

Experience working in media, streaming, or large-scale enterprise environments

Prior experience modernizing or integrating legacy systems into cloud-native platforms

Additional Requirements:

Fully Remote: This position has been designated as fully remote, meaning that the position is expected to contribute from a non-Versant worksite, most commonly an employee’s residence.

This position is eligible for company sponsored benefits, including medical, dental and vision insurance, 401(k), paid leave, tuition reimbursement, and a variety of other discounts and perks. Learn more about the benefits offered by NBCUniversal by visiting the Benefits page of the Careers website. Salary range: $170,000 - $210,000 (bonus and long-term incentive eligible)

We are accepting applications for this position on an ongoing basis.

As part of our selection process, external candidates may be required to attend an in-person interview with a VERSANT Media employee at one of our locations prior to a hiring decision. VERSANT Media's policy is to provide equal employment opportunities to all applicants and employees without regard to race, color, religion, creed, gender, gender identity or expression, age, national origin or ancestry, citizenship, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, pregnancy, veteran status, membership in the uniformed services, genetic information, or any other basis protected by applicable law.

For LA County and City Residents Only: VERSANT Media will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories, or arrest or conviction records, in a manner consistent with relevant legal requirements, including the City of Los Angeles' Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act, where applicable.

If you are a qualified individual with a disability or a disabled veteran and require support throughout the application and/or recruitment process as a result of y…