Director of Data Engineering, Governance and Science

#WeAreONEOK

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Fortune 500 company. 100+ years in business. Leading midstream service provider. Safety first. Sustainable operations. Environmentally responsible. Employee focused. Job Summary Job Profile Summary

The Director of Data is a senior leadership position responsible for developing and executing the organization’s comprehensive vision and strategy for data governance, engineering, and science. This pivotal role ensures that data is leveraged as a strategic asset to drive business growth, operational efficiency, and innovation across the enterprise. The Director of Data will be fostering a culture of data-driven decision making and lead cross-functional teams. They will partner with technical and business senior leadership, and ensure the delivery of high-quality, reliable, sustainable, and secure data products and services. It requires a deep understanding of all disciplines within data principles, data trends, and security/regulatory requirements, as well as excellent analytical and communication skills. This role is a member of the expanded Data & Integrations Leadership Team.

Essential Functions And Responsibilities

- AI Visionary:

- Thought leader in AI, guiding organizations on how to responsibly and effectively drive the value of embedding AI into its data ecosystem and business strategy.

- Build a Practical Roadmap with short-term wins and long-term horizon while ensuring the AI vision aligns with existing platforms, strategies, and cybersecurity.

- Measure and communicate value by defining KPIs for AI, communicating the impact and creating a continuous feedback loop.

- Guide and Influence Data Governance Program Design and Implementation:

- Develop and enforce data governance frameworks, policies, and standards.

- Ensure compliance with data privacy regulations (e.g., GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA).

- Establish data stewardship programs and master data management practices.

- Drive data literacy and accountability across business units.

- Establish AI governance & ethics.

- Guide and Influence Data Engineering Design and Implementation:

- Oversee and evolve scalable, secure, and high-performance data infrastructure (cloud/on-prem).

- Oversee the design and evolve technologies supporting data modeling, ETL/ELT, pipelines, data quality, data lake house and data warehouse platforms.

- Ensure data quality, reliability, and accessibility across systems.

- Evaluate and integrate emerging technologies to enhance data capabilities.

- Guide and Influence Data Science Program Design and Implementation:

- Establish strategic direction and mentor a team of data scientists and analysts to develop predictive models and insights.

- Foster innovation through experimentation, continuous learning, enable A/B testing, and statistical modeling to inform tactical and strategic advance analytic investments.

- Collaborate with delivery teams, corporate, commercial, and engineering/operations business units to solve complex business problems.

- Promote the responsible adoption of AI/ML models to drive business efficiencies and automation.

- Enable the organization through data readiness, talent & skills while developing understanding and reasonableness to fit the culture.

- Organizational readiness and Talent Development:

- Develop organizational capability to design data readiness programs (data quality, data literacy and stewardship)

- Promote “right-fit” adoption of advanced analytics, balancing ambition with cultural readiness and practical value.

- Do-develop the data talent strategy, ensuring skills development aligns with business maturity and culture.

- Employee Education and Communication:

- Design enterprise-wide data training programs, ensuring objectives and materials align to data strategy and educate employees and leaders on data policies, practices, and guidelines.

- Strengthen subject matter expertise and develop thought-leadership across the data team. on, data strategy, AI and governance matters, providing guidance and support to other technology teams and business partners.

- Vendor Management:

- Manage relationships with external vendors, such as consultants and technical service providers. Vendor selection, contract negotiation, and consultant evaluation, to ensure the organization has access to relevant and needed services.

- Continuous Improvement:

- Drive continuous improvement initiatives to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of data programs and processes.

- Stay abreast of best practices, emerging trends, and regulatory changes in all disciplines involving data and make recommendations for implementation, adoption and enhancements as appropriate.

Education

- Master’s or bachelor’s degree in data science, computer science, computer engineering, electrical engineering, system analysis or a related field of study, or equivalent experience

- Doctorate Degree is a plus.

Work Experience

- 10+ years’ relevant progressive experience in data leadership including innovation, data engineering, data science, and data analytics domain.

Knowledge, Skills And Abilities

- Strong technical background in Modern Data Architectures, Data Engineering and Advanced Analytics programs, technologies, strategies

- Knowledge of business ecosystems, cloud, SaaS, infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), APIs, Machine Learning, analytics

- Strong leadership skills, ability to lead through influence and guide key technology design decisions in close collaboration with IT leaders and business partners.

- Practical in approach to decision-making and problem-solving that is principle-based.

- Exceptional soft and interpersonal skills, including collaboration, facilitation, and negotiation.

- Broad understanding of established and emerging technologies, with the ability to evaluate the balance of applicability to internal readiness.

- Excellent written and oral communication skills and including technical writing effectively articulating complex concepts to a diverse business community.

- Executive presence with the ability to influence senior leaders and align cross-functional priorities.

- Excellent communication, storytelling, and change leadership skills.

- Ability to balance strategic vision with hands-on execution.

- Databricks and AWS experience preferred.

Travel

- If based in Dallas or Houston, regular corporate office presences (10-20%) for strategic planning, executive collaboration and team engagement.

ONEOK is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, age, religion, creed, national origin, gender identity, disability, military/veteran status, genetic information or any other categories protected by applicable law.

The job description is not intended to be a complete list of all responsibilities, duties or skills required for the job and is subject to review and change at any time, with or without notice, in accordance with the needs of ONEOK. ONEOK is committed to making our workplace accessible to individuals with disabilities and will provide reasonable accommodations, upon request, for individuals to participate in the application and hiring process. To request an accommodation email HRSolutions@ONEOK.com or call 1-855-663-6547 . Expected Salary Range

$160,000.00 - $240,000.00