Senior Director, Head of Data

Location: Livonia, MI, US

Employment Type: FULL_TIME

Overview

The Opportunity – Why Join

Are you ready to redefine how an entire industry engages with customers? At AAA Life we leverage technology to put human connection at the heart of what we do. If you are someone who thrives on purpose and wants to make a tangible difference in people’s lives when it matters most, then join AAA Life who has the unique ability to access tens of millions of existing AAA customers powered by the strength of one of America’s most trusted brands. We have embarked on a mission to double in size – Becoming one of the largest providers in the US. These facts showcase why we’re the right choice:

• On purpose: a leading professional services firm found that the commitment, empathy and dedication of employees at AAA Life was the highest across a benchmark of top US companies
• On growth: we have the privilege to offer our products to tens of millions of Americans that are proud members of AAA
• On making a difference: we serve Americans by delivering life insurance products that make a true difference for families during their hardest times, not wealth management instruments (more details on this during the interview)
• On culture: USA Today named us 2025 top workplace nationwide. We believe the job of an insurance company is to do good. Our mission is to help our members during what is often the hardest times in their lives. We pick up the phone to people who have lost loved ones and offer our genuine support. That is why we will always put human connection at the heart of what we do – always being there to talk to our members person to person. We believe the job of an insurance company is to pay out. That is what insurance is for. Most of our members have real life policies – policies that bring peace of mind during life, and genuine support in the event of death. We are not here to chase the super-rich with annuities and wealth management products. AAA has been one of the most trusted names in America because it believes in providing the services that middle class Americans need.

Responsibilities

The Role

 

General Purpose 

The Director, Head of Data provides the vision and leadership for how AAA Life manages and uses data across the company. This role is responsible for designing, building, and maintaining a modern data environment that delivers accurate, reliable, and accessible information to support decision making, operational performance, and long-term growth throughout the enterprise. The Director oversees data architecture, engineering, governance, and analytics enablement and ensures that data is organized, safeguarded, and used responsibly across all business units. This includes establishing clear ownership, strong quality standards, and consistent practices that continually build trust in the company’s data. The role works closely with technology, actuarial, finance, distribution, product, and member experience teams to understand needs, set priorities, and ensure data consumers have the right information at the right time. This includes providing the insights and data foundations that help agents succeed in the field and serve members with clarity and confidence. The Director builds and runs a high-performing team and creates the structure needed to scale data capabilities as the company modernizes. This technically-adept leader sets direction, drives alignment, and ensures that data becomes a managed asset that supports member value, operational efficiency, agent success, and future business opportunities. 

 

Position Responsibilities 

 

Data Strategy and Architecture 

• Define and maintain the enterprise data strategy aligned to the company’s North Star architecture 

 

• Design and evolve the data platform including semantic layer, operational data layer, and integration patterns. 

• Establish domain-aligned data products with clear ownership, quality expectations, and SLAs. 

• Partner with enterprise architecture to ensure data decisions align with platform, cloud, and integration strategies. 

 

Data Engineering and Delivery 

• Oversee delivery of data pipelines, ingestion patterns, event streaming, and operational data flows. 

• Lead teams in building Member 360, Actuarial Valuation data, financial reporting data, policy and claims domains, and other priority data products. 

• Ensure timely delivery of strategic data initiatives including CDC enablement, event modeling, and read models. 

• Implement reliable processes for deployment, monitoring, observability, and data quality measurement. 

 

Data Governance and Stewardship 

• Stand up and chair the Data Council with business and technology leaders. 

• Define data policies, lineage, cataloging, access controls, retention, and metadata standards. 

• Develop a clear data ownership model across domains with accountability for quality and adoption. 

• Establish a data quality framework with automated checks, issue management, and scorecards. 

 

Leadership and Team Development 

• Build and lead multi-disciplinary data squads including engineering, modeling, analytics enablement, and governance. 

• Develop a high-performance, product-oriented team structure aligned with domains such as Policy, Claims, Finance, Member Experience, and Agent Experience. 

• Partner with AAAL Academy on talent development, training paths, and skill assessments. 

• Foster a culture of accountability, transparency, curiosity, collaboration, and continuous improvement. 

 

Business Partnership and Strategy 

• Work closely with Finance, Actuarial, Product, Member Services, Distribution, and Digital Experience to deliver data that drives business outcomes. 

• Translate business needs into data priorities with clear value, sequencing, and measurable impact. 

• Communicate data insights, progress, risks, and decisions to senior leadership. 

• Support modernization efforts including Life+ decommission, platform migrations, experience rebuilds, and operational optimization. 

Qualifications

Education/Experience: 

 

Required: 

• 10 years in data engineering, data architecture, or data analytics leadership roles. 

• Experience leading data programs in a regulated industry such as life insurance, financial services, or healthcare. 

• Demonstrated success building modern data platforms in cloud environments. 

• Strong understanding and demonstrated experience building trusted data governance, metadata management, lineage, and data quality principles. 

• Experience leading technology teams through transformation and modernization. 

• Ability to communicate clearly with, drive alignment with, and influence senior leaders. 

• Strong communication skills with the ability to present complex concepts concisely. 

 

Preferred: 

• Experience with Snowflake, DBT, event streaming architectures, API integration patterns, and semantic modeling. 

• Experience building domain-based and business-empowered data products. 

• Familiarity with all tiers of medallion data architectures, data lake, data warehouse, and data lakehouse concepts.

• Familiarity with Member 360 concepts, actuarial data needs, and operational analytics. 

 

 

How You’ll Work

• Work Solution: Hybrid (Tuesday- Thursday) or Remote (USA)
• Relocation Eligibility: Available 

 

What We Bring to the Table

• Environment that promotes work-life balance
• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage starting from your first day
• Employer 401k match and employer contribution to a pension plan
• Generous PTO and paid parental leave to support your family needs
• Various associate resource groups and community involvement initiatives

 

Essential Job Functions 

 

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is frequently required to stand, walk, sit, use hands to finger, handle, or feel and talk or hear. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, depth perception, and ability to adjust focus. 

 

This job requires the ability to perform duties contained in the job description for this position, including, but not limited to, the above requirements. Reasonable accommodations will be made for otherwise qualified applicants as needed to enable them to fulfill these requirements. 

 

AAA Life Insurance Company does not offer immigration sponsorship for this position. This includes visa types such as H-1B, TN, and STEM OPT. Please do not apply if you currently require or may require employer-sponsored immigration support now or in the future.

 

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