Head of Corporate AI & Data Engineering

At Nielsen, we are passionate about our work to power a better media future for all people by providing powerful insights that drive client decisions and deliver extraordinary results. Our talented, global workforce is dedicated to capturing audience engagement with content - wherever and whenever it’s consumed. Together, we are proudly rooted in our deep legacy as we stand at the forefront of the media revolution. When you join Nielsen, you will join a dynamic team committed to excellence, perseverance, and the ambition to make an impact together. We champion you, because when you succeed, we do too. We enable your best to power our future.

Strategic Mandate

This is a high-impact mandate designed to architect the technical foundation for Nielsen’s AI-first evolution. As a visionary "player-coach," you will not simply execute a roadmap; you will ideate and drive innovative projects that transform the organization. You will lead the engineering of governed, scalable AI and data platforms that transition experimental POCs into industrial-grade enterprise solutions.

Core Responsibilities & Strategic Drivers

1. AI Industrialization & Culture Transformation

• Drive "AI-First" Culture: Act as a technical evangelist to shift the organizational mindset, driving the adoption of AI-enabled IDEs and automation platforms.
• Rapid Prototyping & Innovation: Enable the Product Management organization by building and providing rapid prototyping tools to accelerate new product development timelines.
• Strategic Ideation: Proactively identify and drive high-impact AI projects (e.g., Nielsen Bot, Infra Incident Assistants, and Self-healing Agents) to achieve specific efficiency KPIs.
• Engagement & Learning: Cultivate a culture of continuous learning by leading "Friday Learning" sessions and sharing "Done-with-AI" examples across the global team.

2. Enterprise Data & AI Platform Engineering

• Platform Architecture: Oversee the design and scaling of the Databricks Lakehouse platform, mandating Medallion Architecture and robust governance to ensure cost-efficiency and security.
• Agentic AI Frameworks: Build the foundational modules and platform capabilities required to support Agentic AI frameworks and automated workflows.
• Standardization & Build/Buy: Lead the strategic direction for corporate AI systems, making critical "build vs. buy" decisions to establish a unified Nielsen standard environment.
• Data SSoT: Guide the development of ETL/ELT pipelines to harmonize disparate data into a Single Source of Truth (SSoT).

3. Operational Excellence & FinOps Alignment

• Efficiency Targets: Deliver technical solutions that contribute to strategic 2026 targets, AWS FinOps objectives 
• MLOps & Governance: Establish organizational standards for MLOps using MLflow, ensuring all AI models are managed with rigorous governance to mitigate corporate risk.
• Security Integration: Partner with Cyber teams to integrate AI-driven security rules into the development lifecycle, specifically for risky code detection in Git.

Required Technical & Leadership Mastery

• Technical Excellence: 12+ years of experience with deep, hands-on coding in Python and SQL. Expert-level proficiency in the Databricks Lakehouse Platform (Unity Catalog, Delta Lake).
• AI Architecture: Proven experience building and deploying Agentic AI frameworks, LLM orchestration, and vector databases at scale.
• Strategic Leadership: Proven track record of leading agile "tiger teams" and managing global stakeholders in a complex matrixed environment.
• DevOps/MLOps: Expert knowledge of CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), and the full MLOps lifecycle to ensure operational excellence.
• Communication: Ability to act as a "translator" between deep technical engineering and C-Suite business objectives (ROI, Risk, Efficiency).

Desired Expertise

• Low-Code/No-Code Mastery: Experience implementing enterprise tools like Glean, n8n, or Gemini Gems to drive immediate business automation.
• Corporate Function Synergy: Prior experience building data/AI products for Finance, HR, or Sales to drive specific departmental efficiency.
• FinOps Knowledge: Deep understanding of cloud economics and the ability to optimize infrastructure for maximum ROI on cloud spend.
• Change Management: Demonstrated ability to lead organizational transformation and drive high adoption rates for new technology platforms.

Please be aware that job-seekers may be at risk of targeting by scammers seeking personal data or money. Nielsen recruiters will only contact you through official job boards, LinkedIn, or email with a nielsen.com domain. Be cautious of any outreach claiming to be from Nielsen via other messaging platforms or personal email addresses. Always verify that email communications come from an @nielsen.com address. If you're unsure about the authenticity of a job offer or communication, please contact Nielsen directly through our official website or verified social media channels.