Head of Data Platform

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What is Sylvera anyway?

Sylvera provides carbon data for genuine climate impact. Our mission is to incentivize investment in real climate action.

Purchasing credits through the carbon markets is one of the most established and scalable ways to channel finance from the private sector to effective climate solutions and work toward societal net zero. Unfortunately, the voluntary carbon markets have been plagued with mistrust and a lack of effectiveness since they've emerged - until Sylvera.

To help organizations ensure they're making the most effective investments, Sylvera builds software that independently and accurately automates the evaluation of carbon projects that capture, remove, or avoid emissions. With Sylvera's data and tools, businesses and governments can confidently invest in, benchmark, deliver, and report real climate impact.

Our team is made up of leading minds in climate change from scientists to policy, finance and carbon market experts. We work in partnership with scientific organisations, universities, governments and think tanks to develop and test rigorous and holistic ratings methodologies, leveraging the latest technology. Founded in 2020, Sylvera has 150+ employees across the world with offices in London, New York, Belgrade and Singapore. We've raised over $96million from leading VCs like Balderton Capital, Index Ventures and Insight Partners to date.

What will I be doing?

Sylvera is seeking a dynamic and experienced Head of Data Platform to lead and grow our small but talented data team. This role is pivotal in driving the strategic vision for our data platform, ensuring operational excellence, and enabling our organisation to leverage diverse data types to drive impactful climate solutions. Specific Responsibilities will include:

- Leadership & Team Development:

Manage and mentor a small team of data engineers and analytics engineers fostering a collaborative and high-performance culture. Identify team development needs and provide ongoing coaching, training, and career growth opportunities. Recruit and onboard new team members, ensuring the right balance of skills and experience.

- Data Platform Strategy & Execution:

Define and implement the strategic vision for Sylvera's data platform, ensuring it meets the evolving needs of the business and supports our mission of driving climate impact. Lead the design, implementation, and management of scalable, secure, and resilient data infrastructure using tools such as DBT, Snowflake, ArrayLake, Airflow, Dagster, and Postgres. Champion the adoption of data mesh principles, enabling decentralized and domain-oriented data ownership and governance.

- Diverse Data Management:

Oversee the management of various data types including tabular data, time-series data, unstructured data, and geospatial data relevant to climate analytics. Ensure the data platform can handle complex data workflows and support advanced analytics, machine learning, and AI initiatives related to environmental impact assessment.

- Operational Excellence:

Drive continuous improvement in data platform operations, focusing on reliability, performance, and cost-efficiency. Establish and monitor KPIs to ensure data quality, accessibility, and security. Implement best practices for data integration, data warehousing, and ETL/ELT processes, leveraging tools like Airflow, Dagster, and DBT to align with Sylvera's commitment to operational excellence.

- Cross-Functional Collaboration:

Work closely with business stakeholders, product teams, and other technology leaders to align data initiatives with Sylvera's mission and business goals. Facilitate communication and knowledge sharing across teams to ensure a cohesive approach to data strategy.

- Innovation & Growth:

Stay abreast of emerging trends in data technologies and methodologies, applying innovative solutions to support Sylvera's mission. Scale the data platform and team capabilities in response to business growth, evolving from a small team to a more robust and mature data function

We're looking for someone who:

- Has proven experience in a leadership role within a data platform or engineering team, with a focus on people management and team growth.

- Possesses a strong background in managing diverse data types (e.g., tabular, time-series, unstructured, geospatial data).

- Has demonstrated expertise in implementing data mesh or similar decentralized data architecture paradigms.

- Has solid understanding of data architecture, data governance, and data management best practices.

- Can leverage past experience with data tools and technologies such as DBT, Snowflake, ArrayLake, Airflow, Dagster, and Postgres.

- Has a track record of driving operational excellence, improving platform reliability, performance, and scalability.

- Possesses excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to influence and engage stakeholders at all levels.

We'd like someone highly ambitious, motivated and eager to propel their career forward. We prioritise grit, positivity, and the willingness to get stuck in, and encourage you to apply even if your experience doesn't exactly match this job description

Benefits

- Equity in a rapidly growing startup

- Private Health Insurance and Life Assurance

- Unlimited annual leave - and encouragement to actually use it!

- Enhanced parental leave

- Up to 20 days paid sick leave

- £500 WFH allowance

- No corners cut in having the best tech to do your job

- Access to Mental Health support via Spill

- Monthly team socials

Location

UK (with access to an office in London if you wanted to come in)

Our Values

Own it: We make new mistakes. We build on the momentum of our wins and reflect on and learn from our failures.

Stay curious: We keep our focus on the long-term, even if that means short-term challenges.

Do what's right - even when it's hard: We take a growth mindset to our work, our customers, our market and the opportunities ahead of us.

Collaborate and challenge with empathy: Our teams deliver through active collaboration. We invest in each others' success and make the company stronger in the long-run.

Empower Customers: Make extraordinary efforts to exceed our customer expectations. If we're serving our customers to the fullest, we can help direct more investment into real climate impact.

What if you're a partial fit?

We prioritise grit, positivity, and the willingness to get stuck in, and encourage you to apply even if your experience doesn't exactly match this job description.

Equal employment opportunity

Sylvera is an equal opportunity employer: we value diversity. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.