Job Specifications
Samba TV tracks streaming and broadcast video across the world with our proprietary data and technology. We are on a mission to fundamentally transform the viewing experience for everyone. Our data enables media companies to connect with audiences for new shows and movies, and enables advertisers to engage viewers and measure reach across all their devices. We have an amazing story with a unique perspective on culture formed by a global footprint of data and AI-driven insights.
We're seeking a visionary Senior Director to lead and transform our data platform and cloud services architecture. This role is not about incremental improvements – we need someone who can architect and execute a leap forward in our data infrastructure capabilities, positioning Samba TV at the forefront of TV data analytics and AI-driven insights.
Key Responsibilities
Strategic Leadership
Define and execute a transformative vision for our data platform architecture that scales to billions of daily events
Partner with CTO and engineering leadership to align platform strategy with business objectives
Drive adoption of next-generation technologies including vector databases and ML-powered analytics
Build strategic roadmaps that balance innovation with operational excellence
Technical Architecture
Lead the evolution from current state to a modern, cloud-native data platform with embedded ML/AI capabilities
Design fault-tolerant, multi-region architectures supporting real-time and batch processing
Build and maintain the services, platforms, and frameworks enabling Samba’s data engineering teams
Architect embedding-based systems for content understanding, viewer similarity, and semantic search
Build infrastructure for vector storage, indexing, and retrieval at scale (billions of embeddings)
Champion best practices in data governance, security, and compliance (GDPR, CCPA)
Evaluate and implement emerging technologies (streaming architectures, lakehouse patterns, ML platforms)
ML/AI Infrastructure
Design platforms for embedding generation, storage, and serving at scale
Implement vector search capabilities for real-time recommendations and content discovery
Build infrastructure supporting multimodal embeddings (video, audio, text metadata)
Enable self-service ML capabilities for data scientists and analysts
Establish MLOps practices for embedding model lifecycle management
Team & Organizational Development
Build and mentor a world-class team of platform engineers, ML engineers, and architects
Foster a culture of innovation, experimentation, and continuous learning
Establish clear career paths and growth opportunities for team members
Drive cross-functional collaboration with data science, product, and engineering teams
Operational Excellence
Establish SLAs and monitoring frameworks for internal and external clients
Provide observability tools for Data Engineering and Data Science, including tools to enforce data quality
Lead vendor relationships and technology partnerships
Drive automation and self-service capabilities for internal customers
Required Qualifications
12+ years in data platform/infrastructure roles, with 5+ years in senior leadership
Proven track record of leading large-scale platform transformations
Experience building production embedding systems and vector databases
Experience with TV/media analytics, AdTech, or similar high-volume data environments
History of building and scaling teams of 20+ engineers
Deep expertise in modern data architectures (data mesh, lakehouse, streaming-first)
Proficiency with, Stream processing (Kafka, Flink, Spark Streaming), Modern data warehouses/lakes (Snowflake, Databricks, BigQuery), Workflow management (Airflow, etc), Container orchestration (Kubernetes, EKS/GKE), Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, CloudFormation), ML platforms (MLflow, Kubeflow, SageMaker)
Exceptional communication skills to articulate complex technical concepts to diverse audiences
Strategic thinking with ability to balance long-term vision with short-term deliverables
Strong business acumen to connect technical decisions with business outcomes
Track record of influencing without authority across organizational boundaries
Preferred Qualifications
Experience in TV/video analytics or advertising technology
Background in content recommendation systems using embeddings
Knowledge of privacy-preserving analytics and clean room technologies
Contributions to open-source projects in ML infrastructure or vector search
Experience with real-time bidding or programmatic advertising infrastructure
Advanced degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or related field
Samba TV is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We strive to empower connection with one another, reflect the communities we serve, and tackle meaningful projects that make a real impact.
Samba TV may collect personal information directly from you, as a job applicant, Samb
About the Company
Television remains a vibrant cultural influence and an essential source of entertainment and information worldwide. Tremendous growth in content choices, and viewing platforms that allow us to watch anything, anytime, on any screen, has actually made it harder for viewers to discover and keep up with all the great programming available. It's also more competitive for content providers to keep your attention, and for marketers to make strong, measurable connections with their target consumers.
Technology that improves the vi...
Know more