Manager, Data Platform

About Us:

Propel (TSX: PRL) is the fintech company building a new world of financial opportunity by facilitating access to credit for consumers underserved by traditional financial institutions. Through its AI-driven platform, Propel evaluates customers in a more comprehensive way than traditional credit scores can. Our revolutionary fintech platform has already helped consumers access over one million loans and lines of credit and over one billion dollars in credit.

To build a new world of opportunity we bring together the brightest talent to help us build opportunities. We are entrepreneurs and believe in measuring success through results and growing within; talent and hard work never goes unnoticed. At Propel, we are here to change the way employees, customers and shareholders succeed together.

We are a team of passionate entrepreneurs, who foster curiosity and growth in our employees. Our culture is why we have been so successful and why our employees choose Propel to build their careers. It is also why we are one of North America’s fastest growing companies and a Best Place to Work.

Join us as we change the way employees, customers and shareholders succeed together.

About You:

You thrive in a vibrant, entrepreneurial organization where your ideas are valued. You are motivated by goals, a self-starter, and enjoy wearing multiple hats in a fast-growing fintech environment.

We are seeking an experience, hands-on, people centered Software Development Manager for our Data Platform team to lead the development of scalable, secure, reliable, and self-service data capabilities across the organization. In this role, you will guide the strategy, architecture, and execution of our data platform ecosystem - from ingestion and transformation pipelines to data governance, observability, and platform tooling. The ideal candidate has a strong software engineering background, experience operating modern data platforms, fluency with AI-assisted tooling, and a leadership style rooted in empathy, inclusion, and technical excellence. 

Responsibilities

Leadership & Strategy 

• Define and execute the roadmap for the Data Platform team to support analytics, machine learning, real-time use cases, and operational data needs 


• Partner with Product, Analytics, Finance, Risk, Infrastructure and Product Engineering to align platform priorities with business strategy


• Mentor, coach, and develop the team, supporting both technical skill development and career progression


• Lead with empathy, transparency, and consistency, modeling the behaviors of a healthy engineering culture 

Hands-On Technical Leadership 

• Collaborate with engineers to design, build, and optimize data pipelines from MySQL and other sources, using Snowflake, OpenFlow, DBT, and modern orchestration tools


• Drive architectural decisions around data modeling, governance, observability, and lineage. 


• Champion engineering best practices - testing, documentation, code quality, automation, and CI/CD 


• Use AI-assisted development and operational tooling to improve reliability, performance, and developer productivity 


• Evaluate new technologies and patterns (e.g. Lakehouse architectures, streaming platforms, data mesh principles) to ensure future-ready capabilities

Platform Engineering 

• Build and evolve self-service platform components - including ingestion frameworks, schema management, pipeline templates, and reusable DBT packages 


• Own the governance and lifecycle management of Snowflake environments, roles, warehouses, and policies using Terraform as a key component


• Ensure high-quality, reliable ELT/ETL pipelines using DBT and SQL-based transformations  

Operational Excellence 

• Oversee monitoring, alerting, and data observability frameworks to ensure system reliability and data integrity 


• Manage SLAs/SLOs for critical data pipelines and platform services


• Implement security controls, data access policies, and compliance standards (e.g. SOC2, GDPR, PCI) 


• Support internal and external audits by ensuring data & platform compliance, preparing documentation, and facilitating timely responses to audit inquiries 


• Optimize compute and storage costs within Snowflake and cloud infrastructure environments 

Collaboration & Communication 

• Work closely with analytics, ML, and business teams to understand evolving data needs and translate them into platform capabilities 


• Communicate platform strategy, progress, and trade-offs to senior engineering and business stakeholders 


• Promote shared ownership of data quality and platform reliability across teams

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering, or a related field - or equivalent experience


• 8+ years of hands-on experience in data engineering or platform engineering 


• 4+ years leading technical teams or equivalent leadership experience


• Strong software development background with experience in Python, Java, or similar languages. 


• Deep experience designing and operating distributed data systems 


• Expertise in modern data architectures (batch + streaming), ETL/ELT patterns, and scalable storage solutions (object stores, warehouses, or lakehouses) 


• Experience with CI/CD, Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC), and cloud platforms (AWS preferred). 


• Experience with AI/ML tooling or supporting ML workloads is a plus 


• Strong project and program management capabilities with Agile experience


• Excellent communication skills and stakeholder management skills, and the ability to lead through influence and collaboration


• Experience building internal data platforms, self-service data tooling, or platform-as-a-service solutions


• Knowledge of data governance frameworks, lineage systems, and privacy regulations (GDPR, SOC2, PCI)


• Experience using generative AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot) is an asset


• Ability to integrate or adopt AI tools in day-to-day tasks

Benefits to Joining Propel

• Growth and opportunity – we pride ourselves on promoting from within


• Incredible company culture


• Competitive salary and health benefits


• Comprehensive vacation package


• Group health and dental benefits


• Group RRSP program


• Support for new parents


• Diverse and inclusive workplace

Salary Range

$140,000 – $155,000

Final compensation is determined by market conditions, location, and the candidate’s experience, skills, and education. This role may also be eligible for performance-based incentive programs and total compensation may include variable incentives, such as bonuses and commissions.

This posting is for an existing vacancy within our organization.

Our Culture

Propel brings together the brightest talent to build opportunities. We are entrepreneurs who measure success through results and growth from within; talent and hard work never go unnoticed. Our team fosters curiosity and growth, making Propel one of North America’s fastest-growing companies and a Best Place to Work.

Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion

Propel welcomes and encourages applications from all groups, including Indigenous peoples, women, visible minorities, persons with disabilities, people from gender and sexually diverse communities, and those with intersectional identities. Should you require accommodation throughout any stage of the recruitment and selection process, please specify your requirements when submitting your application and we will work with you to meet your needs.

AI Disclosure

We use AI to assist in reviewing applications and assessing candidates. These tools support our recruitment team, however, all hiring decisions are made by our trained hiring managers and recruitment professionals, not AI.