Director of Data

Our Story

Launched in 2015, Sol de Janeiro is a globally recognized, award-winning beauty brand, drawing inspiration from Brazil’s beauty rituals, warmth, and spirit. Sol de Janeiro delivers a sensory experience beloved by multi-generational consumers worldwide, with clinically proven results, transformative textures, and transportive fragrances.  

Headquartered in New York and launched as a digitally native brand, we have expanded globally with teams in Paris, London, and Germany. Our commitment to excellence has earned high-profile honors, including being named one of TIME100’s 2024 Most Influential Companies, Fast Company’s 2024 World's Most Innovative Companies, and WWD Beauty Inc’s Power Brands of 2024, underscoring its leadership in the beauty industry and outstanding workplace. These accolades highlight our dedication to being a leading brand in the beauty industry and an exceptional workplace. 

What You’ll Do

Sol de Janeiro is seeking a Director of Data to build and lead our enterprise data practice. This is a leadership role responsible for establishing the foundational data infrastructure that will power analytics, reporting, and data-driven decision making across the organization.

You will own the full data stack: data engineering and pipelines, the Databricks data lake, business intelligence through DOMO, data analysis capabilities, and data governance. Your primary mission is to build a proper medallion architecture with well-defined Gold tables that serve as the single source of truth for the business, eliminating scattered ETL logic and enabling true self-service analytics.

This role is ideal for a strategic data leader who can envision the end state, build the roadmap to get there, and lead a team through foundational infrastructure work that will take approximately a year to fully realize.

What You'll Do

Build the Foundation

• Architect and oversee implementation of a medallion architecture (Bronze/Silver/Gold) in Databricks


• Define and build Gold tables that serve as the canonical, business-ready data layer


• Eliminate ETL logic from DOMO, moving all transformation upstream into proper data pipelines (final-mile formatting excepted)


• Establish data modeling standards, naming conventions, and documentation practices that enable self-service consumption

Team Leadership & Development

• Lead a team of 4 data professionals including data engineers and analysts, with potential for growth


• Establish clear roles, career paths, and performance expectations


• Build a team culture centered on data quality, documentation, and serving business stakeholders


• Partner with HR on hiring decisions and team composition as the function scales

Operational Excellence

• Own the reliability and performance of all data pipelines and the Databricks platform


• Establish SLAs with business partners for data freshness, quality, and availability


• Create and track success metrics including pipeline reliability, Gold table coverage, data quality scores, and stakeholder satisfaction


• Implement data quality monitoring and alerting to catch issues before they impact downstream consumers

Business Partnership

• Partner with Finance, Marketing, Supply Chain, and Operations to understand their data needs


• Translate business requirements into data models and pipeline specifications


• Enable self-service analytics by building intuitive, well-documented data products


• Serve as the data authority for the organization, establishing trust in a single source of truth

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner closely with the Director of Integrations to ensure seamless data flows from source systems into the data lake


• Coordinate with integration team on data delivery requirements and SLAs


• Support SAP S/4HANA migration by ensuring data architecture is ready for new source system patterns


• Collaborate with Security on data access controls, privacy requirements, and compliance

Strategic Planning

• Develop the multi-year data strategy and roadmap aligned with business priorities


• Build business cases for platform investments and team growth


• Stay current on data platform evolution and evaluate opportunities for capability enhancement


• Support international expansion with data architecture that accommodates regulatory requirements

Must Haves

• 8+ years of experience in data engineering, analytics, or data platform roles, with at least 3 years in a management or leadership capacity


• Proven experience building foundational data infrastructure—you've taken an organization from fragmented data to a cohesive, trusted data platform


• Strong understanding of modern data architecture patterns including medallion architecture, data lakehouse concepts, and dimensional modeling


• Track record of partnering with business stakeholders to deliver data products that drive decisions


• Experience establishing data governance practices, quality standards, and documentation culture


• Strong executive communication skills with ability to articulate data strategy to non-technical audiences

Technical Foundation

• Deep familiarity with modern data platforms (Databricks strongly preferred; Snowflake, BigQuery, or similar acceptable)


• Understanding of data pipeline orchestration and ETL/ELT patterns


• Knowledge of SQL and data modeling best practices (star schema, slowly changing dimensions, etc.)


• Familiarity with BI platforms and their proper role in the data stack (consumption and visualization, not transformation)


• Understanding of data quality frameworks and monitoring approaches

Leadership Qualities

• You think in systems and can architect a coherent data ecosystem from disparate pieces


• You are patient with foundational work, understanding that building the right infrastructure pays dividends for years


• You can prioritize ruthlessly, knowing which Gold tables to build first based on business impact


• You translate between technical and business languages fluently


• You build trust by delivering reliable, well-documented data products

Nice to Have

• Experience with DOMO or similar BI platforms


• Background in consumer packaged goods, retail, or e-commerce data


• Experience supporting ERP migrations from a data perspective


• Exposure to data governance tools and data cataloging


• Experience with PySpark or other distributed computing frameworks

Success in This Role

First 90 Days:

• Complete onboarding with deep understanding of current data landscape, pain points, and stakeholder needs


• Audit existing pipelines, data models, and DOMO implementations to assess current state


• Build relationships with key business stakeholders and understand their highest-priority data needs


• Document the target architecture and create a prioritized roadmap for Gold table development

First Year:

• Deliver a meaningful set of Gold tables covering highest-priority business domains


• Migrate ETL logic out of DOMO for covered domains, establishing the pattern for remaining areas


• Achieve measurable improvement in data trust and self-service adoption


• Establish data quality monitoring and SLAs with business partners


• Build the team capabilities needed to sustain and expand the data platform

Why Sol de Janeiro

• Build from the ground up: This is your opportunity to architect the data foundation for a high-growth company—not inherit someone else's decisions, but make the right ones from the start


• Real leadership scope: Direct accountability for the entire data function with significant autonomy to shape strategy and execution


• Business impact: Your work will directly enable better decisions across Marketing, Finance, Supply Chain, and Operations


• Growth trajectory: Sol de Janeiro's continued expansion means increasing data complexity and opportunity


• Collaborative environment: Work alongside a strong integration team and business partners who are eager for better data capabilities

Why Sol de Janeiro?

• Competitive salary and bonus program for full-time team members


• Flexible hybrid work environment with opportunities for collaboration and growth


• Inclusive culture that values diverse perspectives and celebrates individuality


• The chance to be part of a fast-growing, award-winning global beauty brand

 The information contained herein is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee, as these may change or new ones may be assigned at any time. 

Sol de Janeiro is committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace. We are an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate on the basis of race, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, protected veteran status, disability, age, or other legally protected status. 

Requests for accommodation due to a disability or any other protected characteristic can be made at any stage of the recruitment process and during employment by contacting our People Experience Team at [email protected]. 

https://soldejaneiro.com/pages/privacy-policy-sol-de-janeiro