Director - AI & ML

About Hakkōda

Hakkōda is a modern data consultancy that empowers data-driven organizations to realize the full value of the Snowflake Data Cloud. We provide consulting and managed services in data architecture, data engineering, analytics and data science. We are renowned for bringing our clients deep expertise, being easy to work with, and being an amazing place to work! We are looking for curious and creative individuals who want to be part of a fast-paced, dynamic environment, where everyone’s input and efforts are valued. We hire outstanding individuals and give them the opportunity to thrive in a collaborative atmosphere that values learning, growth, and hard work. Our team is distributed across North America, Latin America, and Europe. If you have the desire to be a part of an exciting, challenging, and rapidly growing Snowflake consulting services company, and if you are passionate about making a difference in this world, we would love to talk to you!

Job Description:

As the Director of AI & ML at Hakkoda, you will play a critical leadership role, overseeing a team of adept consultants to deliver cutting-edge ML, and AI services to our clients. This position requires a combination of strategic direction, technical expertise, and effective team management to guarantee the provision of advanced and creative data solutions that cater to the diverse requirements of our clients.

Responsibilities:

• Delivery Excellence:

• Define and Own the Standard of Excellence for Machine Learning and AI.

• Challenge the status quo and differentiate Hakkoda through  “Unreasonable Hospitality,” efficiency, resilience and innovation of the service or solution being delivered by ALL engineers on the team.

• Establish repeatable processes and playbooks for driving adoption, consistency and scale across teams. 

• Establish Mechanisms for Best Practice adoption, ensuring the team is identifying and delivering cumulative value with zero (technical debt).

• Drive a culture of Innovation and Continuous Improvement, ensuring the team is driving a mindset to creatively and collaboratively challenge and improve established best practice standards.

• Implement frameworks to guarantee quality assurance and adherence to AI, ML & DS standards of excellence, while fostering a culture of compliance within the ML/AI domain.

• Stay abreast of emerging trends and technologies in ML & AI, promoting a culture of learning and adaptation within the team

Customer Experience and Success:

• Be the Standard of Client Service. Modeling “Unreasonable Hospitality” in all aspects of your role. 

• Ensure Team is relentless in its pursuit of Client Success. 

• Proactive Monitoring of Client Risks and team engagement  to prevent Escalations. 

• Own resolution of issues which threaten the health and success of both the team and the client.

• Understand and Track Project Health for projects focused on delivering Services or Solutions related to Service Area

• Risk Mitigation: Proactive identification and management of potential risk to both the team and the client leading to a reduction in escalations, yellow and red engagements, employee attrition and impact to company culture.

• Manage Client Satisfaction through ongoing communication and management of client expectations and clear understanding of client needs and objectives.

• Proactive management and mitigation of project risks. 

Service Offering:

• Define Market PoV and Technology Message aligned to the Needs of our current and future clients. 

• Support Marketing as SME and Content Steward in aligning messaging and campaigns to Market PoV Measure and track market readiness and performance of Service Offering

Drive Growth:

• Support and enable the sales team by partnering with Account Executive to define the GTM portfolio of solutions and services related to application development.

• Partner with solution architecture to define delivery requirements for accurate deal scoping.

Intellectual Property:

• Act as Product Manager in identifying reusable Assets, Solutions and Accelerators which reduce time to Value for Hakkoda’s Clients. 

• Partner with IP Governance to define Asset and Solution backlogs, prioritize development needs and optimize bench capacity to deliver work items. 

People:

• Establish and Actively Manage Development Paths for Hakkoda MLE’s and AI Engineers

• Monitor and Analyze people/engagement data and trends to inform decisions on strategy and programs and ensure we are building healthy teams that are ready to grow with the business.

• Partner with the Talent team to enable and support recruiting ensuring only the best of the best make it into Hakkoda. 

• Partner with Talent team to support the focus and curriculum needs of the Internship program

• Partner with Learning and Development to drive the efficacy and experience of onboarding for AL/ML Ops Engineers starting on day one, week one and 30, 60 90 days. 

• Partner with Learning and Development team to Define learning needs and build learning pathways to address highest priority skills needs of the team

• Training Content - Act as SME and partner with L&D to design, develop and deploy relevant training content in alignment with business goals and objectives.

• Realtime Coaching and feedback drive a culture that actively provides the team with real time feedback mentorship and coaching through Client Delivery to reinforce learning goals through day to day growth coaching, feedback and 'teach to fish' training

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, or a related technical field.

• Experience in consulting or client-facing roles.

• 7+ years of software engineering, analytics development or machine learning engineering experience

• 3+ years of experience managing a team of Data Scientists and ML Engineers

• Advanced knowledge in Python programming and Machine Learning frameworks (scikit -learn, TensorFlow, Pytorch)

• Experience implementing ML automation

• Proficiency in cloud-based data solutions, especially Snowflake.

• Strong leadership and team management skills, with the ability to inspire and develop talent.

• Excellent project management capabilities, ideally with experience in Agile methodologies.

• Effective communication and interpersonal skills, capable of engaging with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

• Ability to effectively handle rapid change required in a fast paced High Growth organization. 

Preferred Qualifications:

• Certifications in relevant data technologies and methodologies.

• Experience working in teams leveraging SAFe Agile methodology

• Experience leading Large Engineering teams (25+ People)Experience in Rapid Growth Environments specifically growing teams 1-3x Year over Year

Hakkōda is an exciting, high-growth company, and we’re scaling our team. We are looking for exceptional people who share our values, challenge ordinary thinking, and push the pace of innovation while building a future for themselves and Hakkōda. We are a collaborative team of high achievers. We love to explore, challenge and have a lot of fun along the way. Are you ready for the adventure? Click here to see our culture on display.

Benefits will vary by country:

- Medical, Dental, Vision

- Life Insurance

- Paid parental leave

- Paid time off

- Work from home benefits for 100% remote roles

- Technical training and certifications

- Robust learning and development opportunities