Director, Data Engineering & Governance (Project Management)

Who We Are:

At PEMCO we're all about people – our customers, our employees, and the community.  We're a mutual insurance company owned by our Northwest policyholders.  We provide auto, home, renters, and boat coverage. Recognized by Forbes as one of America's Best Insurance Companies in both Auto and Home for 2025 based on customer survey feedback and by Newsweek as one of America's Greatest Midsize Workplaces 2025. We are consistently recognized for our outstanding customer service, employee expertise, community partnerships, and social impact programs. All of which makes PEMCO a great place to work!

Our social impact programs motivate high achievement by youth in education; build stronger and greener communities; and increase safety at home, on the road, and at play. We're committed to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, and to fostering an inspiring and inclusive workplace. These efforts create and cultivate an environment that builds fairness and understanding, encourages collaboration and flexibility, and celebrates all the ways in which we're different and the same – enabling all individuals to achieve their full potential.

Why We Need You:

PEMCO has a dynamic, challenging, and rare opportunity for a Director, Data Engineering & Governance to join our community. The Director of Data Engineering & Governance is a strategic and technical leader responsible for architecting, delivering, and governing scalable data and AI solutions that enable enterprise transformation. This role blends expertise in data engineering, data modeling, product management, and governance to drive the adoption of AI and data capabilities — all while maintaining alignment with regulatory, ethical, and architectural standards.

What You'll Be Doing:

• Leading a team of Data Engineers, program, this director will own a portfolio spanning data platforms, and enterprise Data & AI governance.
• Lead cross-functional delivery of scalable data and AI products across key insurance domains such as underwriting, claims, pricing, risk, and customer experience.
• Establish and enforce enterprise data modeling and architecture standards, ensuring scalable, secure, and high-performance solutions across operational and analytical domains.
• Lead the development of modern data infrastructure, including robust pipelines, lakehouse and streaming frameworks, and reusable components aligned with data mesh and domain-driven design.
• Promote engineering excellence by embedding CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), and DevOps practices, and fostering a product-centric mindset within data and analytics teams. 
• Establish and operationalize enterprise data governance, including federated frameworks, stewardship roles, and operating models tailored to regulated industries like P&C insurance.
• Implement robust governance controls such as Data Quality Management (DQM), responsible AI/GenAI policies, and Model Risk Management (MRM) to ensure compliance, transparency, and accountability.
• Enhance data trust and discoverability by deploying metadata and lineage platforms (e.g., Collibra, Alation) and embedding governance throughout the data lifecycle
• Implement scalable, cloud-native data ecosystems by collaborating with architecture and engineering teams and driving adoption of reusable data products and shared infrastructure for AI/ML and BI workloads.
• Advance modern data architecture and reliability through championing lakehouse, event-driven, and data fabric approaches, while embedding observability and monitoring for performance and compliance. 
• Advise executive leadership and lead high-performing teams, translating complex technical initiatives into business value while fostering innovation, delivery excellence, and governance maturity.
• Build strong cross-functional partnerships across business, compliance, legal, IT, and analytics, ensuring alignment and effectively communicating architectural and governance strategies to diverse stakeholders.
• Build and develop a high-performing team of product and program managers focused on delivery excellence, innovation, and governance. 
• Demonstrate behaviors consistent with PEMCO's policies, values, code of ethics and business conduct.
• Authentically support the PEMCO Brand and constantly are on the lookout for top talent to join us to achieve our Mission to Worry Less and Live More.
• Other duties as assigned.

What You'll Bring:

• B.A. or B.S degree in Computer Science, Data Engineering, Information Systems, or a related technical field.
• 12+ years of experience in data engineering, data architecture, analytics, or digital transformation with increasing leadership scope.
• 8 years of experience leading and managing a team of professionals in fast-paced, data-driven environments is required
• Experience in regulated environments, preferably P&C insurance with strong knowledge of compliance and ethical data use.
• Proven expertise in enterprise-scale data modeling, pipeline orchestration, data architecture, and platform design
• Demonstrated success deploying modern data ecosystems and governance programs in regulated sectors, preferably P&C insurance
• Certifications in either Data Engineering, Cloud Architecture, Product Management, or AI Governance (e.g., GCP/Azure Data Engineer, SAFe, PMP) are preferred.
• Deep understanding of data lifecycle governance, data quality management, and AI/ML operationalization.
• Strong command of MLOps, model risk governance, and GenAI frameworks in production settings.
• Hands-on experience with modern cloud data platforms (Azure, Databricks, Snowflake), data orchestration tools (Airflow, dbt), and metadata solutions (Collibra, Alation) is preferred.
• Problem Solver: Ability to analyze, diagnose and resolve complex unstructured problems quickly, efficiently, and collaboratively is required
• Business Environment: Has a thorough understanding of our industry, the relevant business landscape, trends in growth and insurance environments; the ability to spot early indicators of change and apply strategies to adapt quickly is required
• Highly Analytical: Is passionate about working with disparate datasets bringing data together to answer business questions. Collaborates to create, manage, and translate data to meaningful insights. Can work with external vendors to integrate data for analysis; knows how to build efficient and scalable infrastructure and data models is required
• Compliance: Knowledge and understanding of relevant laws, rules, and regulations is required
• Leadership & Managing Others: Establishes and communicates a compelling and inspiring vision, creates winning strategies and plans, ensures team goals are aligned with company goals; develops both self and others is required

What We Value:

In fostering a culture where everyone thrives, PEMCO embodies a set of core traits that guide our collective efforts. These traits include:

• Make Agile Decisions: Define desired outcomes. Use a consistent, inclusive approach. Drive decisions with a sense of urgency. Pivot decisions quickly as supported by data
• Build Trust: Listen to understand and use direct and open communication. Engage in healthy debate with mutual respect. Find solutions and move forward together
• Own Results: Commit to desired outcomes. Define and achieve success metrics. Anticipate and mitigate risks, and always have a plan B. Take accountability for and learn from outcomes. 
• Empower Execution: Take action to drive desired outcomes. Act with initiative, mastery, and purpose
• Explore Fearlessly: Make swift, iterative progress through testing and learning, create a safe place to fail fast and learn from mistakes, and continuously improve
• Value People: Appreciate and care about unique experiences and perspectives Respect the dignity of others and have empathy for people Authentically and meaningfully support and recognize people in real time

These traits form the bedrock of our commitment to caring deeply for each other, our customers, and our community. As you become a part of PEMCO, your contribution will further enrich our success story, where the power of these shared values propels us forward.

Compensation:

The pay range for this role is shown below. Compensation decisions are determined based on an individual's qualifications, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience.

• Greater Seattle area target pay range: $221,280-$270,454.  The full pay range is $184,400-$307,333.
• Outside greater Seattle area target pay range: $195,284-$238,680.  The full pay range is $162,737-$271,228.

Greater Seattle Area is defined as working within approximately 100 miles of Seattle.

Outside Greater Seattle is defined as working approximately 100 miles or more from Seattle.

Benefits:

Regular part-time PEMCO employees working at least 24 hours per week and regular full-time PEMCO employees are eligible to elect coverage under medical, dental, and vision plans for themselves and their eligible family members with generous employer premium cost shares. In addition, as a benefits-eligible employee, you are:

• covered by employer-paid basic life and accidental death & dismemberment insurance policies as well as long- and short-term disability benefit coverages.
• eligible to participate in PEMCO's 401(k) plan which includes a generous employer match (2 for 1 on the first 6% employee pre-tax and/or Roth deferral, up to federal maximums). 

PEMCO provides the following paid leave programs for benefits-eligible employees in their first year of PEMCO employment:

• Vacation accrues at a rate of 10 days for new hires, and increases based on a schedule to a maximum annual accrual of 25 days based on tenure.
• Granted four (4) personal days immediately upon hire.
• Paid holidays for the eight (8) holidays observed by PEMCO throughout the calendar year.
• Granted up to ten (10) days of sick leave immediately upon hire (pro-rated based on hire date and full-time/part-time status), which is approximately 28 hours more per year than the Washington state-required accrual.
• In addition, PEMCO provides paid time off for bereavement, jury duty, and employee volunteering in the community.

Other miscellaneous benefit programs offered by PEMCO include:

• Flexible Spending Accounts
• Education Assistance Program after one year of service
• Scholarship program for children of PEMCO employees after one year of service
• Employee Assistance Program
• Well-being program
• Discretionary taxable gifts and gift cards
• And other Perks & Benefits including discounts on computer software and hardware, cell phone plans, and rental cars

Other compensation depending on role, contributions, and performance may include:

• Discretionary bonuses
• Tiered sales commissions and/or incentives (from 5-25% of employee's monthly sales)
• Employee referral bonuses
• Shift differential pay

Equal Employment Opportunity:

At PEMCO, we celebrate and support our differences. We know employing a team rich in diverse thoughts, experiences, and opinions allows our employees, our products, and our community to flourish. PEMCO is honored to be an equal opportunity workplace. We are dedicated to equal employment opportunities regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, or veteran status.

Applicants have rights under Federal Employment Laws:

• Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) 
• Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) 
• Employee Polygraph Protection Act (EPPA)