Senior Data Operations Technical Lead

Data Operations Technical Lead — SOF Cleared Program Senior leadership role | TS/SCI required | Tampa, FL (on-site, hybrid flexibility)

The role. Own the foundational data infrastructure that turns SOF Enterprise data into a strategic asset. Lead the engineering team that builds and operates the platform beneath the analytics, AI/ML models, and mission applications.

About the program. Intrepid Prosperity is staffing senior technical leadership roles on a major multi-year cleared program in support of a U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF) customer. Work is based in Tampa, FL with hybrid flexibility, plus a distributed footprint across U.S. and OCONUS locations (Germany, Korea, and other comparable sites). The mission: bring the data, analytics, and AI capabilities the SOF Enterprise needs to win in the digital warfare domain.

Why it matters. This is a senior, named-position technical leadership role on a multi-year program. You’ll be a founding member of a senior team building from day one, in direct contact with senior mission owners. The team is built deliberately senior-heavy — you’ll work alongside peers at the top of their craft.

What you’ll do. • Own the data infrastructure, data engineering, and data operations stack — the scalable systems beneath the analytics, AI/ML models, and mission applications. • Lead the data engineering team — set the technical bar, mentor senior engineers, run on-call rotations, own production incidents and postmortems. • Translate senior Government mission-owner requests into multi-team work plans; bridge customer requirements and the engineering teams that deliver them. • Drive agile development across distributed teams — sprint cadence, backlog grooming, release management, retros. • Manage data operations processes: data governance, data quality SLAs, VAULTIS compliance, data product delivery. • Own the technical relationship with Government ISSOs and SCARs — drive RMF artifacts, ATO packages, and continuous monitoring for the data platform. • Partner with the Data Science & Analytics Technical Lead, AI/ML Engineering Lead, and DevSecOps team to support the full analytics and AI lifecycle.

Must have. • Active TS/SCI clearance (held within last 5 years; no break >24 months in eligibility). • U.S. Citizenship. • Minimum 8 years managing digital projects in support of SOF Enterprise customers. • Hybrid skill set: technical depth (modern data engineering / data platform stack) AND a program management track record. • Hands-on experience with at least three of: AWS GovCloud, Snowflake/Redshift, Apache Spark, Kafka, Airflow, dbt, Kubernetes, Terraform. • Direct experience as technical owner of an ATO / RMF / STIG cycle on a production system.

Nice to have. • 3+ years managing SOF agile development processes; 3+ years managing SOF data operations processes; 3+ years translating SOF customer requests into team assignments. • CI Poly or FS Poly. • Prior senior engineering leadership at a cleared defense data firm with SOF program experience. • MLOps platform experience (MLflow, SageMaker, Kubeflow). • Located in the Tampa Bay area today.

Compensation. Base $200,000–$260,000. Active CI Poly +10%; active FS Poly +15–20%. Full medical/dental/vision, 401(k) match, 15 days PTO + 11 federal holidays, professional development budget, relocation assistance to Tampa where applicable.