Director of Engineering - Data Platform

At Klaviyo, we value the unique backgrounds, experiences and perspectives each Klaviyo (we call ourselves Klaviyos) brings to our workplace each and every day. We believe everyone deserves a fair shot at success and appreciate the experiences each person brings beyond the traditional job requirements. If you’re a close but not exact match with the description, we hope you’ll still consider applying. Want to learn more about life at Klaviyo? Visit careers.klaviyo.com to see how we empower creators to own their own destiny.

Founded in 2012, Klaviyo was built around data processing and analytics from the start. Over the years our data foundation has evolved to a multi-tier architecture, supporting transactional access, real-time analytics, and off-line data processing jobs at multi-petabyte scale. As Klaviyo diversifies and moves up-market, and as the pace of machine learning advancement increases, the requirements on and importance of the data platform continue to rapidly grow. Our team has a wide mix of talents and experience, and we are uniquely positioned to advance the state of the practice by applying what we have learned in the past to the challenges of the future.

As Head of Data Platform, you will report directly to the VP of Data Infrastructure Engineering. You will own the data lake, on-line analytics systems, data ingestion and movement, query processing, automation, compliance, and other related areas, and will coordinate the efforts of those teams to build our next generation of data platform that meets our scale, performance, reliability, and flexibility requirements.

How you’ll make a difference:

Your work will be foundational, enabling machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI), business intelligence (BI), and advanced analytics (AA) product features across the organization, while directly contributing to Klaviyo's strategic growth in the mid-market (MM+) segment and expansion into new verticals. You will do this by leading teams to build a data platform that is accessed through a clear and cohesive set of APIs which could enable it to become a product itself.

• Drive Vision & Strategy: Lead the strategic planning, architectural design, and execution for the Data Platform, ensuring alignment with overall company objectives to dominate retail marketing and productize AI agents.
• Build Foundational Data Capabilities: Oversee the development of core data structures, including a Common Data Model (CDM), unified data collection via Change Data Capture (CDC), and a scalable Key Value Store (KVS), serving as the bedrock for flexible data models and future innovations.
• Enhance Data Access & Performance: Lead efforts to significantly improve data discovery, exploration, querying capabilities, and reducing processing times for ML, BI, and analytical use cases.
• Scale for Growth: Ensure the platform's scalability and reliability to support multiple customers with over 100M profiles by 2026, improving event processing, and reducing profile ingest times, all while controlling costs.
• Improve Data Quality & Governance: Champion initiatives for data quality, transactional consistency, GDPR compliance, and rigorous data governance, including data access control and operating in multiple geographies.
• Foster Internal & External Partnerships: Collaborate closely with internal teams (Data Science, BI, Product Analytics, Application Developers) and prepare for externalizing data platform services for third-party developers.

Who you are: 

• Deep Technical Expertise: Extensive experience in designing, building, and operating large-scale data platforms, distributed systems, and data warehousing solutions. Experience working with technologies such as Kafka, Iceberg, Snowflake, Airflow, Clickhouse, MySQL/Postgres, etc.
• Strategic Leadership: Proven ability to define and execute complex technical strategies, manage trade-offs, and secure cross-organizational commitment for foundational initiatives.
• Team & Organizational Development: Experience in leading and growing high-performing engineering teams, fostering a culture of ownership, innovation, and operational excellence.
• Problem-Solving Acumen: A track record of identifying critical pain points in data management (e.g., data silos, performance bottlenecks, cost inefficiencies) and delivering impactful solutions.
• Customer-Centric Mindset: An understanding of how data infrastructure directly impacts customer experience, product adoption, and business revenue.

We use Covey as part of our hiring and / or promotional process. For jobs or candidates in NYC, certain features may qualify it as an AEDT. As part of the evaluation process we provide Covey with job requirements and candidate submitted applications. We began using Covey Scout for Inbound on April 3, 2025.

Please see the independent bias audit report covering our use of Covey here

Massachusetts Applicants:
It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.

Our salary range reflects the cost of labor across various U.S. geographic markets. The range displayed below reflects the minimum and maximum target salaries for the position across all our US locations. The base salary offered for this position is determined by several factors, including the applicant’s job-related skills, relevant experience, education or training, and work location.

In addition to base salary, our total compensation package may include participation in the company’s annual cash bonus plan, variable compensation (OTE) for sales and customer success roles, equity, sign-on payments, and a comprehensive range of health, welfare, and wellbeing benefits based on eligibility. Please visit Klaviyo Rewards to find out more about our Total Rewards package.

Your recruiter can provide more details about the specific salary/OTE range for your preferred location during the hiring process.

Base Pay Range For US Locations:$248,000—$372,000 USD

Get to Know Klaviyo

We’re Klaviyo (pronounced clay-vee-oh). We empower creators to own their destiny by making first-party data accessible and actionable like never before. We see limitless potential for the technology we’re developing to nurture personalized experiences in ecommerce and beyond. To reach our goals, we need our own crew of remarkable creators—ambitious and collaborative teammates who stay focused on our north star: delighting our customers. If you’re ready to do the best work of your career, where you’ll be welcomed as your whole self from day one and supported with generous benefits, we hope you’ll join us.

Klaviyo is committed to a policy of equal opportunity and non-discrimination. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, citizenship, national origin, color, religion or religious creed, age, sex (including pregnancy), gender identity, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, veteran or active military status, marital status, criminal record, genetics, retaliation, sexual harassment or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

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