Data Platform Manager

Creating value at DHL Group through data and AI innovation! At DHL Data & AI, our goal is to design and deliver scalable AI solutions that create tangible business value across DHL Group. We work end-to-end, from small, fast Proof of Concepts that validate potential to fully deployed AI solutions built in close partnership with business and engineering teams.

To support this, we continuously optimize our data and AI platforms to ensure secure, cost-efficient, and reliable foundations for our solutions. Alongside this core focus, we also strengthen the organization through data governance, training, technology incubation, and community building. We are committed to scaling Data & AI capabilities sustainably and accelerating digitalization across DHL Group.

Join our growing team in Bonn full time as Data Platform Manager (d/f/m) and shape the company further! Who we are: DHL Data & AI is a Global Business Service Line in DHL Group, focusing on leveraging data to create business value. We are a dynamic, innovative, and diverse team with around 100 talented professionals, including Data Engineers, Cloud Engineers, DevOps Engineers, Data Scientists, and Architects.

DHL Group is the leading mail and logistics service provider in the world. As one of the planet’s largest employers operating in over 220 countries and territories, we see the world differently. Your tasks: As Data Platform Manager, you will shape the strategy, architecture, and evolution of our Databricks-powered data platforms on Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform.

Combining product ownership with hands-on technical leadership, you will ensure that our platforms are secure, scalable, cost-efficient, and easy for teams across DHL Group to adopt and use.

What you will do

Own the product vision and roadmap. You define and continuously evolve the roadmap for our Databricks-powered data platforms on Azure and Google Cloud Platform. In close dialogue with customers across DHL Group, you develop and communicate a compelling product vision that attracts valuable use cases and promotes platform adoption.

Provide technical and architectural leadership. You design and govern multi-cloud platform architectures across Azure and Google Cloud Platform. You define patterns for networking, security, identity, compute, storage, and observability, and establish architectural principles, standards, reusable patterns, and reference implementations.

Ensure sustainable platform economics. You apply Fin. Ops practices to increase cost transparency and efficiency, and you devise an attractive charging model that supports cost-neutral platform operations while delivering clear value to DHL Group customers. Drive modernization and cloud-native adoption. You steer the ongoing modernization of the platforms, increasing automation, self-service capabilities, and the adoption of cloud-native patterns.

Translate technology trends into platform direction. You keep pace with relevant market developments and turn them into a pragmatic technology roadmap. You steer platform development toward greater cost efficiency, automation, and self-service. Shape the strategic partnership with Databricks. You co-own the relationship with Databricks, identify emerging technologies and use cases, and collaborate on opportunities to attract and enable new customers across DHL Group.

Advise and enable platform service teams. You guide service teams in designing and implementing reusable platform capabilities. You help prioritize work by balancing technical debt reduction, new features, operational needs, and meaningful learning opportunities for the teams. Turn ideas into practical solutions. You provide technical guidance by spearheading key initiatives and contributing to proofs of concept that validate new technologies, patterns, and platform capabilities.

Plan resources across delivery models. You coordinate strategic, tactical, and operational resourcing across permanent employees, long-term external specialists, and temporary resources. Safeguard operational stability and governance. You establish and maintain appropriate processes for reporting and responding to incidents and problems.

You also own the maintenance and continued adoption of the platforms’ security concepts, ensuring that governance evolves alongside the technology and customer landscape. What you bring: Strong hands-on cloud architecture experience, ideally gained while building and operating multi-tenant data platforms. A solid understanding of Databricks architecture and core components, including the compute plane, observability capabilities, and data catalog.

Deep knowledge of relevant Azure technologies and their associated best practices; experience with Google Cloud Platform is a strong advantage. Practical experience with Infrastructure as Code, preferably Terraform, as well as CI/CD and Git. Ops methodologies. Experience with Kubernetes and container platforms, platform automation, and self-service enablement.

A strong understanding of Dev. Sec. Ops practices, observability, and monitoring architectures. Understanding of serverless compute models and their application in modern data-platform environments. Excellent communication skills and the ability to engage confidently with both technical and non-technical audiences. Entrepreneurial thinking, commercial awareness, and a strong sense of ownership.