Data Platform Lead

Data Platform Lead – Zurich Canada Join us to help scale machine learning and generative AI capabilities across Zurich Canada. You will collaborate closely with US and European Zurich AI teams, adapting and operationalizing models developed within the larger organization to meet Canadian business needs while building out local capabilities. This role requires strong ownership, technical depth, and business partnership. What You Will Do Design, build, evaluate, and deploy machine learning models (e.g., forecasting, optimization, classification, personalization) and generative AI solutions. Leverage foundation models and GenAI platforms (e.g., OpenAI, Amazon Bedrock, Azure equivalents) alongside traditional ML approaches. Adapt, extend, and productionize models developed by Zurich Group AI teams for local Canadian use cases. Support the full ML lifecycle: data preparation, feature engineering, training, validation, deployment, and monitoring. Ensure models meet performance, scalability, and reliability expectations in production. Work closely with Data Engineering to design and optimize ML‑ready datasets and feature pipelines on Databricks. Contribute to ingestion and processing of large‑scale structured and unstructured data using Python and SQL. Support data architecture evolution to enable efficient ML and GenAI workloads. Apply strong data modeling and analytics engineering practices to support downstream ML use cases. Proactively identify and propose high‑value ML and GenAI use cases relevant to Zurich Canada. Partner with business, product, and engineering stakeholders to translate problems into effective technical solutions. Take end‑to‑end ownership of initiatives—from discovery and experimentation through production deployment. Serve as a trusted thought partner to stakeholders on how ML and GenAI can drive business outcomes. Design and analyze experiments (e.g., A/B testing) to validate models and inform decisions. Drive continuous improvement of ML workflows through automation, standardization, and innovation. Champion best practices in applied ML, GenAI, and responsible AI within the data engineering organization. Job Qualifications – What You Bring To The Table Required: 6+ years of experience in data science, applied machine learning, or AI product development. Proven track record of shipping ML models into production. Strong proficiency in Python and SQL. Hands‑on experience working in Databricks for data processing and ML workloads. Experience across traditional ML and generative AI use cases. Strong understanding of feature engineering, model evaluation, and ML lifecycle management. Ability to work effectively in a platform‑centric, engineering‑led environment. Excellent communication skills and strong stakeholder partnership abilities. Self‑starter mindset with comfort operating in a hybrid, fast‑moving, AI‑first environment. Preferred: Experience operationalizing shared or centrally developed ML models in a local business context. Familiarity with model monitoring, performance tracking, and re‑training strategies. Experience working in regulated industries or enterprise environments. Exposure to responsible AI and model risk considerations. Salary Range: 95,000 – 145,000 CAD (may vary by location and responsibilities). Our Culture: We are proud of our Diversity, Inclusion, Equity and Belonging initiatives and seek a collaborative culture where diverse perspectives are valued. We offer comprehensive health/benefits, a minimum of four weeks vacation, and personal days for well‑being. We are committed to continuous improvement and community engagement. Zurich Canada is committed to pay equity. Compensation is based on objective criteria such as skills, experience, and internal equity. This position is fully compliant with Canadian employment law and includes a reasonable compensation range in good faith. If you require an accommodation during the hiring process, please let us know so we can provide a more accessible experience. Zurich does not accept unsolicited resumes from search firms or agencies – any unsolicited resume becomes the property of Zurich Canadian Holdings Limited. Seniority Level Mid‑Senior Employment Type Full‑time Job Function Information Technology #J-18808-Ljbffr