WPP is the trusted growth partner for the world’s leading brands.

We unite cutting-edge media intelligence and data solutions, world-class creativity, next-generation production, transformative enterprise solutions and expert strategic counsel in a single company – powered by exceptional talent and our agentic marketing platform, WPP Open, to help our clients navigate change, capture opportunity and deliver transformational growth.

We work with the world's most valuable brands and have global reach across 100+ markets, with deep local expertise.

Our people are the key to our success. We're committed to fostering a culture of creativity, belonging and continuous learning, attracting and developing the brightest talent, and providing exciting career opportunities that help our people grow.

For more information, visit WPP.com.

Why we're hiring:

WPP Media is embarking on a transformative data journey through Databridge—our internal comprehensive data strategy and framework designed to unify our fragmented global data landscape. We are moving from isolated, market-specific implementations to a standardized, scalable, cloud-agnostic, and AI-ready data platform built on a modern tech stack: dbt, Databricks, Python (dlthub), and GitHub Actions.

As Data Operations Lead, you will establish and head our new Data Integration & Operations team in Chennai. This is a build-and-run role: you'll define how the team operates while leading day-to-day delivery of operational excellence across global data products.

You will be the custodian of production—owning the operational layer including CI/CD automation, deployment pipelines, monitoring, data quality enforcement, incident management, and support. This role requires deep technical knowledge of Databricks and modern data platforms, alongside the ability to lead, mentor, and scale a growing team.

What you'll be doing:

Technical Ownership & Execution

Lead the team responsible for data integration, orchestration, and platform operations across Azure and GCP environments
Build and maintain automated CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions and Databricks Asset Bundles for data workflows
Design platform-wide monitoring, logging, and alerting covering pipeline execution, data quality, SLA compliance, and cost
Manage production deployments and own centralized job orchestration via Databricks Jobs/Workflows (scheduling, dependencies, retries, notifications)
Implement comprehensive data quality testing and validation using dbt's testing framework and custom checks

Operational Standardization

Create and roll out standard operating procedures, runbooks, onboarding guides, and automation patterns
Establish reusable deployment frameworks and project templates for consistent implementation across markets
Build and maintain the Central Data Solution Repository with reusable assets (dlthub pipelines, dbt models, tests, macros)
Define repeatable deployment patterns ensuring standards and best practices are followed globally

Platform Support & Governance

Set up and manage SLAs, incident workflows, and escalation models
Proactively identify and resolve operational risks in cloud-based data platforms
Partner with DevOps to leverage Databricks Unity Catalog for governance, access control, and lineage
Enforce data quality standards and governance policies embedded within pipeline code

Team Leadership

Lead and mentor the Data Integration & Operations team in Chennai
Shape the team's operating model, priorities, and capabilities
Act as subject matter expert and escalation point for technical operations
Facilitate regular retrospectives to drive continuous improvement and optimize processes
Collaborate with Data Engineering, DevOps, and Product teams globally

What you'll need:

Experience

7+ years in data operations, platform engineering, or data engineering with hands-on production experience
3+ years in technical leadership or team lead capacity, with proven ability to build and scale teams
Demonstrated experience establishing DataOps practices and operational frameworks from the ground up