Manager - Data & AI Delivery [T500-21659]

About Delta Tech Hub:

Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) is the U.S. global airline leader in safety, innovation, reliability and customer experience. Powered by our employees around the world, Delta has for a decade led the airline industry in operational excellence while maintaining our reputation for award-winning customer service. With our mission of connecting the people and cultures of the globe, Delta strives to foster understanding across a diverse world and serve as a force for social good. Delta has fast emerged as a customer-oriented, innovation-led, technology-driven business. The Delta Technology Hub will contribute directly to these objectives. It will sustain our long-term aspirations of delivering niche, IP-intensive, high-value, and innovative solutions. It supports various teams and functions across Delta and is an integral part of our transformation agenda, working seamlessly with a global team to create memorable experiences for customers.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

Communicating and Influencing:

• Act as the primary liaison between UK Data & AI leadership and Virgin DTH squads, ensuring transparent communication of priorities, progress and risks.
• Represent Data & AI teams in local forums, architecture councils and leadership discussions.
• Build trusted relationships with Product, Digital and Technology stakeholders to facilitate data driven decision-making.
• Evangelise data and AI best practices through showcases, demos and communities of practice.

Leadership and People Management:

• Lead and mentor multidisciplinary Data& AI squads, fostering high performance and continuous development.
• Oversee recruitment, onboarding and career progression for data engineers, scientists, analysts and MLOps engineers.
• Champion an inclusive, data driven culture that rewards experimentation and learning.
• Provide coaching, feedback and performance reviews; ensure team wellbeing and policy compliance.

Data & AI Delivery and Agile Execution:

• Own end to end delivery of data platforms, analytical products and ML/LLM solutions through Agile ceremonies.
• Facilitate iterative development, backlog refinement, estimation and sprint planning for Data & AI workstreams.
• Ensure robust data governance, quality and security throughout the lifecycle.
• Coordinate with Digital teams to integrate data products via APIs and event streams into customer facing applications.
• Drive adoption of MLOps / LLMOps pipelines for continuous training, monitoring and model governance.

Stakeholder Engagement and Communication:

• Translate strategic goals into prioritized Data& AI roadmaps with business stakeholders.
• Provide regular reporting on delivery KPIs (velocity, throughput, value delivered) and model performance metrics.
• Proactively surface and mitigate risks, dependencies and blockers impacting data initiatives.

Operational and Local Hub Management:

• Ensure squads have access to modern data tooling, cloud resources and secure environments.
• Partner with Facilities and IT to maintain productive, hybrid friendly working practices.
• Lead continuous improvement initiatives, leveraging retrospectives and data driven insights.
• Track and optimize resource utilization, cost and quality metrics for Data & AI delivery.

Innovation and Continuous Improvement:

• Stay abreast of emerging AI trends (e.g., Generative AI, LLM fine tuning) and assess applicability to Virgin Atlantic use cases.
• Promote a culture of experimentation, hackathons and proofs of concept to accelerate learning and innovation.

WHAT YOU NEED TO SUCCEED (MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS):

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science
• Proven experience leading Agile Data & AI delivery teams across data engineering, BI/analytics, data science, ML and LLM product development.
• Deep understanding of data Lifecycle methodologies (CRISP DM, MLOps / LLMOps) and traditional SDLC.
• Hands on knowledge of cloud data platforms (AWS / Azure / Databricks), data Warehousing, streaming, and API centric integration patterns.
• Demonstrable expertise in Scrum, Kanban and SAFe; Agile certification (CSM, PSM, SA, etc.) preferred.
• Strong leadership and people management skills in multi-location / global settings.
• Experience delivering BI & reporting solutions (e.g., Power BI, Tableau) and operationalizing ML models via APIs or interactive applications.
• Excellent stakeholder management, communication, and problem-solving abilities.
• Experience in Team Leadership: Managed, mentored, coached and developed teams, fostering a collaborative and creative work environment
• Experience in Resource Allocation, Capacity Planning & Resource utilization
• Experience in Performance Management by providing regular performance feedback, recognizing achievements and addressing areas for improvement.

WHAT WILL GIVE YOU A COMPETITIVE EDGE (PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS):

• Previous airline experience