Director & Practice Lead, Data Engineering

The Director & Practice Lead, Data Engineering at TELUS Digital will operate remotely in Canada or be based in Toronto, ON or Vancouver, BC. This role is for someone who has led data and AI practices before, understands how to transform messy enterprise data estates into strategic assets, and earns trust with C-suite executives through genuine expertise.

About TELUS Digital

Welcome to TELUS Digital—where innovation drives impact at a global scale. As an award-winning digital agency and the digital division of TELUS, one of Canada’s largest telecommunications providers, we design and deliver transformative customer experiences through cutting-edge technology, agile thinking, and a people-first culture.

With a global team across North America, South America, Central America, Europe, Africa, and APAC, we offer end-to-end expertise across Digital Product Strategy & Innovation, Digital Marketing Services, Web & Mobile App Development, Data & AI, Cloud Engineering, and Enterprise Technology Modernization.

From mobile apps and websites to voice UI, chatbots, AI, customer service, and in-store solutions, TELUS Digital enables seamless, trusted, and digitally powered experiences.

The Opportunity

TELUS Digital's Data, AI & Cloud (DAIC) practice is the multidisciplinary engine behind enterprise AI, blending boutique innovation with the breadth of a global services portfolio to help organizations architect, scale, and secure their transformations. Spanning our full family of specialized capabilities, the DAIC practice delivers end-to-end solutions across AI Advisory, AI Solutions, Data & AI Platforms, and Cloud Transformation.

As a premier Google Cloud partner, our Cloud practice is at the forefront of helping enterprises adopt and scale on Google Cloud infrastructure, delivering complex engineering, deployment, and migration programs for some of the largest organizations in Canada and beyond.

The Director & Practice Lead, Data Engineering will define and own the Data Engineering Practice, including its market positioning, P&L, talent, and the quality of work delivered for clients. This role is for someone who has led data and AI practices before, understands how to turn messy enterprise data estates into strategic assets, and earns trust with C-suite executives through genuine expertise.

You will shape how we help clients move from data ambition to durable, AI-ready infrastructure.

This role has four core anchor responsibilities:

• Strategy: Set the practice vision and align Data & AI capabilities to where enterprise demand is heading.
• P&L: Own revenue targets, margin, and growth while being accountable for the practice's full commercial performance.
• Talent & Culture: Build a practice where data-driven thinking, innovation, and engineering rigor are the baseline.
• Client Impact: Act as a trusted advisor to enterprise CxOs navigating data strategy, AI adoption, and governance.

Responsibilities

• Define the multi-year vision for the Data Engineering Practice, ensuring our technical capabilities are ahead of the curve for enterprise demand for Data & AI transformation.
• Own the full P&L, including pipeline, pricing, delivery margin, and revenue growth, while reporting directly to executive leadership with clear commercial accountability.
• Build and sustain senior relationships with Google Cloud partner teams and client executives to generate meaningful deal flow and expand strategic accounts.
• Lead the practice's position on ethical AI and data democratization while making principled, evidence-based bets on where advanced analytics and AI are creating real enterprise value.
• Drive investment in reusable IP, data accelerators, and delivery assets that improve consistency, reduce time-to-value, and protect margins at scale.
• Serve as a strategic advisor to client C-suite executives, helping them define data strategy, navigate AI adoption, and build organizational capabilities to sustain it.
• Set the standard for engineering and analytical excellence across the practice by hiring well, developing talent deliberately, and building teams that clients trust and return to.

Competencies

• At least 12+ years in data or AI consulting, including 3–5 years in a practice leadership or executive role.
• Proven P&L ownership: Direct experience managing revenue, margin, and growth targets in a consulting or professional services context.
• Depth in the data and AI ecosystem: Strong command of modern data architecture, AI, and ML trends, cloud-native data platforms, and enterprise data governance.
• Executive communication: Ability to advise, challenge, and build lasting trust with C-suite stakeholders on complex, ambiguous problems.
• Business development track record: Experience generating pipeline and closing complex, multi-stakeholder engagements.
• Talent leadership: Experience hiring, growing, and retaining senior data engineering and consulting talent in a practice or delivery organization.