Director of Data Engineering and Business Intelligence

Graphite Graphite Financial is a growing boutique finance, accounting, tax, and strategy firm (www.graphitefinancial.com) built to help startup and high-growth companies scale efficiently and sustainably. Graphite Financial is redefining the “finance department” for early-stage companies and VC-backed startups. We deliver high-caliber accounting and finance leadership and support to entrepreneurs and management teams building scalable, high-growth companies. Our clients are actively managing cash burn, measuring performance, reporting to investors, making capital allocation decisions, and preparing for fundraising. All of that takes expertise and time that founders don’t have and can’t afford to hire for. Graphite bridges the gap with flexible, fixed-fee support packages that provide fractional leadership and operational support from CFOs, Controllers, FP&A Managers, and Tax leaders.

The Opportunity

We are hiring a Director of Data Engineering & Business Intelligence to take full ownership of Graphite’s internal data ecosystem - including data pipelines, analytics infrastructure, operational reporting, and the automation layer that feeds our databases. This role is responsible for building, managing, and continuously improving the systems that power decision-making across the firm.

We are not looking for a theorist; we are looking for a pragmatist.

You must be an expert architect capable of building enterprise-grade pipelines in Azure/Snowflake and create executive-ready PowerBI reporting, but you must also possess the humility and business acumen to build a complex Excel model when speed is more important than scale.

An important part of this role includes oversight of workflow automation and other technical projects. You will work closely with external automation developers who use tools such as Playwright, ElectroNeek, and other RPA frameworks. While you may not build these automations yourself, you will ensure they are designed correctly, follow standards, integrate cleanly into Snowflake, and produce reliable data for reporting.

This is a hands-on senior level role within our Technology & Standards group, interacting with Graphite’s executive team who rely on this reporting day to day.

Specific Responsibilities:

1. Enterprise Data Strategy & Business Analysis

You are responsible for the integrity of all data, whether it lives in a warehouse, a legacy platform, or a disconnected spreadsheet.

• Holistic Data Ownership: Understand and map the interplay between all systems (QBO, Karbon, Finoptimal, Google Sheets, and internal tools).
• Senior Business Analysis: Partner with Finance, Tax, and Accounting leaders to translate ambiguous business questions into data solutions.
• Agile Execution: Recognize when a request requires a full pipeline build versus when it requires a rapid, ad-hoc analysis. You will execute on both.
• Advanced Excel Mastery: Serve as the ultimate backup. When database solutions are not ready, you will build high-complexity, audit-proof Excel models to bridge the gap immediately.

2. Data Architecture & Engineering

You will modernize our infrastructure, moving us from manual processes to a trusted, automated platform.

• Pipeline Architecture: Design and manage ETL/ELT workflows using Azure Data Factory to ingest data into Snowflake.
• Medallion Architecture: Implement and maintain Bronze, Silver, and Gold layers to transform raw inputs into standardized, analytics-ready datasets.
• SQL Modeling: Write advanced, optimized SQL logic (Window functions, Stored Procedures) to cleanse, standardize, and enrich data.
• Historical Tracking: Implement Slowly Changing Dimensions (SCD Type 1 & 2) to ensure we never lose historical context.

3. Power BI & Visualization

You are the architect of the client experience and internal reporting layer.

• Semantic Modeling: Own the Power BI ecosystem end-to-end, including star schema design, relationships, and version control.
• Scalable Reporting: Build reusable templates and dashboards that scale across hundreds of clients (Financial Reporting, KPIs, Tax Compliance).
• Advanced Logic: Use expert-level DAX to calculate complex financial metrics (MRR, Churn, EBITDA) dynamically.

4. Technical Leadership & Governance

• Oversight: Manage and mentor our Automation Engineer (Python/API focused), reviewing their logic to ensure automations write cleanly into the data model.
• Governance: Define and enforce standards for naming conventions, data quality, and schema consistency across the organization.
• System Integration: Lead the strategy for integrating new tools and APIs into the Graphite ecosystem.

Skills you should have:

• 10+ Years Experience: You have evolved from a Data Engineer/Analyst into a Solution Architect or BI Director.
• Bilingual: You speak "Engineer" (APIs, Pipelines, Schema) and "Finance" (Client Margins, Utilization, Direct Costs) fluently.
• Pragmatic vs. Purist: You prefer clean code, but you prioritize business value. You are not "too senior" to fix a broken report or run a manual SQL query to save the day.

Technical Stack Requirements

• Core Data Engineering: Expert proficiency in Azure Data Factory, Snowflake, and Advanced SQL.
• BI & Analytics: Expert proficiency in Power BI (DAX, M, Service Admin).
• Business Analysis: Expert proficiency in Excel (Power Query, Macros, Complex Modeling) is mandatory for ad-hoc agility.
• Automation Oversight: Conceptual understanding of Python and API workflows (to guide the automation team).