---
title: 'Lead DataOps / MLOps at Protective'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/lead-dataops-mlops-protective-birmingham-jf96cpfmqbkx'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-23'
---

# Lead DataOps / MLOps at Protective

- **Company:** Protective
- **Location:** Birmingham, AL
- **Compensation:** $125k–$170k
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** remote
- **Posted:** 2026-09-15
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-23
- **Apply:** https://jobs.lever.co/protective/01c3190a-346a-410f-9837-8eb74bc2c9b9

## Job description

The work we do has an impact on millions of lives, and you can be a part of it. We help protect our customers against life’s uncertainties. Regardless of where you work within the company, you’ll be helping provide protection and peace of mind when our customers need it most.

## KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

- Own the DataOps/MLOps platform and operating model — the paved paths, automation, and tooling that data and ML engineers use to build and run pipelines and models reliably.
- Lead CI/CD standards and pipelines in Azure DevOps (ADO) for data pipelines and ML models — build, test, and release automation, environment promotion, and repeatable, auditable deployments.
- Standardize orchestration on Dagster — reusable assets, scheduling, backfills, dependency management, and run observability across the pod's pipelines.
- Operationalize the ingestion and transformation stack — dlt (dltHub) and dbt — with automated testing, CI checks, and safe deployment of changes.
- Build MLOps foundations with the ML engineering team — MLflow model registry, Databricks Model Serving, automated deployment, monitoring, drift detection, and retraining triggers.
- Establish data and model observability — freshness, quality, lineage, latency, drift, and cost — with alerting and clear SLAs/SLOs.
- Administer and govern the Databricks Lakehouse on Azure — workspace configuration, Unity Catalog governance, access controls, and policy automation.
- Manage infrastructure as code and environments — reproducible dev/test/prod setups (e.g., Terraform), secrets management, and least-privilege access.
- Own reliability and incident practices — on-call, runbooks, root-cause analysis, and continuous improvement for data and ML services.
- Drive cost visibility and optimization (FinOps) across compute, storage, and model serving.
- Automate governance and compliance controls — audit logging, model and pipeline inventories, approval workflows, and evidence collection for a regulated environment.
- Provide technical leadership and mentoring — coach engineers on operational excellence and set the platform standards the pod builds on.

## QUALIFICATIONS

## REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

- 8+ years in data, ML, or platform engineering, or in SRE/DevOps, including several years operating production data and/or ML systems.
- Demonstrated technical leadership — setting standards, building paved paths and automation, and mentoring engineers (formal people management not required, but valued).
- Strong CI/CD expertise with Azure DevOps (ADO) — build/release pipelines, environment promotion, automated testing — and Git-based workflows.
- Hands-on experience with orchestration (Dagster or equivalent) and the modern data stack — dlt (dltHub) ingestion and dbt modeling — on a Databricks lakehouse (Delta Lake).
- MLOps experience — MLflow model registry, model deployment/serving, monitoring, drift detection, and retraining automation.
- Infrastructure-as-code and cloud platform administration on Microsoft Azure (compute, storage, identity, networking basics); Terraform or equivalent.
- Strong Python and SQL for automation and tooling.
- Experience with observability/monitoring tooling and SRE practices — SLAs/SLOs, alerting, and incident management.
- Demonstrated rigor in security, access control, and secure, compliant handling of sensitive data.
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field — or equivalent practical experience.

## PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

- Experience in financial services or insurance platform work, and familiarity with model risk and regulatory audit expectations.
- Databricks administration — Unity Catalog, cluster policies, and Mosaic AI — and familiarity with Azure Machine Learning.
- Containerization and orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes; Azure AKS or Container Apps).
- Experience with data-quality / observability tooling (e.g., Great Expectations, Monte Carlo, or similar).
- Experience automating responsible-AI and model-governance controls.
- Relevant certification such as Databricks Certified Data Engineer/ML Engineer, Microsoft Azure DevOps Engineer, or Azure Administrator.

Employee Benefits: We aim to protect the wellbeing of our employees and their families with a broad benefits offering. In addition to offering comprehensive health, dental and vision insurance, we support emotional wellbeing through mental health benefits and an employee assistance program. Work/life balance is important and Protective offers a variety of paid time away benefits (e.g., paid time off, paid parental leave, short-term disability, and a cultural observance day). The financial health of our employees is just as important as physical and emotional health.  Some of the financial wellbeing benefits include contributions to healthcare accounts, a pension plan, and a 401(k) plan with Company matching. All employees are encouraged to protect their overall wellbeing by engaging in ProHealth Rewards, Protective’s platform to improve wellbeing while earning cash rewards.

Eligibility for certain benefits may vary by position in accordance with the terms of the Company’s benefit plans.

Accommodations for Applicants with a Disability: If you require an accommodation to complete the application and recruitment process due to a disability, please email eric.hess@protective.com. This information will be held in confidence and used only to determine an appropriate accommodation for the application and recruitment process.

Please note that the above email is solely for individuals with disabilities requesting an accommodation.  General employment questions should not be sent through this process.

We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer committed to being inclusive and attracting, retaining, and growing an inclusive workforce.

## About Protective

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Protective is a financial services company providing life insurance, retirement solutions, employee benefits, and asset protection products to individuals and businesses.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Subsidiary of Dai-ichi Life Holdings, Inc., TSE:8750)
- **Headquarters**: Birmingham, Alabama, United States
- **Founded**: 1907
- **Founders**: Not publicly available

## Core Business
- **Primary industry/industries**: Insurance (Life, Annuity, Asset Protection, Employee Benefits)
- **Target customers**: B2C (individuals) and B2B (employers, partners)
- **Mission or purpose statement**: "To help everyone deserve confidence through life's moments — big, small and everything in between." [protective.com](https://www.protective.com/about-us)

## Products & Services
- **[Life Insurance]**: Offers term life, whole life, and universal life policies for individuals and families.
- **[Retirement Solutions]**: Fixed and variable annuities, retirement income planning products.
- **[Asset Protection]**: Commercial mortgage investments, structured settlements, and stable value products via Protective Asset Division.
- **[Employee Benefits]**: Group life, disability, and other workplace benefit programs for employers.
- **[Acquisitions & Stable Value]**: Manages and acquires in-force blocks of life insurance and annuity policies.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly available (subsidiary of Dai-ichi Life Holdings, TSE:8750)
- **Key Metric**: $6.4B annual revenue (PLICO financials) [wellfound.com](https://linkedin.com/company/protective-life)
- **Total Assets**: $142 billion as of December 31, 2025 [protective.com](https://investor.protective.com/Company-Overview/default.aspx)
- **Net Income**: $389 million USD (2024) [linkedin.com](https://linkedin.com/company/protective-life)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Parent company Dai-ichi Life Holdings (Japan), one of the largest life insurers globally.
- **Growth Signals**: 
  - Over 14.4 million customers served.
  - 61 acquisitions in company history. [protective.com](https://investor.protective.com/Company-Overview/default.aspx)
  - ~32 million policies and contracts in force.
  - $1 trillion life insurance in force.
  - 3,800+ employees as of Jan 1, 2026 (up from 3,800 reported in 2023).
  - Fastest growing core site in the greater Cincinnati area. [protective.com](https://www.protective.com/about-us/careers)

## Competitive Advantages
- **115+ Years of Stability**: Founded in 1907, the company has a long track record of financial strength and reliability.
- **Parent Backing**: As part of Dai-ichi Life Group, a global top-tier insurer, Protective has access to significant capital and a long-term strategic focus.
- **Diversified Portfolio**: Multiple business segments (Protection, Retirement, Asset Protection, Acquisitions) create revenue stability and cross-selling opportunities.
- **Strong Financial Ratings**: A focus on conservative risk management and a large asset base ($142B) provides market confidence.
- **Scale and Distribution**: A massive in-force block ($1T life insurance) and a large, established customer base.

## Strategic Focus
- **Organic & Inorganic Growth**: Continues to acquire blocks of policies and companies (61 in history) while expanding its core product lines.
- **Virtual Workforce Expansion**: More than half of employees are now remote, signaling a commitment to a flexible, distributed workforce. [protective.com](https://www.protective.com/about-us/careers)
- **Digital Transformation**: Investments in technology and data to improve customer experience and operational efficiency.
- **Talent Development**: Strong focus on internal mobility, continuous learning, and career enrichment programs.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Emphasizes a "protector" mindset, focusing on service to customers, colleagues, and communities. Recognized for workplace engagement and inclusivity. [protective.com](https://www.protective.com/about-us/careers)
- **Hybrid/Remote Work**: Over 50% of the workforce is remote/virtual. Three core sites in Birmingham (HQ), Greater Cincinnati, and St. Louis offer hybrid options. [protective.com](https://www.protective.com/about-us/careers)
- **Benefits**: Comprehensive package including medical/dental/vision with HSA/FSA, a pension plan funded by the company, 401(k) with employer match, paid time off, paid parental leave, short- and long-term disability, adoption assistance, and life insurance. [protective.com](https://www.protective.com/about-us/careers)
- **Career Development**: Company-sponsored education courses, tuition reimbursement, scholarship opportunities for dependents, and a semi-annual "Pulse Survey" to shape culture and learning opportunities. [protective.com](https://www.protective.com/about-us/careers)
- **Notable Perk**: Pension plan remains a differentiator in the current job market.

## Sources
1. [protective.com - Company Overview](https://www.protective.com/about-us)
2. [protective.com - Careers Page](https://www.protective.com/about-us/careers)
3. [investor.protective.com - Company Overview](https://investor.protective.com/Company-Overview/default.aspx)
4. [linkedin.com - Protective Life](https://linkedin.com/company/protective-life)
5. [jobs.lever.co/protective - Job Listings](https://jobs.lever.co/protective)

## Other roles at Protective

- [Annuity Case Management Specialist](https://feeny.ai/job/annuity-case-management-specialist-protective-remote-d4n8a66psx4s)
- [Legal Analyst I](https://feeny.ai/job/legal-analyst-i-protective-birmingham-zs6d4hzx7v8f) — Birmingham, AL
- [2027 Business Systems Summer Internship Program](https://feeny.ai/job/2027-business-systems-summer-internship-program-protective-birmingham-8vhj2jfymt37) — Birmingham, AL
- [2027 Summer IT Internship Program](https://feeny.ai/job/2027-summer-it-internship-program-protective-birmingham-wxzhjqee2c14) — Birmingham, AL
- [2027 Sales Summer Internship Program](https://feeny.ai/job/2027-sales-summer-internship-program-protective-birmingham-1jdpjbtsz3nh) — Birmingham, AL
- [Lead IT Architect](https://feeny.ai/job/lead-it-architect-protective-remote-3zaf6gdtywz0)
- [Regional Sales Director - Asset Protection Division](https://feeny.ai/job/regional-sales-director-asset-protection-division-protective-remote-vh8y5hkcsyp3)
- [Sr Dynamics 365 App Developer (remote)](https://feeny.ai/job/sr-dynamics-365-app-developer-remote-protective-remote-dt3424338wtk)
- [Corporate Communications Associate (Hybrid Birmingham)](https://feeny.ai/job/corporate-communications-associate-hybrid-birmingham-protective-birmingham-2d4x0tafdddr) — Birmingham, AL
- [Receivables & Billing Accountant](https://feeny.ai/job/receivables-billing-accountant-protective-chesterfield-j3mphbszbm7x) — Chesterfield, MO