---
title: 'Senior Data Platform & AI Lead at Strategic Growth Partners'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-data-platform-ai-lead-strategic-growth-partners-washington-rfs302he5kba'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-11-10'
---

# Senior Data Platform & AI Lead at Strategic Growth Partners

- **Company:** Strategic Growth Partners
- **Location:** Washington, DC
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** hybrid
- **Posted:** 2026-11-03
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-11-10
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/strategic-growth-partners/6cb5944b-95e1-41ff-a736-e4b821d3c0b7

## Job description

Strategic Growth Partners provides both operations and strategic support to commercial organizations. Our client is a leading global professional services firm dedicated to helping organizations tackle their most complex business issues, maximize stakeholder value, and deliver sustainable change. Their Corporate Performance Improvement practice is looking for a Senior Data Platform & AI Lead to drive large-scale data platform modernization and AI enablement for clients operating complex, distributed data environments, including federal and defense environments with classified and cross-boundary data. This role requires someone who has designed and implemented enterprise data and AI platforms at scale — not just operated existing pipelines and models. Workplace Type: 80% travel. Hybrid. Employment Type: Full-Time Clearance: Active Secret Clearance required; TS/SCI eligibility strongly preferred. Compensation: Hourly rate is DOE. Experience Should Include:

- Modern data platform architecture, including data lakes, lakehouses, and cloud data warehousing (Snowflake, Databricks, BigQuery, Redshift).
- Data pipeline and ETL/ELT design, orchestration tooling, and data integration across structured and unstructured sources.
- AI/ML platform engineering, including MLOps, model deployment pipelines, feature stores, and LLM/GenAI platform integration.
- Data governance, lineage, cataloging, and metadata management frameworks.
- Cloud data infrastructure across AWS, Azure, and/or GCP, including cost modeling and platform consolidation.
- Data security, privacy, and regulatory compliance. Direct experience with DoD data and cloud policy (for example, the DoD Data Strategy and cloud impact levels IL4 to IL6) is a strong advantage and preferred for this role; GDPR, CCPA, or industry-specific data regulation can substitute.
- AI-driven data engineering. Baseline competency with AI-assisted development, testing, and monitoring tools is expected; candidates should articulate how AI accelerates platform build and data operations.
- Negotiating with data and AI platform vendors and general understanding of commercial models and licensing structures, including competing vendors and avoiding sole-source dependence.
- Designing and architecting highly available, scalable data platforms with proven experience in real-time and batch processing, disaster recovery, and multi-region redundancy.
- Federal contracting experience.
- Sovereign AI hosting, including running LLMs and the data they access inside controlled boundaries, with consideration for high-density GPU compute and low-latency networking needs.
- Data classification and cross-boundary or cross-domain data movement, ensuring users and AI agents see only approved data at the appropriate impact levels.
- Data ownership, taxonomy, and governed access across a large federated organization, including stewardship roles.
- Data mesh/federated data architecture (for example, DataMesh) that collects and connects data from multiple Military Departments (MilDeps), while keeping domain ownership with each MilDep and enforcing common standards, catalogs, and access policies. Responsibilities:
- Lead data platform architecture and engineering assessments, including current-state analysis, target-state design, and modernization roadmaps.
- Design AI/ML enablement architectures that support scalable model development, deployment, and monitoring across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.
- Assess data governance and AI readiness and develop implementation roadmaps aligned with compliance and business timelines.
- Evaluate dependencies between data platform modernization and AI/ML initiative sequencing.
- Assess AI infrastructure readiness, including compute, power, networking, and hosting boundaries, alongside the data center and network leads.
- Define the data foundation scope, including ownership, taxonomy, governed access, and integrated reporting, and identify where in-flight programs can be accelerated. This includes the federated data model (DataMesh) for collecting and connecting data across MilDeps, covering domain data products, interoperability standards, and cross-MilDep access.
- Define and integrate findings into A&M's broader engagement scope and deliverables.
- Support practice development through internal training, content creation, and people development. Qualifications:
- 10+ years of professional experience in data platform architecture and/or AI/ML engineering for complex, large enterprises, with consulting or advisory delivery experience.
- Demonstrated experience leading data platform modernization, AI/ML enablement, or data-driven transformation programs.
- Government or defense experience strongly preferred. Regulated industry experience in financial services or healthcare can substitute; deep transformation experience in other complex environments may also substitute.
- Bachelor's degree required; an advanced degree in a technical field is a plus. Cloud data or ML certifications (AWS, Azure, GCP, Databricks) are strongly preferred.
- Comfortable with travel up to 80%.
- Active Secret Clearance required; TS/SCI eligibility strongly preferred.
- U.S. Citizenship and Residency required. What Distinguishes a Great Candidate: Has designed and implemented large-scale, highly complex data and AI platform transformations — not just operated existing pipelines and models. Understands the dependency between data platform readiness and AI/ML program success. Can work across data engineering, AI/ML, security, and business stakeholder teams. Brings AI-assisted platform engineering into the delivery toolkit as standard practice. Has worked with classified or cross-boundary data and understands how it constrains platform and AI design.

## About Strategic Growth Partners

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Strategic Growth Partners (SGP) is a full-lifecycle growth partner for government contractors, helping small businesses enter the federal marketplace, scale efficiently, and achieve exit through an integrated shared-services model.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Privately Held)
- **Headquarters**: Silicon Valley, California, United States (with presence in India)
- **Founded**: 2025 (following the merger of GovContractPros, Strategic Growth Advisors, Softek Global Services, and Digital Twin Capital)
- **Founders**: Not applicable (formed via merger); key leaders include John Cook (CEO), Rajesh Shah (Chairman), Himanshu Shah (COO), Jerrod Mallinger (Chief Strategy Officer), and Pami Shah (CFO)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry/industries**: Government contracting advisory, business development, back-office support, mergers & acquisitions, compliance, and Tribal 8(a) program consulting.
- **Target customers**: Small businesses, Tribal 8(a) organizations, and other government contractors (B2B, primarily SMBs and mid-market).
- **Mission or purpose statement**: “SGP exists to make a difference by giving back. This purpose is woven into everything we do — delivering financial & economic opportunities for our tribal clients and their communities, empowering our trusted partners, and caring for the dedicated individuals that are the heart of SGP.”

## Products & Services
- **Business Development**: End-to-end support for winning federal contracts, including market entry strategies, capture management, and proposal support.
- **Back Office Support**: Fractional CFO, accounting, HR, payroll, and administrative services tailored to government contractors.
- **Mergers & Acquisitions**: Advisory for buying, selling, or merging GovCon businesses, including valuation, due diligence, and integration.
- **GovCon Xcelerator & Compliance**: Training, certification assistance (e.g., 8(a), HUBZone, SDVOSB), and ongoing compliance management.
- **Tribal 8(a) Advantage**: Specialized ecosystem leveraging SBA Tribal 8(a) benefits to accelerate growth for tribes and their partner businesses.
- **Launch / Ignite / Transform / Fortify**: A suite of growth programs covering market entry, rapid scaling, long-term transformation, and operational strengthening.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed
- **Key Metric**: Annual revenue not publicly available; workforce of approximately 29 employees (LinkedIn, 2025)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Not publicly disclosed; works extensively with tribal nations and federal primes
- **Growth Signals**: Rebranded and unified four entities under one name in January 2025; 12 active job postings as of mid-2025; expanding presence in India; LinkedIn follower count of 3,240

## Competitive Advantages
- Deep specialization in the Tribal 8(a) program, a unique regulatory advantage for rapid growth.
- Full-lifecycle support from inception to exit, reducing the need for multiple vendors.
- Team combines decades of firsthand experience in federal agencies and private sector executive leadership.
- Fractional expert model provides small businesses with high-caliber talent without full-time cost.

## Strategic Focus
- Continue to expand the Tribal 8(a) ecosystem and forge mutually beneficial partnerships.
- Strengthen compliance and back-office services to reduce barriers for small government contractors.
- Grow through M&A advisory and strategic partnerships, targeting both new entrants and established firms.
- Scale the shared-services model to serve a broader range of socioeconomic small businesses.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture highlights**: Mission-driven, selfless leadership, integrity, and a commitment to uplifting tribal communities and partners. Emphasizes teamwork, creativity, and sustainable growth.
- **Remote/hybrid/office policy**: Not explicitly stated; headquarters in Silicon Valley, CA, with roles likely requiring some in-office presence. Many positions (e.g., Senior Accountant, Operations Manager) may be hybrid or remote-friendly.
- **Notable perks or engineering culture**: Not a traditional tech company; roles span finance, HR, operations, business development, and consulting. Offers the chance to work directly with federal agencies and tribal nations, providing meaningful impact. The careers page lists 12 open positions including Senior Accountant, Operations Manager, Controller, HR Business Partner, and Project Engineer.

## Sources
1. [strategicgrowthpartners.com](https://strategicgrowthpartners.com/)
2. [strategicgrowthpartners.com/about-us](https://strategicgrowthpartners.com/about-us/)
3. [LinkedIn – Strategic Growth Partners](https://www.linkedin.com/company/stratgrowthpartners)
4. [LinkedIn – SGP Recruiting](https://www.linkedin.com/company/sgp-recruiting)
5. [Ashby Careers – Strategic Growth Partners](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/strategic-growth-partners)

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