Director of Data & AI Engineering

Interplay Learning, the leader in immersive learning for the skilled trades, now includes Industrial Training International (ITI), the global leader in specialized industrial learning solutions.

Leveraging instructor-led training, online simulations, AI, and VR, Interplay helps organizations and educational institutions upskill faster, reduce risk, and increase operational readiness. With nearly 600,000 people trained, Interplay is shaping the future of workforce development, building better careers and better lives. Visit www.interplaylearning.com to learn more.

Awards & Recognition: 

• 2026 & 2025, Forbes, America’s Best Startup Employers
• 2025, Inc. 5000, Fastest-Growing U.S. Companies
• 2024, Best Midsize Places to Work In Austin
• 2024, Facilitiesnet Readers' Choice Award Winners for Software
• 2024, AHR Expo Innovation Awards Winners for Software

Interplay Learning Ethos:

At Interplay, we love what we do. We embrace our daily challenge to push technological limits to invent better ways to make learning easier and training more powerful. We attract passionate people and invite spirited discourse. We celebrate that our jobs fit our lives, not the inverse. We are uncompromising in our belief that together: we can build better training, build better careers and build better lives for customers and our team.

Interplay uses AI to support the recruiting/hiring process, but all hiring decisions are made by humans. 

Position: Director of Data & AI Engineering 

At Interplay, we’re pushing technological limits to make training more powerful. As our Director of Data & AI Engineering, you’ll lead a founding-level effort to architect an ecosystem that serves both our product innovation and our organizational efficiency. You will manage a team of experts to move beyond the AI hype, building production-ready features for our customers and a scalable, data-driven backbone for our internal teams.

We are looking for an experienced leader & people manager who is a Data Analyst at heart. You bring the perspective of someone who has been in the trenches of data analysis and the proven experience of managing technical teams to deliver high-scale AI and data solutions for internal and external needs. EdTech experience preferred!

Why this position:

• Meaningful, impactful work
• Mission-driven company
• Career development in a dynamic, high growth environment
• Passionate, collaborative team 
• Innovative product - EdTech, VR, AI

What you’ll do: 

• Team Management: Lead the data engineering team (3 engineers, 2 analysts); conduct performance reviews, provide mentorship, and set career development plans to drive growth.
• Stakeholder Management: Work cross-functionally with CS, Sales, Marketing, and Finance to identify needs and construct technical roadmaps for data initiatives.
• Governance & Compliance: Establish and enforce enterprise-wide governance frameworks that ensure data privacy, AI safety, and regulatory compliance while standardizing best practices across the data ecosystem.
• Architectural Oversight: Oversee the design and deployment of a unified and scalable data architecture and pipelines that support analytics, BI, and machine learning initiatives.
• Strategic Solutioning: Evaluate business friction points to determine if a BI dashboard, AI agent, or automated workflow is the most effective solution, working with stakeholders to determine technical aspects of complex data projects.
• Value Realization: Define and track ROI via dashboards for "Hours Saved," "Cost Avoidance," and "Revenue Impact" from AI and data deployments.

Who you are:

• Pragmatic Idealist: You have a bias for a