About Us
Accel Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: ACEL) is a growing provider of locals-focused gaming and one of the largest terminal operators in the United States, supporting more than 27,000 electronic gaming terminals in over 4,300 third-party local and regional establishments across ten states. Through exclusive long-term contracts, Accel serves licensed non-casino locations including bars, restaurants, convenience stores, truck stops, gaming cafes, and fraternal and veteran establishments. Accel also owns and operates brick and mortar casinos and a racino venue.
Accel provides its local partners with a turnkey, full-service, capital-efficient gaming solution that encompasses manufacturing, content, payments, loyalty, 24/7 customer service, data analysis and reporting, and cash logistics. The Company’s racino, Fairmount Park Casino & Racing, opened in April 2025 and features over 270 electronic gaming machines, food and beverage amenities, a sports book, para-mutuel betting and 55 days of thoroughbred horse racing a year. For more information, please visit www.accelentertainment.com.
Job Description:
SUMMARY
The Director, Data Platforms and Engineering is responsible for providing unified technical and strategic leadership across Accel's data infrastructure, AI engineering, Nevada gaming systems, and custom application development. This role consolidates ownership of a fragmented technical landscape into a single accountable leader who owns the roadmap, governs delivery, and ensures every technology investment is aligned to a business outcome. The Director reports directly to the VP of Technology and serves as a key member of the technology leadership team, leading a cross-functional team of approximately 8 to 10 engineers and technical resources across multiple functions and platforms.
WHY THIS ROLE EXISTS
Accel operates across three distinct platform environments: a modern Azure data and AI infrastructure, a Nevada gaming operation running on a Stratus mainframe, and a set of custom applications built in Ruby on Rails and Python hosted on AWS and managed by an external development shop. What has been missing is a single technical leader who owns the strategy, governance, and execution across all of it. This role exists to consolidate that ownership, accelerate delivery of high-impact AI use cases, modernize the infrastructure underlying our Nevada operations, build internal engineering capability in our custom application portfolio, and ensure data reliability across all markets.
DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Data Platform Ownership
- Own and evolve the company data platform including Azure SQL, Azure Databricks, Azure Data Factory, Azure Container Functions, and the Microsoft Fabric migration.
- Lead the modernization of legacy automated jobs from Azure VM to Azure Container Functions, reducing single points of failure across business-critical workflows.
- Define and enforce standards for data ingestion, transformation, storage, and consumption across all markets.
- Ensure data reliability and availability for downstream analytics, AI models, and business reporting.
- Manage 20 plus GitHub repositories and enforce source control, branching, and CI/CD standards across the engineering team.
AI Engineering and Delivery
- Own the AI delivery roadmap in partnership with technology and business leadership, ensuring use cases are sequenced by business impact.
- Translate business opportunities into specific, executable AI use cases with clear success criteria and ROI framing.
- Govern how AI is built and deployed across the organization, including data quality standards, model validation, and responsible use practices.
- Oversee delivery of AI engineering projects from concept through production, ensuring outputs are trusted and adopted by business stakeholders.
- Partner with the analytics function to ensure AI models are built on governed, consistent data.
Nevada Systems and Engineering Leadership
- Provide technical leadership over the Nevada engineering function, including the Stratus mainframe environment and its integration with the broader Accel data warehouse.
- Own the technical roadmap for Nevada systems modernization, including a sequenced plan for what remains on Stratus, what migrates, and in what order.
- Manage contractor developer relationships including oversight of deliverables, code quality, and knowledge transfer to internal team members.
- Ensure SOX compliance and disciplined change management practices for all Nevada systems.
- Escalate Nevada technology risks proactively with recommended mitigations before they impact operations.
Custom Application Development
- Provide technical oversight of custom application development work in Ruby on Rails and Python, including applications managed by the Cottonwood external development shop.
- Build internal engineering capability in the Cottonwood codebase, securing source code ownership, shared GitHub repository access, and independent deployment rights to reduce external dependency.
- Partner with the Cottonwood shop and Product Delivery Manager on intake, scoping, and prioritization of new build requests.
- Review code quality and deployment practices for all custom application work before production deployment.
- Lead the transition of Cottonwood resource management in-house over time, including direct oversight of engineers as the engagement evolves.
Data Governance and Quality
- Establish and maintain clear definitions for key business metrics across all functions and markets.
- Implement data quality processes that ensure leadership can trust the data before acting on it.
- Partner with Legal, Compliance, and Security on responsible AI and data governance practices.
- Reduce manual data intervention through automation, monitoring, and pipeline reliability improvements.
Leadership and Cross-Functional Alignment
- Lead, develop, and retain a team of approximately 8 to 10 technical resources across data, AI, and engineering disciplines.
- Serve as the primary technical liaison between the data and engineering organization and business stakeholders.
- Communicate complex technical concepts in clear, business-relevant language for executive and non-technical audiences.
- Establish an intake and prioritization process for data, AI, and engineering requests across the organization.
- Make transparent tradeoffs between quick wins and long-term scalable solutions, communicating those tradeoffs clearly to leadership.
WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE
- VM Modernization
- Azure VM automated jobs migrated to Container Functions within 6 months of hire, eliminating single points of failure.
- AI Delivery
- 2 to 3 high-impact AI use cases deployed and adopted by the business within 12 months.
- Nevada Roadmap
- Clear, sequenced Stratus modernization plan delivered within 90 days of hire with Nevada leadership alignment.
- Data Trust
- Leadership spends less time debating data accuracy and more time acting on it.
- Cottonwood Knowledge Transfer
- Internal engineers capable of deploying Cottonwood code independently within 6 months of hiring.
QUALIFICATIONS
Required
- 8 or more years of experience in data engineering, platform engineering, or technical leadership roles.
- Demonstrated experience managing and evolving cloud-based data platforms, preferably Azure including SQL, Databricks, Data Factory, and Container Functions.
- Practical experience delivering AI or machine learning solutions in a production environment.
- Experience managing software engineers and data engineers in a hands-on technical leadership capacity.
- Strong understanding of data governance, quality frameworks, and responsible AI practices.
- Proven ability to translate business problems into technical solutions and communicate those solutions to non-technical stakeholders.
- Experience with source control, CI/CD, and engineering standards including GitHub.
- Experience providing technical oversight across multiple platform environments simultaneously.
Preferred
- Experience with Ruby on Rails, Python, or legacy mainframe environments.
- Background in gaming, hospitality, or multi-state regulated industries.
- Experience with Microsoft Fabric, Salesforce integrations, or NetSuite and Workday data connectivity.
- Experience managing contractor developer relationships, vendor oversight, and knowledge transfer programs.
- Familiarity with SOX compliance requirements and disciplined change management in financial systems environments.
- Experience in environments where the technical lead also serves as a strategic business partner, not just an engineering manager.
- Experience managing AWS-hosted application environments alongside Azure data infrastructure.
PHYSICAL DEMANDS AND WORK ENVIRONMENT
The above is intended to describe the general content of, and requirements for, the performance of this job. It is not to be construed as an exhaustive statement of duties, responsibilities, or physical requirements. Nothing in this job description restricts management's right to assign or reassign duties and responsibilities to this job at any time. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
Base Pay Range:
$175,000-180,000/yr
This range represents the low and high end of the anticipated base salary range for this position. The base salary will depend on a number of factors such as: qualifications, experience level, and skillset.
Voluntary full-time employment benefits include medical, dental, and vision; life, AD&D, critical illness, and hospital insurance; short and long-term disability; identity/legal protection; as well as access to FSA and HSA accounts. Full and part-time employees are eligible to contribute to traditional and/or Roth 401(k) plans. Our Employee Assistance Program (EAP) offers counseling for a multitude of topics including (but not limited to) mental health, finances, adult care, disability, and grief.
Accel Entertainment is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.
