Sr. Data Engineer

Tandem Theory is hiring a Senior Data Engineer to lead client-facing data engineering work across multiple projects. The role owns data pipelines and integrations from requirements through ongoing support, advises clients on data solutions, and helps maintain data quality, architecture, and delivery standards.

Responsibilities:

• Own data engineering for multiple clients and projects at once, from requirements through delivery and ongoing support
• Work directly with clients to understand their business goals, and give them a clear, specific point of view
• Negotiate scope and level of effort with clients and internal teams so everyone agrees on what gets delivered and when
• Collaborate closely with analysts, engineers and managers across the agency
• Look past day-to-day tasks to the business results the work needs to deliver
• Design, build and maintain data pipelines and integrations with complex source data and API services
• Take ownership of established client pipelines: reverse engineer existing SQL and pipeline code to understand its business logic, and document it as you go
• Move and model data across platforms using established ETL/ELT patterns, orchestrated with Apache Airflow
• Recommend and design database solutions, and handle performance tuning, troubleshooting and capacity estimation
• Keep engineering work on agreed architectural paths and follow our data warehouse development standards
• Maintain documentation for data movement and transformation processes, including process flows and data mapping
• Set priorities for your projects and tasks, and push back when needed to protect the right priorities and workflow
• Set the criteria for who is added to or removed from client data services and systems
• Create and manage audit reporting and quality checks so data is delivered accurately and consistently
• Identify challenges and limitations in the tools we use, and propose fixes
• Spot roadblocks early that could affect deadlines
• Break complex work into clear tasks and coordinate them with the team
• Work with teammates and external partners to troubleshoot quickly and keep delivery on track
• Use AI coding assistants as a core part of your development work, and contribute to the team’s AI best practices
• Identify relevant new technology and share what you learn with the team

Requirements:

• 4–5+ years of hands-on data engineering experience
• Experience with RDBMS and cloud data warehouses such as PostgreSQL, SQL Server, Snowflake and Google BigQuery
• ETL/ELT development in SQL and Python, with orchestration in Apache Airflow; familiarity with dbt is helpful
• Experience with AWS and GCP, with strong hands-on experience in at least one
• Advanced SQL, including stored procedures, indexing and database IO performance tuning
• Solid understanding of data warehouse design principles and relational and non-relational data models
• Regular use of AI-assisted coding tools in your development work, with sound judgment about reviewing and testing what they produce
• Experience working directly with clients or business stakeholders on requirements, scope and timelines
• Proven ability to own several projects at once through delivery
• Ability to proactively identify, troubleshoot and resolve complex data integrity issues
• The ability to leverage cut and paste proficiently
• Strong analytical skills, with the ability to explain technical details to non-technical audiences
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Ability to work with minimal supervision in an agile environment and pivot quickly as analytical needs change
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent combination of education and experience preferred, in computer science or information systems
• Agency and marketing data experience
• API development
• DBA duties and responsibilities
• Experience taking over and documenting systems someone else built