Staff Data Engineer

GameChanger’s Data Engineering team builds the data platform that supports company analytics and commercial and product teams. The Staff Data Engineer sets technical direction, leads cross-functional initiatives, builds scalable data systems and self-service frameworks, and advances AI-assisted development practices.

Responsibilities:

• Set multi-quarter technical direction for the data platform, in partnership with the Data Engineering Manager. Turn project ideas into execution plans and drive clarity and alignment on scope on large ambiguous cross-functional projects
• Build relationships and regularly meet with technical and non-technical partners to support their goals and understand where your intervention is a priority. Lead advocacy conversations/training to influence adoption
• Architect and build scalable, robust and efficient data platforms serving analytic and operational needs across the organization. Review relevant specs and PRs across the company to influence strong design decisions
• Champion the changes that will enable AI-assisted self-service analytics and AI-assisted development
• Improve existing systems' performance, observability, reliability, and scalability, identifying new infrastructure and software patterns as needed
• Raise the bar for the company. Share your knowledge through technical documentation, code reviews, tech talks, mentoring, and proposing new standards
• Take part in DE’s on-call rotation. Debug and troubleshoot complex problems across multiple systems and services

Requirements:

• You are an AI-forward engineer, excited by the new possibilities and challenges created by the adoption of AI
• You are an excellent communicator, written and verbally, proficient in tailoring your message to your audience, and can influence without direct authority
• You prioritize the success and growth of the team ahead of individual ego and genuinely enjoy helping others learn and improve
• You are naturally curious and self-motivated to bring new tools and techniques to the team
• 8+ years building data or backend systems, including experience with leading technical work that spans multiple teams
• Expertise with AI-assisted software development
• Expertise in Python for data pipelines and maintainable production software
• Expertise with SQL and cloud data warehousing in Snowflake or BigQuery
• Experience building software systems, or partnering closely with the teams who do
• Proficient with containers and orchestration tools, preferably Airflow
• Proficient with IaC tools like Terraform
• Proficient with K8s/Kafka and streaming data pipelines
• Proficient with cloud computing services such as AWS, Google Cloud, or Azure
• Prior experience with building CDC platforms, front-end behavior tracking, MLOps platforms, or AI self-service tooling