Director, Data Engineering

Our client, a top Media firm, is seeking a Director, Data Engineering to join their team at their New York City offices. They are looking for a hands-on technical leader who is passionate about driving innovation through data.

This is a contract to hire role, onsite 3 days per week.

Responsibilities:

• Lead high-performing data engineering squads, setting clear objectives, fostering a collaborative environment, and driving team growth.

• Lead the design, development, and maintenance of scalable data pipelines and architectures across internal, third-party, and cloud-based sources.


• Ensure data accuracy, completeness, and consistency across various sources.


• Collaborate with data scientists and business teams to improve data models that feed business intelligence tools, increasing data accessibility and fostering data-driven decision-making across the organization.


• Implement best practices for data engineering, including performance tuning, monitoring, and documentation.


• Evaluate and adopt emerging technologies to improve data engineering capabilities.


• Foster the growth of your team members through coaching, mentorship, and opportunities for technical development.


• Contribute to strategic planning and execution of data initiatives aligned with business goals.

Required Experience

• Proven experience (6+ years) in data engineering, with at least 2 years in a leadership role.


• Experience with media-specific data platforms, including content management systems, ad tech, and digital media analytics tools.


• Proficiency in programming languages such as Python, Java, or Scala for data processing tasks.


• Experience with cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, Google Cloud, Azure) and cloud data warehouses (e.g., Redshift, Snowflake, Databricks.)


• Expertise in SQL/ NoSQL databases (e.g., PostgreSQL, MongoDB, BigQuery, or similar), and big data technologies (e.g., Hadoop, Spark, Kafka, etc.).


• Strong background in designing and building complex, high-performance data systems, including data lakes, data warehouses, and real-time data pipelines.


• Proven ability to manage and scale a growing team of data engineers, providing both technical guidance and career development.


• Excellent communication skills to collaborate with other teams and stakeholders.


• Familiarity with data visualization tools like Tableau or Looker.


• Ability to work collaboratively with cross-functional teams in a matrixed organization.


• Experience with machine learning and data science workflows.


• Familiarity with media industry standards and analytics platforms (e.g., Nielsen, comScore, etc.).


• Exposure to agile development practices and project management tools (e.g., Jira, Confluence