Tech Lead – Backend Data & AI (Digital & Marketing IT)

Title: Tech Lead – Backend Data & AI (Digital & Marketing IT)
Location: Alameda, CA Onsite / Hybrid
Long-Term Rolling Contract

Role Summary

• We are seeking an experienced Tech Lead – Backend Data & AI with 8+ years of hands-on data engineering experience and a proven ability to lead architecture, execution, and technical direction for enterprise-scale marketing and customer data platforms. This role will act as a technical authority and thought leader, guiding backend data and AI solutions that power customer engagement, marketing activation, analytics, and AI-driven insights.
• The ideal candidate combines deep technical expertise in AWS, DBT, Python, and modern data architectures with strong leadership, communication, and decision-making skills. You will partner closely with product owners, marketing stakeholders, architects, and offshore delivery teams to deliver scalable, secure, and business-ready data solutions.

Required Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in data engineering, with at least 2–3 years in a technical leadership or lead engineer role.
• Deep expertise in AWS data services (Glue, S3, Redshift, DynamoDB, Airflow).
• Advanced proficiency in SQL, DBT, and Python.
• Strong experience designing and operating cloud-native data platforms at scale.
• Proven ability to communicate complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Key Responsibilities

Technical Leadership & Architecture

• Serve as Tech Lead and design authority for backend data and AI solutions supporting Digital and Marketing platforms.
• Define and evolve modern data architecture standards, including Data Mesh, Medallion Architecture, Data Lake, and Lakehouse patterns.
• Lead architecture and design reviews, ensuring solutions are scalable, secure, cost-effective, and aligned with enterprise standards.
• Translate business and marketing needs into clear technical designs, data models, and implementation patterns.

Data Engineering & Platform Delivery

• Lead the design, development, and optimization of ETL/ELT pipelines using AWS Glue, S3, Redshift, DynamoDB, external tables, AppFlow, FiveTran, and Airflow.
• Architect and implement customer data unification across CRM, marketing automation platforms, and third ‐ party data providers.
• Own and optimize analytics-ready data warehouses and semantic layers on Amazon Redshift.
• Define and maintain enterprise-grade data models, ER diagrams, and transformation logic to support downstream analytics and activation.

DBT, SQL & Python Excellence

• Own DBT standards and best practices, including models, snapshots, tests, macros, and Jinja-based SQL templating.
• Provide expert-level SQL guidance, including complex joins, window functions, and performance tuning.
• Develop and review reusable Python frameworks and components for ingestion, transformation, orchestration, and automation.

AI & Advanced Analytics Enablement

• Enable backend data structures and pipelines required for AI/ML and GenAI use cases, including feature-ready datasets and model inputs.
• Partner with product analysts and analytics teams to support segmentation, personalization, predictive analytics, and attribution models.
• Support data foundations for multi-touch attribution, ROI measurement, and AI-driven marketing insights.
• Support the building and management of BI dashboards in partnership with offshore BI Engineers.

Delivery Oversight & Team Enablement

• Provide technical leadership and mentorship to onshore and offshore engineers; perform design and code reviews.
• Guide teams on CI/CD best practices, version control (Git), and automated testing for data pipelines.
• Act as a key escalation point for complex data issues, performance challenges, and production incidents.
• Collaborate with product managers, architects, compliance, and business stakeholders to ensure successful delivery.

Data Quality, Governance & Compliance

• Establish and enforce data quality, validation, and observability standards across data products.
• Ensure data solutions meet governance, privacy, and compliance requirements, particularly for marketing and customer data.
• Drive consistency in business definitions, metrics, and golden data assets.

Marketing Data Enablement Focus

• Build and optimize data flows that support campaign targeting, segmentation, and personalization across email, paid media, and social channels.
• Implement marketing-specific data enrichment and validation logic (e.g., opt-in status, best email logic, engagement scoring).
• Enable analytics and dashboards for campaign performance, attribution, and customer journey insights.

Nice to Have

• Experience in the Life Sciences or Healthcare domain.
• Strong familiarity with marketing data ecosystems (email, media, social, web) and key Marketing KPIs.
• Experience with Fivetran or similar managed ingestion tools.
• Knowledge of marketing compliance and privacy regulations (GDPR, HIPAA for HCP data, CAN-SPAM).
• Experience with CRM platforms such as Salesforce or Veeva.
• Exposure to GenAI, LLMs, and AI-driven personalization frameworks.