Lead Data Engineer Snowflake - AirFlow - PySpark

We seek a Lead Data Engineer to join our client; a provider of AI driven workflow systems supported through a market leading Enterprise Application - Advertising Resource Management platform. This is a long term role that can be performed remote and can be either F.T.E “ Full Time Employee” or open to freelancers.

As the successful candidate, you will demonstrate proficiency and professionalism in the following.

Key Responsibilities

1. Lead and mentor a team of data engineers while staying hands-on with data pipelines, architecture, and system optimization.
2. Design and implement scalable data architecture.
3. Build ETL data pipelines using Airflow, SnowFlake, and DBT.
4. Define and enforce data partitioning, retention, governance, and security best practices.
5. Collaborate with stakeholders to align data practices with business goals and foster a data-driven culture.
6. Proactively drive innovation in data engineering practices and system architecture.
7. Translate business needs into technical specifications and document data architecture and pipelines.

Required Skills and Experience

1. 7+ years in data engineering including 2+ years in a leadership or architecture role.
2. Proficiency in Airflow (+3 yrs), SnowFlake (+2years), and DBT.
3. Advanced proficiency in Python (+4 yrs), Spark, SQL, and cloud services (AWS +2yrs).
4. Experience designing and deploying large-scale Data Warehouses.
5. Strong data modeling experience.
6. Experience working with third-party APIs and external data sources.
7. Ability to optimize system performance, ETL workflows, and data storage solutions.
8. Strong communicator, capable of bridging technical and non-technical teams.

Preferred Skills

1. Familiarity with adtech ecosystems (DSPs, ad servers, etc).
2. Exposure to Apache Druid, AWS Glue, PySpark (our current data stack, to be replaced).
3. Knowledge of design patterns and best practices for data architectures.
4. Experience defining data governance.
5. Familiarity with CI / CD tools.
6. Excellent English communication skills, both written and verbal.

Education & Language

Bachelors required - Master’s degree in Computer Science, Data Science, or related field preferred.