Lead Data Engineer

This role is to be based near our offices in New York City or West Los Angeles.

About us: 

We drive intelligent growth for ambitious businesses and leading brands. 

Customer understanding is more potent and drives greater value when insights go to work directly within marketing and experience priorities. To give our clients that advantage, we put an insights-driven operating system at the core of our design, go-to-market and digital experience solutions.  

Material clients make smarter growth choices because they can see clearly how and when to take the shots that count. Together, we connect consumer intelligence with customer demand generation to build lasting, profitable relationships.

About the Lead Data Engineer:

We are looking for a Lead Data Engineer to help build and scale our core data infrastructure. This is a hands‑on technical leadership role for someone who can drive high‑quality engineering execution, contribute to architectural decisions, and support the development of junior team members.

In this role, you’ll lead complex data engineering initiatives, design solutions end‑to‑end, and work closely with the VP of Engineering to align technical execution with broader platform strategy.

You’ll take ownership of key data engineering projects, guide technical decision‑making, and collaborate with cross‑functional partners to translate business needs into well‑designed, scalable solutions. You’ll balance hands‑on development with leadership responsibilities, ensuring both high‑quality delivery and strong engineering practices across the team.

This role is ideal for an engineer who enjoys hands‑on development, technical leadership, and shaping solutions.

In this role, you will:

• Design, build, and maintain scalable data pipelines on AWS using services such as Step Functions, S3, Lambda, EMR, ECS, Athena, and SNS

• Support the architecture and operation of our Snowflake environment, including data modeling, performance tuning, and RBAC

• Develop SQL and Python workflows, and integrate APIs for ingestion and external system connectivity

• Contribute to the design of evolving data models that power analytics, BI, and downstream applications

• Champion data quality, reliability, observability, and best practices in version control, testing, and CI/CD

• Lead technical projects from concept through delivery, ensuring high‑quality execution and alignment with engineering standards

• Mentor junior and mid‑level engineers through code reviews, design discussions, and hands‑on guidance

• Partner closely with the VP of Engineering on architectural decisions, engineering priorities, and long‑term platform strategy

• Collaborate with cross‑functional stakeholders to translate business requirements into clear, actionable engineering solutions

About You:

• 6–8 years of hands‑on experience in data engineering, building and maintaining production‑grade data pipelines and cloud‑native data systems

• Strong experience with AWS data services and cloud‑native data engineering patterns

• Proficiency in Python and SQL for building and maintaining data workflows

• Experience with Snowflake, including data modeling, performance optimization, and environment management

• Experience building or integrating APIs within data ecosystems

• Ability to lead projects, mentor engineers, and influence technical direction

• Strong communication skills and the ability to work with non‑technical stakeholders

• Comfort working directly with senior engineering leadership, including the VP of Engineering, on solution design and platform evolution

Why work for Material?

• Material is a global company and we work with best-of-class brands worldwide.  We also create and launch new brands and products, putting innovation and value creation at the center of our practice. Our clients are in the top of their class, across industry sectors from technology to retail, transportation, finance and healthcare. 

• Material employees join a peer group of exceptionally talented colleagues across the company, the country, and even the world. We develop capabilities, craft and leading-edge market offerings across seven global practices including strategy and insights, design, data & analytics, technology and tracking. Our engagement management team makes it all hum for clients.  

• A community focused on learning and making an impact. Material is an outcomes focused company. We create experiences that matter, create new value and make a difference in our clients’ lives and their customers’ lives.

Pay Range: $100,000.00-120,000.00

The range shown represents a grouping of relevant ranges currently in use at Material. Actual range for this position may differ, depending on location and specific skillset required for the work itself. 

Equal Employment Opportunity              

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability, or any other factors prohibited by law.

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