Lead Data Engineer

MotorK; Lombardia; Hybrid; EUR 72,000 - 88,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Meal vouchers

26 days holiday + holidays

30 days to work from wherever you want

Hybrid work setup

Growth opportunities

Job summary

MotorK is seeking a Lead Data Engineer to own the architecture, modeling, pipelines and warehouse design for its data platform. This hands-on role combines technical leadership with code and architecture work, guiding a small team of two engineers.

You will shape the data stack across product, engineering and business, optimize cost and performance in BigQuery/Redshift/Snowflake, and apply agentic AI concepts to automate pipelines in a hybrid and globally scaled setup.

Qualifications

• Deep hands-on data modeling and architecture.
• Production cloud data warehouse experience (BigQuery/Redshift/Snowflake).
• Strong Python skills for data pipelines.
• Mentorship and leadership abilities.
• Clear communication with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end data modeling architecture across the platform.
• Define and evolve the target architecture for data infrastructure and roadmap.
• Bring modern data engineering practices to data estate design and governance.
• Manage cloud data warehouse performance, cost and reliability.
• Build production-grade pipelines with dbt, Airflow and Airbyte.
• Write production Python for pipeline development and tooling.
• Architect infrastructure for batch and streaming use cases (Kafka a plus).
• Lead, mentor and set technical direction for 2 data engineers.
• Raise engineering standards: data quality, testing, documentation and delivery.
• Partner with product, engineering and business stakeholders to translate requirements into robust data solutions.

Skills

Data modeling

Data architecture

BigQuery/Redshift/Snowflake

dbt

Airflow

Airbyte

Python

Kafka

Leadership

Stakeholder communication

Bias to action

Tools

dbt

Airflow

Airbyte

BigQuery

Redshift

Snowflake

Kafka

Job description

MotorK sits at the intersection of deep vertical complexity - automotive SaaS, 10,000+ dealerships, enterprise-grade requirements - and a company that has gone all-in on AI as its primary engine of scale. We believe vertical SaaS captures the most value from AI, and none of that value is reachable unless the data underneath it is modeled, governed and engineered right.

The Lead Data Engineer owns the architecture, engineering practice and delivery of MotorK's data platform. This is a hands-on, build-and-lead role: you will design and build the data models, pipelines and warehouse architecture yourself, while setting technical direction and raising the bar for a small team of two data engineers. You inherit a real platform and a real team, and you are expected to raise the ceiling on both.

Requirements

• Deep, hands-on expertise in data modeling and data architecture.
• Strong production experience with a cloud data warehouse: BigQuery, Redshift, Snowflake or equivalent.
• Top-tier, hands-on experience with dbt, Airflow and Airbyte in real production environments.
• Strong Python skills applied to data engineering pipelines and tooling.
• Familiarity with modern data engineering concepts, with a genuine interest in where the field - including agentic AI - is heading.
• Kafka or other streaming technologies is a strong plus.
• Proven ability to technically lead engineers - through mentorship, code review and architectural decision-making - while remaining hands-on.
• Clear communicator able to work with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Bias to action - moves fast on incomplete information, ships and iterates rather than waiting for the perfect plan.

What you do:

• Own end-to-end data modeling architecture across the platform, balancing scalability, performance and maintainability.
• Define and evolve the target architecture for data infrastructure - warehouse, transformation and orchestration layers - and the roadmap to get there.
• Bring modern data engineering practices and patterns into how MotorK designs, builds and governs its data estate.
• Manage and optimize the cloud data warehouse (BigQuery, Redshift, Snowflake or equivalent), owning performance, cost and reliability.
• Design and build production-grade pipelines using dbt, Airflow and Airbyte, with TOP-tier hands-on ownership of these tools.
• Write production Python for pipeline development, tooling and automation.
• Architect infrastructure that supports both batch and, increasingly, streaming use cases (Kafka or equivalent stream technologies a plus).
• Bring agentic AI concepts into how the data platform is architected and operationalized - from pipeline automation to data-driven agent use cases.
• Evaluate where AI-assisted tooling can remove manual, repetitive work from the data engineering lifecycle.
• Lead, mentor and set technical direction for a team of 2 data engineers - hands-on code review, pairing and architectural guidance.
• Raise the bar on engineering standards: data quality, testing, documentation and delivery predictability.
• Partner cross-functionally with product, engineering and business stakeholders to translate requirements into robust data solutions.

Benefits

• Salary from €80,000/year with the final offer adjusted based on experience and skill set
• Meal vouchers
• 26 days holiday + national holidays
• 30 days a year to work from wherever you want
• A flexible hybrid setup
• Genuine room to grow - nationally and internationally. We move fast, and so do careers here

MotorK is an Equal Opportunity Employer and Prohibits Discrimination and Harassment of Any kind. Our company is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all employees and to providing employees with a work environment free of discrimination and harassment. All employment decisions at MotorK are based on business needs, job requirements, and individual qualifications, without regard to race, colour, religion or belief, age, family or parental status, or any other status protected by the laws or regulations in the locations where we operate.