Data Engineering Lead (Hybrid)

Rewardsnetwork; Chicago (IL); Hybrid; USD 190,000 - 220,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work environment

Competitive benefits package

Dining reimbursement

Job summary

Rewards Network is seeking a Data Engineering Lead to drive the modern data foundation and provide technical leadership across data engineering and data science. The role is hands-on with team-building, migration decisions, and a focus on architectural clarity.

The position is hybrid with in-office presence 3 days/week in Chicago. You will shape ELT pipelines, data models, and governance while mentoring engineers and aligning data initiatives with business goals.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field (or equivalent experience).
• 6–10 years of experience in data engineering or related discipline.
• 2+ years in a technical lead or staff-level IC role
• Experience with data science workflows, ML lifecycle, and MLOps concepts
• Expertise in data modeling standards and CI/CD for data pipelines
• Strong ability to lead a team and communicate technical tradeoffs

Responsibilities

• Establish and enforce architecture standards for repeatable results.
• Assess current data infrastructure and plan refactor/replace.
• Lead build-out of modern data stack including ELT pipelines, ingestion, transformation, storage and compute.
• Hire and develop data engineering talent.
• Direct data science team priorities and roadblocks.
• Own data pipeline monitoring and observability.
• Provide regular visibility to leadership on progress, decisions, and risks.

Skills

Data engineering

Team leadership

CI/CD for data pipelines

Data observability

Data modeling

Python

Apache Airflow

Apache Kafka

Cloud data warehouses

Communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/Engineering or related

Advanced degree in technical field

Tools

GitLab

Job description

About Rewards Network

For 41 years, Rewards Network has been helping restaurants grow revenue, increase traffic, and boost customer engagement through innovative financial, marketing services, and premier dining rewards programs. By offering unique card-linked offers, we introduce diners to fantastic restaurant experiences, leveraging advanced technology and data analytics to deliver value to restaurants, diners, and our strategic partners' loyalty programs.

Our Culture

At Rewards Network, you'll be part of a driven and diverse team that excels in collaboration, issue resolution, and taking ownership of both personal growth and the company's success. We take pride in partnering with the world's most powerful loyalty programs to drive full-price paying customers to local restaurants through marketing services and flexible funding options. Our engaging and rewarding environment is designed to help you gain your full potential.

Job Overview

The Data Engineering Leadis responsible fordriving the modern data engineering foundation at Rewards Network while providing technical leadership across both data engineering and data science functions. The team is mid-migration —actively building on a modern stack— and this role exists toensure disciplined execution, enforce architectural clarity and consistency.

The right person is a hands-on player-coach that is comfortable building teams as we invest in building out this competency as a core pillar of our long-term competitive advantage and strategy. That means assessing the current in-flight build and making deliberate decisions about what to keep and what to replace. Initially, the Data Engineering Lead will also manage the Data Science team, including acting as a key resource to the team, prioritizing work, and clearing roadblocks.

This is a hybrid position that requires in office presence 3 days a week (Tuesday-Thursday) in Chicago.

What you'll bring to the table: (Responsibilities)

• Establish and enforce architecture standards thatensureconsistent designsthat produce repeatable results.
• Assess the current state ofour data infrastructure — evaluate what needs refactoring, and what should be replaced — thenexecute onthat plan with the team.
• Lead the continued build-out of the modern data stack, including ELT pipelines,stream ingestion,transformation logicalong with storage and compute— serving as the technical authority when the team needs a decision made.
• Hire and develop data engineering talent,growthe team with engineers experienced in modern ELTarchitecturesanddevelop theexisting team members through mentorship, code review, and technicalleadership.
• Define andmaintainthe data model RFC process, reviewing proposed changes, enforcing boundary discipline, and ensuring no undocumented changes promote tocanonicallayers.
• Directly lead the data science team, setting priorities, managing workstreams, and translating business problems into clearly scoped DS projects — fostering a culture of accountability, technical rigor, and continuous improvement.
• Own data pipeline monitoring and observability, ensuring production pipelines haveappropriate alerting, data quality checks, and incident responseprocessesso failures are caught early and resolved quickly.
• Provide regular visibility into team progress, architectural decisions, and risks to senior leadership, communicating tradeoffs clearly and escalating when business commitments are at risk.

Do you have the right mix of ingredients: (Requirements)

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field (or equivalent experience)
• 6–10 years of experience in data engineering or a closely related discipline
• 2+ years in a technical lead or staff-level individual contributor role
• Familiarity with data science workflows, ML model lifecycle, and MLOps concepts
• Expertise in data engineering — including model design, testing strategy, incremental patterns, and layer boundary governance
• Experience designing and enforcingdata modeling standardsin a team environment — not just building models, butestablishingthe patterns others follow
• Demonstrated ability tobring a team along technically— through code review, documentation, mentorship, and setting standards that stick
• Familiarity withCI/CD for data pipelines(GitLab or equivalent) — including automated testing, deployment workflows, and environment promotion strategies
• Experience withdata observability and monitoring— alerting on pipeline failures, data quality degradation, and freshness SLAs (familiarity with tools like Elementary, Monte Carlo, or equivalent)
• Strongdecision-making under ambiguity— this role requires someone who can move forward with incomplete information and course-correct, not someone who needs consensus to proceed
• Clear, direct communicator who can translate technical tradeoffs for non-technical stakeholders
• Technicalexpertisein:Python,Apache Airflow,Apache Kafka, cloud data warehouses (Redshift, GBQ, Databricks)

Education, Certifications and Experience: Preferred

• Advanced degree in a technical field
• Experience at a company that has completed a similar legacy-to-modern warehouse migration
• Prior experience managing or mentoring data engineers

What you’ll love about us:

Comprehensive benefits package, which includes:

• This is a full-time, exempt position. The base salary range for this role in Chicago is $190,000–$220,000 annually, depending on candidate's experience, as well as skills, and other factors. This role is also eligible for an annual bonus target of 15%, bringing total target compensation to $218,500–$253,000.
• Competitive Time Off Benefits: including flexible PTO, 11 company holidays, and parental leave.
• Generous dining reimbursement when you dine with our restaurant clients
• 401(k) plan with a company match
• Two medical plan options- Standard PPO or High Deductible Health Plan (HSA with company match for HDHP participants)
• Partnership with Rx n Go, offering certain prescriptions for free
• Two dental plan options and a vision plan
• Flexible Spending Accounts and a pre-tax commuter benefit program
• Accident, Critical Illness, and Hospital Indemnity Insurance Plans
• Short Term and Long Term disability
• Company-paid life insurance and AD&D insurance, supplemental employee, spouse, and child life insurance
• Employee Life Assistance Program
• Hybrid working environment in a new office space downtown near the Metra Train stations and catered lunches on Tuesdays.

Rewards Network is an Equal Opportunity Employer (EOE). We encourage and strongly support workplace diversity.

Expected Pay Range

$190,000—$220,000 USD