Hybrid Data Engineering Lead: Build Modern Stack & Team

Socket.dev; Chicago (IL); Hybrid; USD 190,000 - 220,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work environment with in-office

Competitive benefits

401(k) with company match

Company-paid life insurance

Job summary

Rewards Network is seeking a Data Engineering Lead to drive a modern data foundation, mentor teams, and guide architectural decisions. The role combines hands-on leadership with strategy, overseeing both data engineering and data science activity. A hybrid in-office presence is required in Chicago three days a week.

The ideal candidate has 6–10 years in data engineering, strong Python, Airflow, Kafka, and data modeling expertise, and a track record in guiding teams through complex migrations.

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 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 data modeling standards in a team environment.
• Ability to lead technically through code reviews, mentorship, and setting standards.

Responsibilities

• Establish and enforce architecture standards that ensure repeatable results.
• Assess current data infrastructure and plan refactoring or replacement with the team.
• Lead build-out of modern data stack including ELT pipelines and streaming ingestion.
• Hire and develop data engineering talent and mentor team members.
• Define and maintain data model RFC processes and enforce boundary discipline.
• Directly lead the data science team, setting priorities and removing roadblocks.
• Own data pipeline monitoring and observability with alerting and quality checks.
• Provide regular visibility into progress and risks to senior leadership.

Skills

Python

Apache Airflow

Apache Kafka

Data modeling standards

CI/CD for data pipelines

Data observability

Team leadership

Data science familiarity

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Advanced degree in technical field

Tools

GitLab

Job description

Rewards Network is seeking a Data Engineering Lead to drive a modern data foundation, mentor teams, and guide architectural decisions. The role combines hands-on leadership with strategy, overseeing both data engineering and data science activity. A hybrid in-office presence is required in Chicago three days a week.

The ideal candidate has 6–10 years in data engineering, strong Python, Airflow, Kafka, and data modeling expertise, and a track record in guiding teams through complex migrations.