Lead Data Engineer

Honda Center; United States; On-site; USD 140,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Honda Center is seeking a Lead Data Engineer to design and build a governed data warehouse architecture in Orange County. The ideal candidate will have 6–9 years of hands-on data engineering experience and strong skills in Python and SQL. Responsibilities include overseeing identity resolution and serving as a technical counterpart to partners.

The position requires on-site work and offers a competitive salary range of $140,000 to $180,000 per year, depending on experience and market demands.

Qualifications

• 6–9 years of hands-on data engineering experience.
• Deep cloud data warehouse experience; Azure preferred.
• Production experience with dbt and Airflow.

Responsibilities

• Design and build a governed data warehouse architecture.
• Own identity resolution end-to-end.
• Serve as the internal technical counterpart to implementation partner.

Skills

Hands-on data engineering experience

Production-grade systems development

SQL performance optimization

AI-assisted tools usage

Education

Bachelor's Degree in relevant field

Tools

Python

dbt

Airflow

Azure

Job description

Job Title: Lead Data Engineer

Location: On‑site, OC Sports & Entertainment, LLC in Orange County

Compensation: The annual base salary range in California is $140,000 to $180,000 per year. The starting pay depends on factors such as location, knowledge, skills, experience, education, and market demands.

Responsibilities

• Design and build a governed data warehouse architecture that unifies ticketing, loyalty, and F&B data into a single trusted source of truth.
• Own identity resolution end‑to‑end, including defining the entity framework, setting coverage standards, and expanding capabilities as new source systems are onboarded.
• Govern the Azure data environment, including monitoring, alerting, cost controls, and consolidation into a single reliable warehouse.
• Serve as the internal technical counterpart to the implementation partner by auditing the existing platform, evaluating architectural decisions, and driving toward full internal ownership.
• Translate complex data architecture decisions for non‑technical business partners and collaborate with analytics and operations teams to deliver data products that drive business decisions.
• Mentor engineers and help build a culture of technical rigor while remaining hands‑on as a builder.

Qualifications

• 6–9 years of hands‑on data engineering experience designing and building production‑grade systems.
• Academic background in a quantitative or technical field such as physics, mathematics, computer science, engineering, or a related field.
• Production‑grade pipeline development experience in Python and advanced SQL, with strong attention to performance, observability, and maintainability.
• Production experience with dbt, including project structure, robust test coverage, and development of reliable transformation layers that support downstream reporting and analytics.
• Production experience with Airflow or equivalent tools, such as Dagster or Prefect, including DAG design, dependency management, and failure handling at scale.
• Deep cloud data warehouse experience; Azure preferred, with strong AWS or GCP experience transferable.
• Experience building or enforcing medallion architecture in a production environment.
• Experience inheriting or auditing an externally managed platform, including reviewing unfamiliar codebases and independently evaluating architectural decisions.
• Experience owning engineering standards, including code review, pipeline governance, and documentation practices.
• AI‑native mindset, with experience using AI‑assisted tools as a productivity multiplier.
• Bachelor's Degree.

Other Requirements: On‑site work required.

Equal Opportunity Employer

We are committed to providing an environment of mutual respect where equal employment opportunities are available to all applicants and team members without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, age, or other protected categories as defined by law.