Lead IT Data Engineer

Tyson Foods; Springdale (AR); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Paid time off

401(k) plans

Health, dental, vision benefits

Job summary

Tyson Foods is seeking a Lead IT Data Engineer to design, develop, govern, and support enterprise data solutions for the Beef & Pork Analytics team. You will lead data model design, ETL/ELT pipelines, and data products for Fresh Meats reporting, with a focus on scalable, secure architectures across Data@Tyson and GCP.

Ideal candidates bring 5+ years in data engineering, strong SQL, hands-on GCP/BigQuery, and experience with DB2, SAP, and data governance.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Data Engineering, Analytics, or related field.
• 5+ years of practical experience in data engineering, cloud data platforms, enterprise analytics, data warehousing, BI, or related tech delivery.
• Strong SQL skills for enterprise reporting, dashboards, semantic models, and analytics consumption.
• Hands-on experience with cloud data platforms, preferably GCP and BigQuery.
• Experience designing multi-layer data architectures (lake/hub/curated/analytics/semantic).
• Experience with ETL/ELT development, orchestration, monitoring, and production support.
• Experience with source-system data (DB2, SAP, USDA, ERP, etc.).
• Understanding of data governance, metadata, lineage, and data security controls.
• Experience with Git-based development, MR, code review, testing, and deployment discipline.

Responsibilities

• Lead design and implementation of data engineering solutions for Beef & Pork Analytics, including data lake, hub, analytics-ready datasets.
• Convert requirements and KPIs into scalable data models, pipelines, transformations, and datasets.
• Develop data products for Fresh Meats reporting use cases.
• Build and orchestrate complex ETL/ELT pipelines with automation, monitoring, and production support.
• Support data integrations into Data@Tyson/GCP with DB2, SAP, USDA and other sources, including freshness monitoring and reconciliation.
• Design reusable data solutions with shared dimensions and enterprise terms.
• Lead data quality, observability, and issue resolution from source systems to reporting outputs.
• Mentor data engineers and analysts in SQL, GCP, dbt, orchestration, and governance expectations.
• Coordinate with stakeholders and platform teams to ensure documented, stewarded data assets.

Skills

SQL

GCP BigQuery

Data modeling

ETL/ELT

Data governance

Security controls

Git-based development

Leadership

Analytics

Education

Bachelor’s Degree

Tools

DB2

SAP

Power BI

dbt

Python

PySpark

Spark

Terraform

CI/CD

Collibra

Job description

Tyson Foods is seeking a Lead IT Data Engineer to support the Beef & Pork Analytics team with enterprise data solution design, development, governance, and operational support.

Responsibilities

• Lead design and implementation of data engineering solutions for Beef & Pork Analytics, including Fresh Meats data lake, hub, analytics, semantic, and reporting-ready data layers.
• Convert business requirements, report needs, KPIs, functional specifications, and validation criteria into scalable data models, pipelines, transformations, and analytics-ready datasets.
• Develop, enhance, and support data products for Fresh Meats reporting use cases.
• Build and orchestrate complex ETL/ELT pipelines using approved enterprise patterns, including automation, dependency management, monitoring, alerting, and production support practices.
• Support source-system integrations into Data@Tyson/GCP including DB2, SAP, USDA, and other internal or external sources, with replication, freshness monitoring, reconciliation, and exception handling.
• Design reusable data solutions across analytics projects using shared dimensions, conformed business definitions, enterprise business terms, and scalable modeling practices.
• Implement and validate data security requirements, including role-based access, row-level security, column-level security, ARS roles, and data classification dependencies and DSS/security review requirements when applicable.
• Partner with Data Governance, Data Stewards, Product Owners, Data Modeling Coaches, business SMEs, and reporting teams to ensure data assets are documented, classified, stewarded, and aligned to approved business terminology.
• Support Collibra workflows by ensuring tables, fields, lineage, classifications, and business terms are identified, reviewed, and maintained during delivery.
• Lead data quality, reconciliation, and observability so issues are detected early and traceable from source systems through GCP layers to reporting outputs.
• Participate in and lead architecture reviews, data model reviews, GitLab merge request readiness, release planning, production promotion, and change approval activities.
• Provide operational support for Beef & Pork Analytics products, including incident triage, service requests, data lake freshness issues, access/security questions, pipeline failures, and production reporting impacts.
• Coordinate with business and IT stakeholders during issue resolution by communicating impact, status, root cause, remediation steps, and validation results clearly and timely.
• Mentor data engineers and analysts in SQL, GCP, dbt, orchestration, data modeling, testing, documentation, support practices, and enterprise governance expectations.
• Manage technical relationships with internal platform teams, vendors, and third-party partners when tools, integrations, or platform capabilities are needed.
• Perform other assigned duties aligned with organizational vision, mission, values, and scope of practice.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Data Engineering, Analytics, or related field (or equivalent combination of education and relevant experience).
• 5+ years of relevant practical experience in data engineering, cloud data platforms, enterprise analytics, data warehousing, business intelligence, or related technology delivery.
• Strong SQL skills building analytical datasets for enterprise reporting, dashboards, semantic models, and downstream analytics consumption.
• Hands-on experience with cloud data platforms, preferably GCP and BigQuery, or comparable cloud technologies.
• Experience designing and supporting multi-layer data architectures including lake, hub, curated, analytics, semantic, dimensional, star-schema, or medallion-style models (Kimball methodology in a medallion raw-cleansed-curated architecture is required).
• Experience with ETL/ELT development, orchestration, pipeline monitoring, job dependencies, failure handling, and production support.
• Experience with source-system data, preferably including ERP, mainframe, DB2, SAP, manufacturing, sales, finance, pricing, or commodity-related datasets.
• Understanding of data governance, metadata, business terminology, lineage, stewardship workflows, data classification, and controlled promotion into production.
• Experience implementing or supporting data security controls including role-based, row-level, and column-level access patterns.
• Experience with Git-based development, merge requests, code review, deployment discipline, testing evidence, and change approval documentation.
• Ability to lead technical design discussions, identify risks, challenge assumptions, and recommend scalable, supportable solutions.

Technologies

• SQL, GCP, BigQuery, ETL, ELT, DB2, SAP, USDA, Data@Tyson
• Power BI, Cloud Storage, Dataproc, Pub/Sub, Composer/Airflow, Dataflow, dbt, Python
• PySpark, Spark, Terraform, CI/CD, AtScale, Fivetran, HVR, CDC, Collibra, GitLab

Benefits

• Paid time off
• 401(k) plans
• Affordable health, life, dental, vision, and prescription drug benefits

Preferred

• Preferred certifications: Google Cloud data engineering, analytics, data governance, Power BI, or other relevant IT certification.
• Preferred technical skills: GCP services (BigQuery, Cloud Storage, Dataproc, Pub/Sub, Composer/Airflow, Dataflow, or related tools); dbt, Python, PySpark, Spark, Terraform, CI/CD, or other modern data engineering technologies; Power BI, AtScale, semantic layer design, Fabric capacity awareness, or enterprise reporting consumption patterns; Fivetran, HVR, CDC, data replication, freshness checks, or source-to-cloud ingestion monitoring; USDA experience supporting commodity pricing, sales realization, profitability, finance, supply chain, order/invoice, customer, product, or manufacturing analytics; data quality frameworks, automated reconciliation routines, observability tooling, or audit-ready validation practices; experience supporting AI, machine learning, automation, and advanced analytics use cases through trusted and well-modeled data assets.
• Soft skills: technical leadership; business partnership; execution ownership; communication; detail orientation; strategic thinking; mentorship; change management.

Additional Information

• Location: Springdale, AR (onsite)
• Work shift: 1ST SHIFT (United States of America)
• Relocation assistance eligible: No