Manager, Data Engineering Redwood City, CA, United States

Fanatics Inc.; Redwood City (CA); Hybrid; USD 200,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Fanatics is seeking a Manager of Data Engineering to lead a team delivering scalable data pipelines, data lakes, and analytics products. You will own the data strategy, roadmap, and governance while partnering with Data Science, Product, Marketing, and Engineering to enable self-serve analytics and AI-enabled insights.

The role emphasizes modernizing batch and streaming pipelines, building a semantic layer, and ensuring data quality and reliability across fan experiences during peak events.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in data engineering or related software engineering roles, including 2+ years of direct people management.
• Strong SQL skills and proficiency in Python; experience with Java or Scala is a plus
• Hands-on experience with Apache Iceberg or similar open table formats; Spark, Kafka, Airflow, or equivalent tools; AWS data services (S3, Glue, EMR, Redshift, Lambda, Kinesis); and Snowflake or a comparable warehouse or lakehouse platform
• Deep understanding of ETL/ELT pipelines, dimensional and event modeling, orchestration, and distributed processing
• Experience with enterprise BI platforms (such as MicroStrategy, Tableau, or Omni) and with building governed metric definitions or a semantic layer (for example dbt or Cube.dev)
• Ability to turn ambiguous business questions into durable data contracts, consistent metric definitions, and clear roadmaps, with strong prioritization, stakeholder management, and communication skills
• Practical experience using AI-assisted engineering tools and validating their outputs, with a working understanding of how data engineering supports analytics, machine learning, and generative AI

Responsibilities

• Lead a team of Data Engineers and BI Engineers to build and operate scalable data pipelines and analytics products.
• Own data strategy, roadmap, delivery commitments, and operational priorities.
• Partner with Data Science, Product, Engineering, Marketing teams to support experimentation, marketing, and self-serve analytics.
• Build data contracts, metadata definitions, and a governed semantic layer using dbt, Cube, Snowflake.
• Champion AI-first development and integrate AI tools into data pipelines and BI solutions.

Skills

SQL

Python

Leadership

Data engineering

ETL/ELT

AWS

Snowflake

dbt

Communication

Stakeholder management

Education

Bachelor's or Master's in CS/Engineering

Tools

Apache Iceberg

Spark

Kafka

Airflow

Redshift

MicroStrategy

dbt

Job description

Fanatics Commerce is the global leader in licensed sports merchandise, operating a vertically integrated platform that designs, manufactures, and delivers officially licensed apparel, jerseys, headwear, and collectibles for major leagues, teams, and events worldwide. With more than 900 e-commerce sites and a global omnichannel presence across digital, in-venue, and retail, Fanatics Commerce reaches fans in over 180 countries and powers official fan experiences for many of the world's most iconic sports properties.

At Fanatics, we bring our BOLD Leadership Principles to life every day - building championship teams, obsessing over fans, acting with entrepreneurial speed, and delivering with a determined and relentless mindset.

ROLE OVERVIEW

The Manager of Data Engineering leads a team of Data Engineers and BI Engineers responsible for building and operating scalable, reliable data pipelines, platforms, and analytics products. This role owns engineering delivery, develops team members, and ensures high-quality, trusted data supports analytics, business operations, and data science. It also leads modernization across batch and streaming pipelines, data lakes, a governed semantic layer, and data governance foundations, while championing AI-first development. The Manager of Data Engineering delivers business and fan impact through BOLD leadership and execution excellence, leveraging data, automation, and AI-enabled insights.

HOW WILL YOU DRIVE IMPACT

Success is measured by the ability to deliver results through BOLD capabilities and measurable outcomes.

Team & Leadership Impact (Build Championship Teams)

Cross-Functional Leadership:

• Partner with Data Science, Product, Engineering, Marketing teams, and Partners to support experimentation, marketing, funnel analysis, and scalable self-serve analytics
• Translate business requirements into technical designs, data contracts, consistent metric definitions, milestones, and measurable outcomes
• Communicate progress and risk clearly across technical and business stakeholders, making principled tradeoffs
• Build, manage, and grow a high-performing, inclusive team of Data Engineers and BI Engineers with clear expectations, ownership, and career development plans
• Own the team's data strategy, roadmap, delivery commitments, and operational priorities
• Manage team budget, resourcing, and tooling decisions while balancing new capabilities with platform reliability and technical debt

Fan & Customer Impact (Obsessed with Fans)

• Deliver trusted, well-documented data products that give business partners consistent, governed answers for decision-making
• Enable actionable insights and self-service analytics through enterprise BI platforms (MicroStrategy, Tableau, Omni, etc.) and AI tools
• Optimize platform performance, scalability, and cost to withstand seasonal demand and traffic spikes tied to major sporting events and product launches
• Apply data quality, lineage, privacy, and access controls so the data behind fan and customer experiences can be trusted

Innovation & Problem Solving (Limitless Entrepreneurial Spirit)

• Champion AI-first development by embedding AI-assisted tools and agentic workflows into how the team designs, builds, tests, and operates data pipelines and BI solutions, with appropriate human review and validation
• Build AI tools and data agents that let users get insights from data through natural-language interaction, alongside canned reports and dashboards
• Build and maintain a semantic layer using tools such as dbt, Cube, and Snowflake that defines trusted business metrics once for BI tools and AI applications
• Evaluate AI-related tooling based on measurable value, reliability, integration effort, and cost

Ownership & Execution (Determined & Relentless Mindset)

• Own delivery of scalable, high-performance data pipelines and architectures on AWS (S3, EMR, Glue, Redshift, Lambda, Kinesis) and Snowflake-based cloud data warehousing
• Lead batch and streaming ingestion with patterns for incremental processing, change data capture, schema evolution, backfills, and recovery
• Use Apache Iceberg in data lakes to support ACID compliance, schema evolution, and versioning for large-scale datasets
• Drive data modeling and productization, designing dimensional and event models that become well-documented products for downstream analytics

We are building a future-ready organization. This role is expected to:

• Apply AI and technology to improve efficiency, quality, and outcomes
• Use data and digital tools to inform decisions and enhance performance
• Demonstrate curiosity and adaptability in adopting new technologies and ways of working
• Contribute to a culture of innovation and continuous improvement

CAPABILITIES & EXPERIENCE YOU BRING

Required Qualifications:

• 7+ years of experience in data engineering or related software engineering roles, including 2+ years of direct people management, with a proven ability to lead data and BI engineering teams and deliver production data platforms in a fast-moving environment
• Strong SQL skills and proficiency in Python; experience with Java or Scala is a plus
• Hands‑on experience with Apache Iceberg or similar open table formats; Spark, Kafka, Airflow, or equivalent tools; AWS data services (such as S3, Glue, EMR, Redshift, Lambda, Kinesis); and Snowflake or a comparable warehouse or lakehouse platform
• Deep understanding of ETL/ELT pipelines, dimensional and event modeling, orchestration, and distributed processing
• Experience with enterprise BI platforms (such as MicroStrategy, Tableau, or Omni) and with building governed metric definitions or a semantic layer (for example dbt or Cube.dev)
• Ability to turn ambiguous business questions into durable data contracts, consistent metric definitions, and clear roadmaps, with strong prioritization, stakeholder management, and communication skills
• Practical experience using AI‑assisted engineering tools and validating their outputs, with a working understanding of how data engineering supports analytics, machine learning, and generative AI

Education:

• Bachelor's degree or Master's Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience

WORK LOCATION

Hybrid: The primary place of performance of this role is the Company's office located in Redwood City, CA subject to the Company's current hybrid work policy. This role currently requires in‑office presence {IN‑OFFICE SCHEDULE —3 days per week}.

At Fanatics, we operate with a BOLD mindset—We Build Championship Teams, we're Obsessed with Fans, we embrace a Limitless Entrepreneurial Spirit, and we approach every challenge with a Determined & Relentless Mindset. If you're ready to contribute to a dynamic, fast‑paced environment that thrives on collaboration and growth, we want you to be part of our team.

At Fanatics, we operate with a BOLD mindset - We Build Championship Teams, we’re Obsessed with Fans, we embrace a Limitless Entrepreneurial Spirit, and we approach every challenge with a Determined and Relentless Mindset. If you’re ready to contribute to a dynamic, fast‑paced environment that thrives on collaboration and growth, we want you to be part of our team.
ABOUT US
Fanatics is building a leading global digital sports platform. We ignite the passions of global sports fans and maximize the presence and reach for our hundreds of sports partners globally by offering products and services across Fanatics Commerce, Fanatics Collectibles, and Fanatics Betting & Gaming, allowing sports fans to Buy, Collect, and Bet. Through the Fanatics platform, sports fans can buy licensed fan gear, jerseys, lifestyle and streetwear products, headwear, and hardgoods; collect physical and digital trading cards, sports memorabilia, and other digital assets; and bet as the company builds its Sportsbook and iGaming platform. Fanatics has an established database of over 100 million global sports fans; a global partner network with approximately 900 sports properties, including major national and international professional sports leagues, players associations, teams, colleges, college conferences and retail partners, 2,500 athletes and celebrities, and 200 exclusive athletes; and over 2,000 retail locations, including its Lids retail stores. Our more than 22,000 employees are committed to relentlessly enhancing the fan experience and delighting sports fans globally.

Fanatics will never ask candidates for money, banking information, or other sensitive personal information as part of the interview process. If you receive a suspicious message claiming to be from Fanatics recruiting, please do not respond and report it here.

The salary range represents base pay only and does not include short‑term or long‑term incentive compensation. When determining base pay as part of a final compensation package, we consider several factors such as location, experience, qualifications, and training. For information about our benefits, please visit https://benefitsatfanatics.com/

Salary Range

$200,000 - $230,000 USD

Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey. Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiringprocess or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in aconfidential file.

As set forth in Fanatics Commerce ’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy,we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection.As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measurethe effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categoriesis as follows:

A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service.

An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.