Senior Data Engineer

MasterClass; United States; On-site; USD 167,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Medical benefits

Flexible PTO

Job summary

A leading online education platform is looking for a Senior Data Engineer to design and scale their core data platform. This role involves building reliable data pipelines and enhancing data infrastructure while collaborating closely with cross-functional teams. The ideal candidate will have over 7 years of experience, proficiencies in SQL and Python, and strong communication skills, ensuring alignment across various business units. Competitive salary and benefits are offered, guided by the company's location-based compensation strategy.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in Data Engineering with production data platforms.
• Expertise in operating AWS-based data platforms.
• Advanced proficiency in SQL and Python.

Responsibilities

• Design and operate fault-tolerant data pipelines using Airflow.
• Enhance AWS data infrastructure including Redshift and S3.
• Define and enforce data quality checks for production systems.

Skills

Data Engineering

Airflow

AWS services

SQL

Python

Data modeling

Communication skills

Tools

Redshift

S3

Job description

Who we are:

MasterClass is the streaming platform where the world’s best come together so anyone, anywhere, can access and be inspired by their knowledge and stories. We put you in the room with the creators, thinkers, makers and leaders who have changed the world, so that you can change yours.

Members get unprecedented access to 150+ instructors and classes across a wide variety of fields, including Arts & Entertainment, Business, Design & Style, Sports & Gaming, Writing and more. Step into Nas’ recording studio and Gordon Ramsay’s kitchen, and go behind the big screen with James Cameron. Design your career with Elaine Welteroth, get ready to win with Lewis Hamilton, perfect your pitch with Shonda Rhimes and discover your inner negotiator with Chris Voss.

It's a pivotal time for MasterClass – and we want you to be a part of the journey. With offices in San Francisco (HQ) and Waterloo, Ontario plus a studio in Los Angeles, we are looking to expand our team to support the business.

If you want to help make an impact on our members' lives – we want to hear from you!

Summary of the Role:

Data plays a central role at MasterClass and is at the heart of how we make business, product, content, and operational decisions. Our Data teams sit at the core of the company, partnering closely with Product, Engineering, Finance, Marketing, and Content to drive insight, direction, and growth. We are seeking a Senior Data Engineer to play a key role in owning, evolving, and scaling our core data platform. This role operates with significant autonomy and influence, partnering closely with Analytics, Product, and Engineering to ensure our data systems are reliable, scalable, cost‑efficient, and aligned with how the business operates. You will help shape architectural decisions, raise engineering standards, and ensure our data platform enables analytics, experimentation, and emerging AI‑driven use cases.

What You Will Do:

• Design, build, and operate robust, fault‑tolerant, and observable data pipelines using Airflow and modern ELT best practices
• Architect, enhance and improve data ingestion, AWS data infrastructure, including Redshift, S3 and monitoring
• Partner with Analytics, Product, Finance, Marketing, and Content teams to design canonical, analytics‑ready datasets that power key metrics such as growth, engagement, retention, and revenue
• Define, implement, and enforce SLAs, data quality checks, observability, and alerting for production data systems. Take shared ownership of data platform reliability, participating in on‑call rotations and driving root‑cause fixes for incidents
• Contribute to design reviews, raising engineering quality, and sharing best practices
• Evaluate and introduce data tooling that improves reliability, developer productivity, and analytics velocity
• Collaborate deeply with cross functional teams to align event design, source systems, and data contracts

About You:

• 7+ years of experience in Data Engineering, with ownership of production data platforms at scale
• Deep expertise designing and operating Airflow, AWS‑based data platforms, including Redshift, S3, IAM, and related services in complex production environments
• Advanced proficiency in SQL and Python, with strong data modeling and systems design skills
• Strong understanding of distributed data processing, modern ELT architectures, analytics workflows and BI use cases, and experience partnering closely with Analytics and business stakeholders.
• AI tools knowledge that includes an understanding of prompt engineering and familiarity with modern AI technology stacks
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to lead technical discussions, influence architecture, and drive initiatives across teams

At MasterClass, we believe we put our best work forward when our employees bring together ideas that are diverse in thought. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, marital status, ancestry, physical or mental disability, genetic information, veteran status, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state or local law. In addition, MasterClass will provide reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities. If you have a disability or special need, we would like to know how we can better accommodate you.

The salary range listed is for NYC/CA/WA. As a company, we have a location based strategy, which means the disclosed range estimate has not been adjusted for any applicable geographic differential associated with the location where the position may be filled. MasterClass’s salary ranges are based on paying competitively for our size and industry. In addition to salary, we also offer equity and comprehensive benefits (medical, dental, vision, flexible PTO, and more). The range listed is for the expectations as laid out in the job description, however we are often open to a wide variety of profiles, and recognize that the person we hire may be less experienced (or more senior) than this job description as posted. If that ends up being the case, the updated salary range will be communicated with you as a candidate.

Salary Range: $167,000 USD - $200,000 USD