Data Engineer

Position: Data EngineerReports to: VP, Data & Business IntelligenceLocation: White Plains, NY (Hybrid) preferred or Open to RemoteABOUT THE UFLThe United Football League (UFL) is the premier professional spring football league, powered by the visionary leadership and investment of Mike Repole and Impact Capital, RedBird Capital Partners, FOX, Dany Garcia, Dwayne Johnson, and ESPN. Built on innovation, accessibility, and competitive excellence, the UFL delivers a dynamic professional football experience for players, fans, and partners alike. The league currently features eight teams and is focused on building the next era of spring football, with expansion planned for 2028 and beyond.ABOUT THE ROLEThe Data Engineer will play a foundational role in the UFL's data ecosystem. The first dedicated engineering hire on the Data & Business Intelligence team, responsible for owning and evolving the pipelines, warehouse, and data models that power Sales, Sponsorships, Marketing, and Football Operations.As our first in-house engineer, you'll take ownership of an established modern data platform built on Fivetran, dbt, and BigQuery, while leading its evolution as the league grows. You'll be responsible for configuring and improving the data & insights that drive every decision. The Data Engineer will establish the engineering practices a growing data function will depend on. You'll partner closely with the broader Data & BI team to keep data flowing reliably across the business and to extend the well-structured, trusted datasets the whole organization works from. This foundation is the groundwork for advanced analytics, reporting, and future machine learning.This role requires technical depth and sound judgment on architecture decisions, paired with the ability to translate for non-technical partners across the business. The ideal candidate thrives in a collaborative, early-stage environment, is meticulous about data quality, and is motivated by building durable solutions that drive real business value.WHAT YOU WILL DOTake ownership of the UFL's existing data platform. Review, understand, and support the current pipelines and warehouse (Fivetran, dbt, BigQuery, Cloud Run) originally stood up with an external partner, and serve as the in-house owner accountable for their reliability and evolutionOperate and maintain core data flows.Monitor the ETL/ELT and reverse-ETL pipelines that move data from source systems (ticketing, digital media, CRM, sales intelligence) into BigQuery and back out to operational tools, troubleshooting ingestion, transformation, and delivery issues, including during high-volume periods of the seasonEvaluate existing architecture, identify gaps and opportunities, and drive adjustments that improve reliability, cost, and performance as the league's needs growOwn the data side of platform migrations. Lead data mapping, movement, and validation for source-system changes, including an upcoming CRM migration that touches ingestion, reverse ETL, and reportingExtend trusted, well-modeled datasets. Build on and maintain the dbt models in BigQuery that serve as the single source of truth the analytics and CRM functions rely onSafeguard data quality. Maintain accuracy and trust through validation, deduplication, and classificationPartner with Sales, Sponsorships, Marketing, Finance and Football Operations to translate needs into reliable data solutionsEstablish in-house data engineering standards. As the first internal data engineer, define the documentation, version-control, and testing practices needed to bring the platform fully in-house and scale itWork within the team's development practices (standups, backlog grooming, sprint planning and retrospectives) and set the standard for the engineering voice in the room, keeping engineering work visible, scoped and prioritized alongside analytics and CRMWHAT YOU WILL BRINGBachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field. An equivalent combination of education and hands-on experience may be considered3-5 years of data engineering experience, including ownership of production pipelines that other teams or systems depend onProven ability to step into an existing data platform - reading, documenting, and improving pipelines and code you didn't originally buildHands-on experience with ticketing and revenue-generation platforms (e.g., Ticketmaster/Archtics) and the data they produce, ideally within a sports, entertainment, or live-events organizationStrong proficiency in SQL and Python, with experience developing, maintaining, and extending production data pipelines.Hands-on experience with Google Cloud Platform, especially BigQuery (familiarity with Cloud Run, Cloud Storage, and Cloud Scheduler a plus)Working proficiency with dbt for transformation and modeling, and with a managed ingestion tool such as FivetranExperience with version control and collaborative development workflows (Git / Bitbucket)Strong data-quality instincts - validation, testing, deduplication and the judgment to make sound architecture decisions independentlyExcellent communication skills, with the ability to translate technical concepts for non-technical partners across the businessPREFERRED QUALIFICATIONSExperience owning or supporting a CRM data migration (e.g., Salesforce, HubSpot), including reverse-ETL and downstream reporting impactsFamiliarity with reverse-ETL / operational analytics patterns (e.g., Salesforce Data Cloud) and BI tools such as LookerExperience with digital-media and advertising data sources (e.g., Google Ads, Google Analytics, Meta)Prior experience with sales-intelligence tooling (e.g., ZoomInfo, LinkedIn Sales Navigator) feeding a CRMComfort operating as an early or founding data hire in a fast-moving environment, with the self-sufficiency to own a domain end to endOTHER DUTIESPlease note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change at any time with or without notice.ADDITIONAL DETAILSThe location of this role is flexible and the league will consider both remote candidates or those located in the Tri-State area, available to work in a hybrid environment, with an expectation of in-office collaboration 2-3 days per week.Position may require periods of sitting at a desk, frequent bending, moving, lifting, and carrying material weighing up to 20 pounds.Minimal Travel (