Lead Data Enginer

Lead Data Engineer (Principal-Level)4 days a week on site in Los Angeles (flexible start/end times if needed)The company has a free gym on site and a modern office that includes outdoor workspaces.Must be a U.S. citizen or Green Card HolderLos Angeles, CA (Hybrid – 4 days onsite)We're partnering with a fast-growing, mid-size product-driven company that's investing heavily in modern data infrastructure, AI, and self-service analytics.This is a high-impact, principal-level role where you'll operate at the intersection of data architecture, business strategy, and hands-on engineering—owning the evolution of their data platform and helping the business actually use data to make decisions.The OpportunityThis is not a heads-down execution role.You'll step in as the technical and strategic leader of the data function, balancing a team of strong executors with architecture, stakeholder alignment, and business-facing leadership.The company is currently running a split data environment (Snowflake + BigQuery) and is about to undergo a major consolidation into Snowflake on AWS, followed by a full dbt implementation to enable a scalable, self-service analytics model. You'll own that transformation.What You'll OwnLead the migration from a fragmented data stack (BigQuery + Snowflake) into a unified Snowflake (AWS) environmentArchitect and implement dbt from the ground up to support scalable, governed data modelingDesign clean, business-ready data models that drive decision-making across teamsPartner directly with executives, product, and business stakeholders to translate needs into data solutionsEstablish source-of-truth frameworks and eliminate conflicting metrics across systemsGuide best practices across data modeling, transformation, and documentationSupport a shift toward self-service analytics + AI-driven workflowsCollaborate with engineering on data pipelines, performance, and scalabilityAct as the bridge between technical teams and the businessWhat Makes This Role DifferentHighly visible, business-facing (not just backend engineering)You'll balance a team of strong IC executors who need architectural directionOpportunity to own a full data platform transformationCompany is actively embracing AI tooling (including Claude and similar)—they want someone who leans into it, not against itReal opportunity to shape how the company uses data at scaleWhat They're Looking ForMust-Have Technical ExperienceStrong experience with:Snowflake (required)AWS (required)dbt (or deep transformation-layer experience)Experience designing and scaling modern data warehouse architecturesStrong SQL + Python for scripting and data workflowsExperience working across multi-source, complex data environmentsLeadership & Business Skills (Critical)Proven ability to work directly with stakeholders and business leadersStrong communication and data storytelling skillsAbility to translate messy business problems into clean data solutionsExperience acting as a technical lead, architect, or principal-level ICComfortable balancing strategy with hands-on executionNice to HaveExperience with BigQuery (migration context)Exposure to AI tools (Claude, LLM workflows, etc.)Background in building self-service analytics ecosystems