Lead Data Engineer

The Lead Data Engineer will play a central role in the buildout of Client's next-generation data platform — Medallion 2.0. This is a high-ownership role on a small, senior team, working directly with the SVP of Data & AI to design and implement a scalable medallion architecture across bronze, silver, and gold layers. The role emphasizes domain-driven design, data contracts, and proactive communication with both internal stakeholders and external vendors.ResponsibilitiesLead the technical design and implementation of Client Medallion 2.0 architecture — bronze ingestion, silver transformation, and gold domain layers — with clear data contracts at each boundaryApply domain-driven design principles to partition and model data domains (e.g., royalty, asset, artist, distribution)Collaborate with the analytics team to ensure the gold layer reflects real business needs — reducing workaroundsCoordinate with external vendors (e.g., DataArt) and internal stakeholders across DevOps, product, and analyticsProactively identify architectural risks, data quality issues, and dependency blockers with proposed resolutionsMaintain clear, impact-first documentation and status updates for both technical and non-technical stakeholdersOther duties as assignedQualifications4+ years of data engineering experience, with at least 1–2 years focused on data platform or Lakehouse architectureHands-on experience with domain-driven design applied to data modelingStrong command of SQL and at least one transformation framework (dbt preferred)Experience with medallion or Lakehouse architectures (bronze/silver/gold or equivalent)Familiarity with GCP-native tooling — BigQuery, Pub/Sub, Dataflow, or Dataplex a plusExcellent written communication — able to write design docs non-engineers can understand and status updates executives can act onDemonstrated ability to work independently in ambiguous environmentsTrack record of flagging risks early with proposed solutionsNice to have: Experience in music/media/entertainment data; familiarity with data contracts or schema validation (Dataplex, Great Expectations, dbt tests); experience with external dev vendorsJ-18808-Ljbffr