Associate Director, Data Engineering (Remote)

About the role

.Monks is a digital-first marketing and advertising services company. We are currently seeking a forward-deployed data engineer to join our team.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and maintain scalable, reliable, and automated data pipelines using SQL, Python, and Databricks.
• Architect and optimize robust data models and infrastructure to ensure high data quality, integrity, and accessibility.
• Partner closely with the Data Science team to operationalize their work, deploying statistical and machine learning models into production environments using DataOps best practices.
• Identify, design, and implement internal process improvements, including automating manual data processes and optimizing data delivery for scalability.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to identify business problems, gather requirements, identify data sources, and provide data-driven solutions.

Requirements

• Strong experience designing and building scalable data pipelines using modern cloud data platforms.
• Solid understanding of modern data architecture, including ELT, data lakes/lakehouses, data warehouses, and metadata-driven frameworks.
• Experience applying software engineering best practices to data development, including version control, code reviews, modular code, automated testing, and Infrastructure as Code.
• Proficiency in Python and SQL, with a focus on clean, maintainable, and well-tested code.
• Experience with orchestration frameworks and workflow automation.
• Familiarity with data modeling, data governance, lineage, observability, and monitoring.
• Experience working in Agile teams and collaborating across engineering, analytics, and business stakeholders.
• Ability to design metadata-driven and configuration-driven solutions instead of hard-coded implementations.

The Ideal Candidate

You are a Data Engineer who approaches data engineering as a software engineering discipline. You have experience building reliable, scalable, and maintainable data platforms using modern cloud-native technologies and engineering best practices. You are a proactive problem-solver who thrives in ambiguity. You take ownership of the full development lifecycle, are driven to understand the broader environment you work in, and actively identify and solve technical challenges (such as data inconsistencies or pipeline optimizations) without being prompted. You are a strong communicator and effectively kick-start your projects, seeking in-process guidance rather than waiting for project deadlines.