Head of Data Engineering

About Niche

Niche is the leader in school search. Our mission is to make researching and enrolling in schools easy, transparent, and free. With in-depth profiles on every school and college in America, 140 million reviews and ratings, and powerful search tools, we help millions of people find the right school for them. We also help thousands of schools recruit more best-fit students, by highlighting what makes them great and making it easier to visit and apply.

Niche is all about finding where you belong, and that mission inspires how we operate every day. We want Niche to be a place where people truly enjoy working and can thrive professionally.

About the Role

The data organization at Niche is looking for a Head of Data Engineering who would holistically lead the vision and execution of all aspects of data engineering. In this role, you will lead and mentor a team of talented data engineers to design, implement, and maintain scalable data infrastructure and pipelines. You will lead the architecture and development of scalable platform and capabilities that can handle the volume and complexity of data while ensuring data accuracy, availability, observability, security, and optimum performance. You would be developing and maintaining our centralized, governed, and certified data models and source of truths (DW) for consistent reporting internally and externally. You would act as a thought leader and a change agent by identifying opportunities that allow the data team to make high-quality data and insight accessible and available across the organization to unlock exponential business impact, efficiency, and customer experience. The ideal person should be a hands-on leader who is strategic in decision-making, relentless in execution, and passionate about building products, and capabilities that enable a culture of data-driven decision-making for the business. This role will report to the VP of Data.

What You Will Do

During the 1st Month:

• Onboarding: During the first month, you'll immerse yourself in the company culture and get to know your team and key stakeholders. You'll understand the current data infrastructure, systems, and team dynamics.
• Meet the Team: Build strong relationships with your team, ensuring they feel supported and empowered. Assess their skills and identify any immediate training needs.
• Strategic Alignment: Begin discussions with cross-functional teams to understand their data requirements and challenges, ensuring alignment with the long-term data platform vision.

Within 3 Months:

• Team Development: Continue to mentor and coach your team, helping them achieve their potential and fostering a collaborative and inclusive environment.
• Set Strategy: Develop and communicate near-term and long-term data platform strategy. Ensure that the engineering and technology practices are aligned with this vision.
• Data Quality Enhancement: Implement initial data quality tooling and framework to improve data accuracy, consistency, and completeness.
• Efficiency Improvements: Identify areas for improving data engineering processes and streamline data pipelines, making them more efficient.

Within 6 Months:

• Platform Development: Lead the development of scalable data platforms, data pipelines, and data warehousing solutions. Ensure these systems can handle the scale and complexity of data efficiently.
• Collaboration: Strengthen partnerships with cross-functional teams to drive the development of performant data solutions that provide high-quality data and insights.
• Operational Excellence: Develop and enforce data management practices, improving data modeling, ETL processes, aggregation patterns, and data warehousing principles.
• Innovation: Stay updated on emerging data technologies and start implementing innovative solutions to address business needs.

Within 12 Months:

• High-Performance Team: Have a fully functioning, high-performing data engineering team that operates efficiently and effectively.
• Data Platform Maturity: Achieve significant progress in implementing the long-term data platform strategy and increasing the quality and accessibility of data.
• Data Governance: Strengthen data governance practices, ensuring that data is governed, certified, and available as a source of truth for reporting.
• Culture of Data-Driven Decision-Making: Drive the organization towards a culture of data-driven decision-making, where data is easily accessible, and insights are leveraged for exponential business impact, efficiency, and customer experience.

What We Are Looking For

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Information Systems, a related field, or equivalent experience.
• Experience 12 years of experience in data engineering or a related field, with a minimum of 5 years in a managerial or leadership role.
• Demonstrated experience in team building, training, mentoring, and coaching with a growth mindset and passion for continuous learning and innovation.
• Solid experience in setting goals, creating standards, and managing large-scale projects to completion with efficiency and quality.
• Hands-on experience working with Data Management including Data Ingestion, ETL, Data Modeling, Data Conformance, Data Quality, Metadata Management, Master Data Management, Business Intelligence and Analytics
• Strong experience in data infrastructure and orchestration, database management, ETL processes, and data warehousing solutions. Proficiency with the ability to review and coach on the following technologies: Python, Bash, SQL, Snowflake, Postgres, DBT, Airflow

Are you excited about the position and its responsibilities, but hesitant because your experience doesn't align 100% with the posted requirements? We believe you are more than a resume, so go for it! You won't want to miss the opportunity to play a part in helping students find where they belong.

Compensation

Our national target base salary range is $155,000-$194,000, plus participation in our Annual Bonus and Stock Option Program. Base compensation will be commensurate with experience and skills.

At Niche, our Total Rewards Philosophy is centered around creating a workplace environment that attracts, motivates, and retains top talent by providing a comprehensive and competitive rewards package. This philosophy is built on the principles of performance-based compensation, best-in-class benefits and work-life balance, and employee well-being.

Why Niche?

• We are a fully flexible workforce empowering our employees to choose to work remotely, in our Pittsburgh office or whatever combination suits you
• Full time, salaried position with competitive compensation in a fast-growing company
• Best-in-class 100% paid employee health plan, including vision and dental and supplemental coverage
• Flexible Paid Time Off Policy
• Stipend that allows you to build your work from home office in a style and function that suits your personal preferences
• Parental leave for all employees (12 weeks fully paid) in addition to short term disability for birthing parents
• Meaningful 401(k) with employer match
• Your ideas and work will make an immediate impact on our company and millions of users
• You will join a team that cares about you, our mission, our work - and celebrates our wins together!

Niche will only employ those who are legally authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship now or in the future for this opening.

We are currently hiring in states where we currently have employees: AZ, CA, CT, FL, GA, IL, IN, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MO, NE, NH, NJ, NY, NC, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, TN, TX, VA, WA, DC, WV.

Candidates only. No recruiters or agencies, please. Sorry, we do not offer relocation assistance.

Niche is an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering an inclusive, innovative environment with the best employees. Therefore, we provide employment opportunities without regard to age, race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion, disability, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, or any other protected status in accordance with applicable law.

All interviews are being held remotely. If there are preparations we can make to help ensure you have a comfortable and positive interview experience, please let us know.