Engineering Manager - Data

We are looking for an experienced Engineering Manager - Data (GCP) to lead our data engineering function, driving the design, development, and scaling of our cloud-native data platform on Google Cloud Platform (GCP). This role combines strong technical depth in data architecture with proven people leadership and is ideal for someone who has grown from a hands-on data engineer/architect into a leader who can build and scale high-performing teams while staying close to technical decision-making.

The core responsibilities for the job include the following:

Technical Leadership:

• Own the architecture, design, and roadmap of the data platform built on GCP (BigQuery, Dataflow, Pub/Sub, Cloud Composer, Dataproc, Cloud Storage, etc. ).
• Drive best practices for data pipeline design, data modeling, data quality, and data governance.
• Evaluate and introduce new tools, frameworks, and architectural patterns to improve scalability, reliability, and cost efficiency.
• Ensure platform security, compliance, and adherence to data privacy standards.
• Participate in critical design reviews, architecture decisions, and troubleshooting of complex production issues.

People and Team Management:

• Lead, mentor, and grow a team of data engineers, senior engineers, and tech leads (team size: 10-25+).
• Own hiring, performance management, career development, and succession planning for the team.
• Foster a culture of engineering excellence, ownership, and continuous learning.
• Manage team structure, capacity planning, and workload distribution across projects.

Program and Stakeholder Management:

• Partner with product, analytics, data science, and business stakeholders to translate requirements into scalable data solutions.
• Own delivery timelines, sprint planning, and execution using Agile/Scrum methodologies.
• Manage budgets, cloud cost optimization, and vendor/tool evaluations.
• Report on team KPIs, platform health, and project status to senior leadership.

Strategy:

• Define and execute the long-term data engineering strategy aligned with business goals
• Drive migration/modernization initiatives (e. g., on-prem to GCP, legacy pipeline re-architecture)
• Contribute to org-level engineering initiatives, standards, and best practices

Requirements:

• Bachelor's or master's degree in computer science, engineering, or a related field.
• 12-16 years of overall experience in software/data engineering, with at least 3-5 years in a people management role (managing engineers/tech leads).
• Strong hands-on background in data engineering and architecture, with deep expertise in Google Cloud Platform (GCP) BigQuery, Dataflow, Pub/Sub, Cloud Composer (Airflow), Dataproc, Cloud Storage, and IAM.
• Proven experience building and scaling large-scale batch and streaming data pipelines.
• Strong understanding of data modeling, data warehousing, ETL/ELT design, and distributed systems.
• Proficiency in SQL and at least one programming language (Python/Java/Scala).
• Experience with orchestration tools (Airflow/Cloud Composer), CI/CD pipelines, and Infrastructure as Code (Terraform preferred).
• Solid understanding of data governance, security, and compliance frameworks (GDPR, SOC2 etc. ).
• Demonstrated experience managing stakeholders across cross-functional teams (Product, Analytics, Data Science).
• Strong communication, planning, and organizational skills.
• Experience with Agile/Scrum delivery frameworks.

Good to Have:

• GCP certification (Professional Data Engineer / Professional Cloud Architect).
• Experience with multi-cloud or hybrid-cloud data environments.
• Exposure to ML/AI platform integration (Vertex AI) and MLOps.
• Prior experience in a product-based or high-growth startup environment.
• Experience with data mesh or modern data stack architectures.