Data Engineer

Position: Data Engineer

Reports to: VP, Data & Business Intelligence

Location: White Plains, NY (Hybrid) preferred or Open to Remote

ABOUT THE UFL

The United Football League (UFL) is the premier professional spring football league, powered by the visionary leadership and investment of Mike Repole and Impact Capital, RedBird Capital Partners, FOX, Dany Garcia, Dwayne Johnson, and ESPN. Built on innovation, accessibility, and competitive excellence, the UFL delivers a dynamic professional football experience for players, fans, and partners alike. The league currently features eight teams and is focused on building the next era of spring football, with expansion planned for 2028 and beyond.

ABOUT THE ROLE

The Data Engineer will play a foundational role in the UFL's data ecosystem. The first dedicated engineering hire on the Data & Business Intelligence team, responsible for owning and evolving the pipelines, warehouse, and data models that power Sales, Sponsorships, Marketing, and Football Operations.

As our first in-house engineer, you'll take ownership of an established modern data platform built on Fivetran, dbt, and BigQuery, while leading its evolution as the league grows. You’ll be responsible for configuring and improving the data & insights that drive every decision. The Data Engineer will establish the engineering practices a growing data function will depend on. You'll partner closely with the broader Data & BI team to keep data flowing reliably across the business and to extend the well-structured, trusted datasets the whole organization works from. This foundation is the groundwork for advanced analytics, reporting, and future machine learning.

This role requires technical depth and sound judgment on architecture decisions, paired with the ability to translate for non-technical partners across the business. The ideal candidate thrives in a collaborative, early-stage environment, is meticulous about data quality, and is motivated by building durable solutions that drive real business value.

WHAT YOU WILL DO

• Take ownership of the UFL's existing data platform. Review, understand, and support the current pipelines and warehouse (Fivetran, dbt, BigQuery, Cloud Run) originally stood up with an external partner, and serve as the in-house owner accountable for their reliability and evolution

• Operate and maintain core data flows.

• Monitor the ETL/ELT and reverse-ETL pipelines that move data from source systems (ticketing, digital media, CRM, sales intelligence) into BigQuery and back out to operational tools, troubleshooting ingestion, transformation, and delivery issues, including during high-volume periods of the season

• Evaluate existing architecture, identify gaps and opportunities, and drive adjustments that improve reliability, cost, and performance as the league's needs grow

• Own the data side of platform migrations. Lead data mapping, movement, and validation for source-system changes, including an upcoming CRM migration that touches ingestion, reverse ETL, and reporting

• Extend trusted, well-modeled datasets. Build on and maintain the dbt models in BigQuery that serve as the single source of truth the analytics and CRM functions rely on

• Safeguard data quality. Maintain accuracy and trust through validation, deduplication, and classification

• Partner with Sales, Sponsorships, Marketing, Finance and Football Operations to translate needs into reliable data solutions

• Establish in-house data engineering standards. As the first internal data engineer, define the documentation, version-control, and testing practices needed to bring the platform fully in-house and scale it

• Work within the team’s development practices (standups, backlog grooming, sprint planning and retrospectives) and set the standard for the engineering voice in the room, keeping engineering work visible, scoped and prioritized alongside analytics and CRM

WHAT YOU WILL BRING

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field. An equivalent combination of education and hands-on experience may be considered

• 3-5 years of data engineering experience, including ownership of production pipelines that other teams or systems depend on

• Proven ability to step into an existing data platform - reading, documenting, and improving pipelines and code you didn't originally build

• Hands-on experience with ticketing and revenue-generation platforms (e.g., Ticketmaster/Archtics) and the data they produce, ideally within a sports, entertainment, or live-events organization

• Strong proficiency in SQL and Python, with experience developing, maintaining, and extending production data pipelines.

• Hands-on experience with Google Cloud Platform, especially BigQuery (familiarity with Cloud Run, Cloud Storage, and Cloud Scheduler a plus)

• Working proficiency with dbt for transformation and modeling, and with a managed ingestion tool such as Fivetran

• Experience with version control and collaborative development workflows (Git / Bitbucket)

• Strong data-quality instincts - validation, testing, deduplication and the judgment to make sound architecture decisions independently

• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to translate technical concepts for non-technical partners across the business

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Experience owning or supporting a CRM data migration (e.g., Salesforce, HubSpot), including reverse-ETL and downstream reporting impacts

• Familiarity with reverse-ETL / operational analytics patterns (e.g., Salesforce Data Cloud) and BI tools such as Looker

• Experience with digital-media and advertising data sources (e.g., Google Ads, Google Analytics, Meta)

• Prior experience with sales-intelligence tooling (e.g., ZoomInfo, LinkedIn Sales Navigator) feeding a CRM

• Comfort operating as an early or founding data hire in a fast-moving environment, with the self-sufficiency to own a domain end to end

OTHER DUTIES

Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change at any time with or without notice.

ADDITIONAL DETAILS

• The location of this role is flexible and the league will consider both remote candidates or those located in the Tri-State area, available to work in a hybrid environment, with an expectation of in-office collaboration 2-3 days per week.

• Position may require periods of sitting at a desk, frequent bending, moving, lifting, and carrying material weighing up to 20 pounds.

• Minimal Travel (<10>

• Ability to work a flexible schedule inclusive of weekends, nights and holidays required

• Other duties as assigned by VP, Data & Business Intelligence

COMPENSATION

The salary range for this position is $125,000 - $155,000. This role is eligible for annual incentive and/or comprehensive benefits, including medical/dental/vision/life insurance, a 401(k) plan, unlimited PTO and offers a discretionary bonus. The actual base salary offered will depend on a variety of factors, including, without limitation, the qualifications of the individual applicant for the position, years of relevant experience, level of education attained, certifications or other professional licenses held, and if applicable, the location of the position.

EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY STATEMENT

The UFL maintains a strong policy of equal opportunity in employment. It is our objective to recruit, hire, and retain the most qualified individuals without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation or identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic or status protected by applicable federal, state, or local law. Our equal employment philosophy applies to all aspects of employment, including recruitment, compensation, benefits, training, promotions, transfers, job benefits, and terminations.