Director of Data Engineering

Director Of Data Engineering

You won't find a store and team like this anywhere else! We're passionate about our mission to delight customers with a unique, ever-changing marketplace of products from around the world. Our assortment is curated with stylish home décor, quality furniture, thoughtful gifts, time-honored handicrafts, and international food and beverage favorites. From handpicked finds to heartfelt teamwork, World Market is where uniqueness isn't just celebrated—it's what sets us apart.

Our team means the world to us! We value authenticity, empowerment and respect and we take pride in what we do. If you're looking for a collaborative, fast-moving environment where your contributions are valued, growth is supported and you can have a little fun—you've found it!

When you join our team, you'll enjoy:

• Benefits that support health, financial security, and personal life needs
• Paid vacation and paid sick time
• 401(k) plan with Roth option and company match
• Employee Assistance Program and wellness resources to be and do your best
• Sample Sales and up to 30% shopping discount on our unique finds for you and your designated shopper
• Work life balance and work from home flexibility
• Working with a team who thinks the world of you

What You'll Do

We're seeking a Director of Data Engineering to build and lead a new data and analytics platform from the ground up. This is a hands-on leadership role — you'll set the architecture, establish the platform, hire and develop the team, and deliver the data foundation that the rest of the business runs on. This is a rare opportunity to architect a modern data and analytics foundation that will power data-driven innovation across our organization.

The platform you build will provide data that powers:

• Omni-channel experiences and operations across 250+ stores and e-commerce
• Unified data platform supporting customer, personalization, loyalty, and digital marketing
• Semantic analytic layer serving merchandising, supply chain, store operations, and finance
• Modern integrations with APIs and event-driven pipelines over legacy batch file patterns
• Our AI foundation for future intelligent workflows and agentic applications

Core Responsibilities

Data Platform Architecture

• Own the Snowflake data platform: architecture, zone design (raw / curated / marts), access patterns, and cost governance
• Define dimensional data modeling standards, transformation layer, data quality monitoring
• Design and manage data ingestion from complex source systems: IBM iSeries, POS, Salesforce, OMS, Loyalty, ERP, and WMS
• Lead migration from legacy batch file ingestion to CDC, API, and event-driven patterns

Data Governance & Quality

• Establish data ownership, quality SLAs, cataloging, and lineage practices from scratch
• Implement access controls and data security in coordination with Cybersecurity and Legal
• Build observability and monitoring for pipeline health, data freshness, and anomaly detection

Engineering Leadership

• Lead a lean team of direct reports, solution vendors, and offshore engineering resources
• Set and enforce engineering standards: CI/CD, testing, version control, documentation
• Build the team over time; define hiring roadmap, onboarding, and career development
• Establish standards and uniformity across the stack, including data quality and observability

Integration & Enablement

• Partner with Engineering, Enterprise Applications, and Business Insights and Analytics
• Define and deliver an analytics-ready semantic layer to enable self-service BI
• Lay the MLOps and data foundation needed to support future AI and agentic capabilities

The ideal candidate will be based in or near the San Francisco Bay Area and able to travel occasionally to our Alameda, CA Home Office.

Experience & Skills You'll Bring

Key Qualifications

• 10+ years leadership in data warehousing, data engineering, data architecture
• 5+ years leading engineering teams; experience with offshore coordination preferred
• Prior oversight of implementing greenfield EDW and data operations on a cloud platform
• Deep experience in retail or omni-channel commerce - you understand how stores, e-commerce, merchants, and supply chains generate and consume data
• Track record delivering production data platforms in complex, legacy-adjacent environments
• Program leadership - you know how to build new and lead change while keeping the lights on

Technical Expertise

• Expert understanding of data architecture, data modeling, and dimensional design
• Hands-on proficiency with pipeline engineering tools (dbt, Airflow, Fivetran)
• Deep knowledge of cloud operations with hyperscaler platforms (Azure preferred)
• Strong SQL and Python skills and understanding of database optimization
• Experience with both batch and real-time/streaming data integration patterns
• Understanding of API design, microservices, and event-driven architectures
• Familiarity with Analytics Engineering, evolving AI strategies, and MLOps principles

Leadership & Communication

• Builds clarity in ambiguity — you can set direction when the roadmap isn't handed to you
• Communicates fluently with both engineers and business stakeholders
• Pragmatic: balances long-term architecture vision with near-term delivery pressures
• Manages vendors and external partners effectively alongside internal team development
• Fiscally responsible to manage budgets, optimize cloud costs, and forecast spending
• Strong people leader who can motivate and coach direct-reports and offshore teams
• Collaborative partner who builds trust with IT peers, business stakeholders, and vendors

CA Pay Range is $210,000 to $250,000 annually