Staff Data Engineer

Staff Data Engineer

** This role is not eligible for sponsorship AND is four days onsite hybrid at our N. Scottsdale office **

Who Are We Looking For?

Choice Hotels has an exciting new opportunity as a Staff Data Engineer in the SkyTouch Technology division. SkyTouch Technology, is an independently operated division of Choice Hotels that provides the most widely used cloud-based (SaaS) hotel property management system. As a key member of our SkyTouch Software Engineering - Data, you will drive enterprise-wide impact by shaping scalable, reliable data architectures and standards that enable teams to deliver trusted data, accelerate innovation, and support long-term business strategy.

Are you a systems-level data engineer who thinks beyond individual pipelines to shape enterprise-wide data architecture and standards? Do you thrive on influencing technical direction and enabling multiple teams to succeed at scale? The #SkysTheLimit when you #MakeItYourChoice! We encourage you to apply today!

Your Responsibilities

• Define and evolve the long-term data architecture and technical standards across teams and platforms
• Design and oversee highly scalable, resilient, and cost-efficient data systems using cloud technologies (e.g., AWS)
• Make principled tradeoffs between AWS-managed services and open technologies (e.g., Spark, Flink, Iceberg) to ensure long-term scalability and maintainability.
• Lead complex, cross-domain data initiatives that span multiple teams, systems, and business functions
• Serve as a technical authority and escalation point for complex data engineering challenges and architectural decisions
• Establish best practices for data quality, reliability, observability, security, and governance across the organization
• Drive alignment on data modeling, batch and real-time integration patterns, and platform usage to reduce duplication and technical debt
• Partner with engineering, analytics, and business leaders to translate strategic goals into technical data solutions
• Mentor senior engineers and influence technical growth through design reviews, architecture forums, and technical guidance
• Use an AI-first approach to mitigate systemic risks, improve engineering productivity focusing on automation and operational efficiency
• Balance near-term delivery with long-term platform health, scalability, and sustainability

Your Experience, Skills & Competencies

• Bachelor's degree in related field Computer Science, Information Systems, Computer Engineering or equivalent experience
• Minimum of 8+ years of experience in data engineering, software engineering, or platform engineering roles.
• Proven experience designing and evolving large-scale, cloud-based data platforms in AWS.
• Experience leading cross-team, multi-system data initiatives with long-term architectural impact
• Demonstrated ownership of mission-critical production data systems
• Experience influencing technical direction across teams without direct people management
• Expert-level knowledge of cloud data architectures and AWS data services
• Advanced data modeling and data warehousing design expertise.
• Acts as a trusted technical authority, guiding architectural decisions, mentoring senior engineers, and influencing outcomes across teams.
• Strong programming skills (Python, SQL, and/or Spark)
• Deep understanding of distributed systems, performance tuning, and scalability
• Infrastructure-as-code, CI/CD, and automation expertise.
• Ability to design scalable, fault-tolerant, and cost-efficient data architectures
• Strong understanding of distributed systems, data partitioning, and performance tuning
• Expertise in data quality, observability, and reliability practices
• Knowledge of data governance, security, and compliance best practices
• Strong debugging and root-cause analysis skills across data pipelines and cloud infrastructure.
• Designing for reliability, observability, fault tolerance, and cost efficiency at scale
• Implementing organization-wide standards for data quality, security, and governance
• Identifying and reducing technical debt across data platforms
• Experience applying AI/GenAI in production to engineering workflows, automation, data quality, or developer productivity
• Demonstrates key competencies to include managing complexity, valuing differences, and cultivating innovation

This is an individual contributor role that will report to the Manager of Software Engineering - Data. You will have 14 peer teammates and collaborate with cross functional departments on a regular basis.

**This role is not eligible for sponsorship**