Staff Data Engineer

Primary Function

As a Staff Data Engineer at Zoro, you will be a key leader in defining, designing, developing, and maintaining our data infrastructure. You will lead large scale projects and strategic initiatives, working closely with business and technical partners to understand their challenges, desired outcomes, and long-term strategic vision. Your role will involve leading the design and construction of cloud-native data pipelines and services, ensuring they provide intuitive and efficient access to Zoro’s data across the enterprise.

In addition to driving the technical vision of the Data Engineering department, you will play a critical role in growing and transforming our operational and analytical data warehouse, supporting initiatives that involve intricate data integrations, high-volume data processing, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and business intelligence/insights. You will take ownership of the department’s technical debt ensuring that all solutions adhere to team, department, and Zoro’s development standards.

As a senior leader, you will be directly involved in complex projects that are business-critical, while also mentoring and guiding junior engineers to enhance their technical capabilities. Your strong technical background, exceptional problem-solving skills, and passion for innovation will be essential as you ensure the overall code health of the department and align the team's efforts with Zoro’s broader goals. Success in this role will require close collaboration with multiple business and technology partners across Zoro, ensuring a shared understanding of the tools and technologies needed to deliver on their vision. Your leadership will be pivotal in driving innovation and maintaining the highest standards of data engineering excellence.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Technical Leadership: Contributes to the technical vision for the Data Engineering department, ensuring alignment with the company’s strategic goals. Provides technical leadership, strategic direction, and solution oversight across the entire Data Engineering department. 
• Design and Architecture: Responsible for the overall design and architecture of scalable, reliable, and high-performance data systems to support business intelligence, analytics, and data science initiatives.
• Data Pipeline Development: Build, optimize, and maintain data pipelines to ensure efficient data flow from various sources to our data warehouse and other data storage solutions.
• Software Craftsmanship: Advocate and implement best practices in software design, coding, testing, and deployment to drive high-quality, maintainable, and scalable data solutions.
• Data Integration: Oversee the integration of data from multiple sources, including internal systems, third-party APIs, and external datasets, ensuring data consistency and integrity.
• Data Governance: Implement and uphold best practices for data management, including data security, privacy, and compliance.
• Learning & Development: Engage in continuous learning, actively seeking opportunities to grow your technical skills and understanding of data engineering principles.
• Mentorship: Provide technical guidance and mentorship to Senior Data Engineers, elevating the technical expertise of the department, fostering a culture of curiosity, and continuous learning and improvement.

Qualifications

• Education: Master’s degree in Computer Science, Applied Mathematics, Engineering, or other technology related field or an equivalent of this educational requirement in working experience is also acceptable
• Experience: Minimum of 10 years of experience in data engineering or a related field, with at least 3 years in a leadership or senior technical role.
• Technical Skills:
• Programming Proficiency: Expert in at least one programming language and proficient in others, with a solid understanding of software craftsmanship, object-oriented programming principles, data structures, and algorithms.
• Data Modeling: Expert level experience of data modeling and data architecture.
• Cloud Platforms: Expert level experience of cloud infrastructure.
• Data Pipelines: Expert level experience of batch and streaming data pipelines.
• Data Quality & Testing: Expert level experience with data quality assurance techniques, including data validation and testing methodologies.
• Data Microservices: Expert level experience in building data focused microservices.

Soft Skills:

• Problem-Solving: Excellent problem-solving skills and the ability to think critically and analytically.
• Communication: Excellent communication skills, with the ability to articulate complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.
• Organization: Excellent organizational skills and the ability to manage multiple projects and priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Curiosity: A genuine curiosity about data and a proactive approach to exploring new tools and techniques.
• Attention to Detail: Meticulous approach to work, ensuring data quality and accuracy.
• Leadership: Proven ability to lead, inspire, and mentor technical teams.
• Teamwork & Collaboration: Proven ability to form collaborative relationships with stakeholders across the organization.