Lead Data Engineer

CAVA - Washington, DC

Full-time - Mid Level

Washington, DC

Food Services and Drinking Places

About the position

The Lead Data Engineer position at CAVA is a pivotal engineering role focused on designing, building, and supporting the future state data platform. This role requires a blend of technical expertise and strategic thinking, as the Lead Data Engineer will collaborate closely with cross-functional teams, including data scientists, analysts, and software engineers. The primary responsibility is to spearhead the design, development, and implementation of next-generation data architecture while also leading and mentoring junior engineers. The ideal candidate will be instrumental in creating an innovative, durable, and economically viable data platform that enhances business velocity, user experiences, and analytics capabilities. In this role, you will engineer data pipelines to manage data flow between various systems, develop data quality metrics, and perform quality control tests to ensure data integrity. You will interface with architects, product managers, and analysts to understand data needs and implement business rules into transformations. Documenting the data blending process and maintaining workflow/data lineage will be essential tasks. Continuous integration practices will be employed to ensure that every step of the data pipeline is testable and automated. The Lead Data Engineer will also participate in design and code reviews, ensuring high-quality deployments and staying updated with industry trends to improve software development processes. The position requires a proactive approach to security and data protection measures within software applications, as well as effective communication and collaboration with team members to meet company goals. The Lead Data Engineer will be expected to manage timelines and deliver on responsibilities while embodying CAVA's core values of generosity, curiosity, agility, positivity, and collective ambition.

Responsibilities

• Spearhead the design, development, and implementation of next-generation data architecture.
• Engineer an innovative, durable, and economically viable data platform.
• Design and develop data pipelines to manage data flow between disparate systems.
• Develop data quality metrics and perform quality control tests to verify data integrity.
• Interface with architects, product managers, and product analysts to understand data needs.
• Document the data blending process along with specifications and workflow/data lineage.
• Perform continuous integration to ensure that every step of the pipeline is testable and automated.
• Create design documents for data integration or data reporting projects.
• Analyze data integration problems and provide solutions and corrective actions.
• Analyze source system data structures and map them to target data warehouse schemas.
• Participate in design and code reviews, ensuring high-quality deployments.
• Stay updated with the latest industry trends and technologies to improve software development processes.
• Ensure security and data protection measures are implemented within software applications.
• Manage timeline expectations within and across teams.

Requirements

• 6+ years of experience as a Data Engineer, with at least 3 years in a lead role.
• Experience working with large scale data sets, including petabyte scale with daily ingress and egress in the tens of terabytes.
• Proven experience designing and implementing data architectures on AWS, Azure, or GCP.
• Expertise in managed cloud services for data storage, ingestion, and processing.
• Strong proficiency in Python, R, Scala, or Java.
• Experience with big data engineering tools such as Databricks, Sage Maker, Google Colab, Jupyter, etc.
• Hands-on experience with streaming tools such as Kafka, Flume, Spark Streaming, or Flink.
• Ability to work with geographically dispersed teams, both on and offshore.
• Willingness to work in a 24x7 model when required.

Nice-to-haves

• Experience with notebook environments for data analysis and visualization.
• Familiarity with data governance design concepts.
• Knowledge of data transformation methodologies.

Benefits

• Competitive salary, plus bonus and long-term incentives.
• Early Wage Access.
• Unlimited PTO, paid parental leave, plus paid opportunities to give back to the community.
• Health, Dental, Vision, Telemedicine, Pet Insurance plus more.
• 401k enrollment with CAVA contribution.
• Company-paid STD, LTD, Life and AD&D coverage for salaried positions.
• Free CAVA food.
• Casual work environment.
• Opportunity to be on the ground floor of a rapidly growing brand.