Manager, Data Engineering

About Niche

Niche is the leader in school search. Our mission is to make researching and enrolling in schools easy, transparent, and free. With in-depth profiles on every school and college in America, 140 million reviews and ratings, and powerful search tools, we help millions of people find the right school for them. We also help thousands of schools recruit more best-fit students, by highlighting what makes them great and making it easier to visit and apply.

Niche is all about finding where you belong, and that mission inspires how we operate every day. We want Niche to be a place where people truly enjoy working and can thrive professionally.

About The Role

We are looking for a Manager, Data Engineering to lead a team of highly skilled data engineers in building and scaling our modern data platform. You’ll drive execution of our data product roadmap, mentor engineers across levels, and foster a strong engineering culture grounded in best practices. This is a people and project leadership role that requires both technical depth and the ability to enable others. You’ll report to the Head of Data Engineering.

What You Will Do

• Lead and manage a team of 3-5 data/software engineers to execute on the data product roadmap
• Oversee the design, development, and maintenance of scalable, secure, and observable data pipelines and warehouse layers using Python, SQL, Snowflake, DBT, Airflow, and Kafka to support content delivery, analytics, reporting, and operational systems
• Drive a strong execution culture by managing sprint planning, work estimation, standups, and retrospectives
• Collaborate closely with cross-functional partners in Analytics, Product, and Engineering to understand data requirements and deliver solutions aligned with business priorities
• Ensure operational excellence by guiding the team on monitoring, troubleshooting, and resolving production issues
• Implement and uphold engineering best practices including testing, CI/CD, code reviews, and documentation
• Coach and mentor team members on technical execution, communication, and career development
• Identify and remove process bottlenecks to improve development velocity, delivery quality, system performance, and overall cost efficiency across the data platform
• Participate in hiring efforts and help onboard new team members

During the First Month:

• Learn about Niche by meeting with various team members to learn more about our company through our Onboarding meetings
• Build trust with team members and cross-functional stakeholders
• Review current data systems, pipelines, and platform architecture

Within 3 Months:

• Lead team rituals (standups, planning, retros) with consistency and clarity
• Oversee day-to-day execution of data platform and pipeline projects
• Partner with stakeholders across Analytics, Product, and Engineering to align priorities
• Begin coaching team members on execution, communication, and growth areas

Within 6 Months:

• Drive accountability and delivery for key roadmap initiatives
• Identify and resolve process bottlenecks; promote technical best practices
• Guide the team on data quality, pipeline reliability, and operational excellence
• Participate in hiring and onboarding new engineers

Within 12 Months:

• Demonstrate measurable impact on platform scalability, data availability, and team performance
• Evolve team structure, goals, and operating model to meet growing business needs
• Serve as a strategic partner across Niche to improve how data is acquired, transformed, governed, and delivered

What We Are Looking For

Required

• 6+ years of experience in data engineering, with 1–2 years of team leadership experience
• Proven experience in managing and mentoring data engineers
• Deep knowledge of modern data platforms (Snowflake, DBT, Airflow, Airbyte, RudderStack, Kafka, etc.)
• Strong skills in Python, SQL, and data modeling (3NF, dimensional, data vault)
• Experience delivering robust, observable, secure, and scalable data pipelines
• Familiarity with Agile product delivery and cross-functional collaboration
• Strong communication skills and a bias for clarity and action