Lead Data Engineer

The Lead Data Engineer will own the design, build, and delivery of core components of our data platform and lead a pod of engineers working on them. You will help shape how Code and Theory collects, models, and activates data, powering analytics, predictive models, and generative AI across the agency and its clients. You will work closely with the Technical Director, Data Engineering, the Machine Learning team, Strategy, and client-facing teams to turn business needs into reliable, well-modeled data products.

You will be a hands-on technical leader with authority over design decisions, code quality, and delivery within your area, and input into estimates and roadmap planning. You will anchor the architecture of the pipelines and services your pod owns, set day-to-day engineering standards, and mentor the engineers around you. You will collaborate with some of the best talent globally and contribute to the culture and craft of a world-class data organization.

Our engineers are AI native and advance the state of the art in the practice of software development with AI.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

• Own the design, build, and delivery of core data platform components and the pod of engineers behind them
• Translate roadmap priorities from the Technical Director into technical plans, estimates, and timelines
• Design and build scalable data pipelines, covering how data is collected, modeled, and activated
• Turn latent company and client data lakes into data-driven product backends, APIs, and reusable data products
• Evaluate tools and cloud data services, and recommend fit-for-purpose approaches with clear trade-offs
• Write and review production-grade Python and SQL, staying hands-on in design reviews and critical builds
• Partner with the Machine Learning team to deliver reliable feature pipelines and data foundations for predictive models and generative AI
• Use AI tools like Claude Code and Cursor in daily engineering, and build agents and AI-enabled workflows that improve quality, testing, and delivery speed
• Coach the team on AI-assisted development and agentic engineering, and help establish best practices for AI-enhanced processes
• Mentor engineers, support hiring and interviews, and help raise the engineering bar through standards, code review, and team culture
• Implement testing, monitoring, data quality, and observability practices to keep pipelines trustworthy
• Apply data governance, privacy, and security standards that fit client and regulatory constraints
• Communicate effectively with technical and creative colleagues in an organization that is 50/50 Tech/Creative, and with client stakeholders when needed
• Contribute to internal and external knowledge sharing in the form of blog posts, best practices, and methodologies

WHAT YOU’LL NEED

• 8+ years in data engineering or adjacent disciplines
• 3+ years leading engineers, a pod, or a workstream
• Strong hands-on experience designing and delivering data pipelines and platforms in production
• Ability to translate technical work into clear plans, estimates, and business outcomes
• Experience making data lake or warehouse data available to applications and products
• Working experience with at least one major cloud data platform (BigQuery, Snowflake, Databricks, Redshift, or similar) and sound judgment on when to use it
• Strong technical fluency in Python and SQL
• Experience with orchestration and batch or streaming tools (Airflow, Spark, Kafka, dbt, or similar)
• Hands-on experience with AI-powered coding, agentic engineering, and AI-enabled workflows, ideally having helped teammates adopt them
• Track record of mentoring engineers and enforcing standards and best practices through code review, documentation, and testing
• Solid communication skills across the full range of technical levels, including creative partners

NICE TO HAVE

• Experience with data governance, privacy compliance, and security practices
• Working knowledge of marketing data ecosystems (GA4, advertising platforms, CRMs, CDPs)
• Experience integrating AI/ML capabilities into data pipelines and shipping GenAI applications to production
• Experience in an agency or consultancy environment, balancing client-facing delivery with internal platform investment
• Experience with infrastructure as code, CI/CD, and FinOps basics

ABOUT US

Born in 2001, Code and Theory is a digital-first creative agency that sits at the center of creativity and technology. We pride ourselves on not only solving consumer and business problems, but also helping to establish new capabilities for our clients. With a global client roster of Fortune 100s and start-ups alike, we crave the hardest problems to solve. We have teams distributed across North America, South America, Europe, and Asia. The Code and Theory global network of agencies is growing and includes Kettle, Instrument, Left Field Labs, Create Group, Current, and TrueLogic.

Striving never to be pigeonholed, we work across every major category: from tech to CPG, financial services to travel & hospitality, government and education to media and publishing. We value the collaboration with our client partners, including but not limited to Adidas, Amazon, Con Edison, Diageo, EY, J.P. Morgan Chase, Lenovo, Marriott, Mars, Microsoft, Thomson Reuters, and TikTok.

The Code and Theory network is comprised of nearly 2,000 people with 50% engineers and 50% creative talent. We’re always on the lookout for smart, driven, and forward-thinking people to join our team.