Manager, Data Engineering

At Curriculum Associates, we believe in the potential of every child and are changing the face of education technology with award-winning learning programs like i-Ready that serve a third of the nation’s K–8 students. For more than 50 years, our commitment to making classrooms better places, serving educators, and supporting accessible learning experiences for all students has driven the continuous improvement of our innovative programs. Our team of more than 2,500 employees is composed of lifelong learners who stand behind this mission, working tirelessly to serve the educational community with world-class programs and support every day.

Summary:  

The Manager of Data Engineering is responsible for developing reliable, scalable data platform applications and pipelines to market by setting technical direction, coordinating risk and priority across teams and vendors, shaping architectural strategy, managing people, and collaborating closely with product partners on project delivery. This role powers the data behind i-Ready’s reports and provides insights to teachers about millions of students. 

Essential duties/responsibilities:  

• Team Leadership: Lead, mentor, and develop a high-performing team of data engineering and backend engineering professionals, promoting collaboration, inclusivity, and professional growth. Provide technical guidance, ensuring your team stays current with emerging technologies and adopts appropriate industry best practices. 

• Strategy Development: Work closely with Product Managers, QE, and business stakeholders to develop strategic technical roadmaps. Align initiatives clearly with business priorities, manage feature delivery timelines, and balance addressing technical debt. 

• Cross-functional Collaboration: Build effective relationships across teams, facilitating clear communication and alignment in an Agile/Scrum environment to swiftly address production issues and prioritize team efforts appropriately. 

• Data Platform and Architecture: Drive best practices in data platform management and software development, ensuring high standards for data quality, architecture, testing, deployment processes, and observability. 

• Data Engineering: Design and execute scalable batch and real-time data pipelines for performance and reliability while addressing business needs. Focus team on success, unblock issues, escalate as needed, and build relationships with peers for success. 

• SDLC and Process Maturity: Continuously enhance engineering processes and team practices, aligning objectives with broader organizational goals. Stay informed about industry trends and integrate new frameworks and methodologies where appropriate. 

• Automation and Efficiency: Champion automation initiatives, driving enhancements in operational efficiency, data integrity, and scalability. Continuously streamline workflows and promote practices that accelerate delivery. 

• Production Support: Manage team responsibilities for addressing production issues promptly, maintaining clear stakeholder communication, and ensuring smooth release cycles. 

Required job skills: 

• Strong communication and relationship-building skills, particularly in asynchronous and geographically distributed environments. Able to discuss solutions effectively with team members of varying technical backgrounds. 

• Excellent software design skills, with deep knowledge of data engineering and backend development patterns, including performance optimization. 

• Proficient in developing high-quality, well-structured code in Java, Scala, and SQL, following test-driven development approaches and thorough debugging practices. 

• Proven ability to maintain clear, concise, and organized technical documentation. 

• Deep understanding of modern product development methodologies (Agile, SAFe). 

• Experience building and maintaining data platforms, including data governance, ETL processes, data lakes, and data warehouses (Amazon S3, Snowflake). 

• Knowledge of Amazon cloud computing infrastructure, specifically Aurora MySQL, DynamoDB, EMR, Lambda, Step Functions, and S3. 

• Skilled at performing thoughtful and detailed code reviews, providing constructive feedback aimed at improving code quality and mentoring developers. 

• Familiarity with software engineering and project management tools. 

• Commitment to adhering to security protocols and best practices in data governance. 

• Ability to define KPIs and leverage metrics effectively to drive process improvements. 

Minimum qualifications:  

• 15+ years’ experience in designing and developing enterprise level software solutions 

• 10 years’ experience with large volume data processing and big data tools such as Apache Spark, Scala, and Hadoop technologies 

• 5 years’ experience developing Scala / Java applications and microservices using Spring Boot  

• 5 years’ experience with SQL and Relational databases 

• 3+ years in an Engineering Leadership position 

• 2 years' experience working with the Agile/Scrum methodology 

Preferred qualifications:  

• Knowledge in MemSQL DB and SnowFlake 

• Experience with Amazon cloud computing infrastructure (Aurora MySQL, Dynamo dB, EMR, Lambda, Step Functions, etc.) 

• Educational domain background