Lead Data Engineer
Summary
Designs and leads enterprise data architecture for Disney’s immersive digital experiences, including parks, resorts, and cruise lines, focusing on scalable data modeling, integration, and governance.
About the Role & Team
“We Power the Magic!” That’s our motto at Disney Experiences (DX). Our team creates world-class immersive digital experiences for the Company’s premier vacation brands, including Disney’s Parks & Resorts worldwide, Disney Cruise Line, Aulani, a Disney Resort & Spa, and Disney Vacation Club. We are responsible for the end-to-end digital and physical Guest experience across Attractions & Entertainment, Food & Beverage, Resorts & Transportation, and Merchandise, as well as initiatives including My Disney Experience and Hey, Disney!
This role sits within the Data Products & Platforms organization within Technology & Digital for Disney Experiences, working closely with various partners across the company.
What You'll Do
- Lead the design of enterprise data architecture, including logical models, physical schemas, and integration patterns
- Define data modeling standards, naming conventions, and architectural patterns across domains
- Design cross-domain data integrations that connect disparate source systems into coherent, well-modeled datasets
- Establish and maintain data dictionaries, lineage documentation, and metadata standards
- Lead data modeling reviews and provide guidance on complex schema design decisions
- Help drive estimation and planning for highly sophisticated, scalable data architecture projects, including budget allocation
- Stay current with emerging data modeling and architecture technologies to inform recommendations
- Provide escalation support as needed and guide the ongoing enhancement of existing data models and architecture
Required Qualifications
- Minimum 7 years of related work experience in data architecture, data modeling, or senior data engineering roles
- Deep expertise in dimensional modeling, data vault, lakehouse architectures, and enterprise data modeling at scale
- Advanced SQL skills and proficiency with data transformation tools (e.g., dbt, Spark)
- Extensive experience with cloud data warehouses and data lake architectures (e.g., Snowflake, Databricks, AWS)
- Proven ability to define and enforce data modeling standards across teams and domains
- Comfortable working in an agile environment, collaborating with cross-functional teams
- A visionary who motivates teams to excel and fosters creativity, consistently driving excellence
- An advocate for a diverse and inclusive culture that encourages innovation and ensures every team member feels a sense of belonging
- Familiarity with [add required technologies here], with a desire to further develop technical expertise in data architecture tools and methodologies
Preferred Qualifications
- Data Modeling Tools – erwin, dbt, SqlDBM, Alation
- Cloud Data Warehouses – Snowflake, Databricks, Redshift
- Data Processing – EMR, Spark, Glue, Spark Streaming/Flink
- Data Quality – Elementary, Anomalo, Great Expectations
- Metadata & Governance – Alation, Unity Catalog, Apache Atlas
- Infrastructure as Code – Terraform, CloudFormation, CDK
Required Education
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Software, Electrical or Electronics Engineering, or a comparable field of study, and/or equivalent work experience.
Preferred Education
- Master's degree in a related field
The hiring range for this position in FL is $148,300.00-$198,800.00 per year. The base pay actually offered will take into account internal equity and also may vary depending on the candidate’s geographic region, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience among other factors. A bonus and/or long-term incentive units may be provided as part of the compensation package, in addition to the full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits, dependent on the level and position offered.