Zapier is looking for a Manager, Data Engineering to lead a team that designs and scales the data services and frameworks powering product experiences and AI capabilities at Zapier. The goal is to make data accessible, reliable, and impactful across a fast-growing product ecosystem.
Requirements
- You have 8+ years of experience in data and/or software engineering, including 3+ years in a people management role.
- You’ve built and scaled data or backend systems in cloud environments and guided teams through the evolution from pipelines to services.
- You have a strong software engineering background.
- You understand how to design and operate APIs, distributed systems, and data-serving layers that handle growth, reliability, and cost efficiency.
- You think in systems and build for reuse.
- You prioritize quality, observability, and reliability.
- Our stack is best summed up by: Databricks, AWS, Python/Typescript, Kafka, dbt and Airflow.
Responsibilities
- Lead and develop the Data Engineering team: Manage, coach, and grow a distributed team of engineers focused on building scalable, reusable data systems and APIs.
- Shape our data services and platform strategy: Define the architectural vision for how data is ingested, processed, served, and accessed across Zapier. Drive toward simplicity, scalability, and self-service.
- Develop reusable engineering patterns: Champion the creation of frameworks and abstractions that enable engineers across Zapier to safely self-serve data capabilities without depending on the data team for every integration.
- Build reliable and observable systems: Ensure data pipelines, APIs, and services meet high standards for quality, performance, and uptime. Establish operational metrics and incident practices for data-owned systems.
- Champion governance, CI/CD, and operational excellence: Ensure data systems and practices uphold security, privacy, and compliance standards while driving automation, reliability, and continuous improvement across the data platform.
- Collaborate across teams: Work with Product and AI/Machine Learning teams to align data solutions with their goals — from powering personalization and AI experiences to making our backend systems more robust and resilient.
- Encourage AI-assisted development and innovation: Drive adoption of AI tools and practices within the team, improving productivity and experimentation while fostering critical thinking about responsible use.
Other
- You possess strong leadership and strategic planning skills.
- You’ve successfully managed technical teams, set clear goals, and driven your team to meet them.
- You have a knack for aligning data capabilities with business objectives and can effectively communicate the value of these capabilities to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
- You are skilled in stakeholder management.
- You excel at building relationships across the organization, working closely with Product, Engineering, and other teams to ensure alignment and drive collaborative success.
