Staff Production Data Engineer

CDK Global is a leading provider of cloud-based software to dealerships and Original Equipment Manufacturers (“OEMs”) across automotive and related industries. The Company’s cloud-based, software as a service (“SaaS”) platform enables dealerships to manage their end-to-end business operations including the acquisition, sale, financing, insuring, repair, and maintenance of vehicles. By automating and streamlining critical workflows, the integrated platform of modern solutions enables dealers to sell and service more vehicles by creating simple and convenient experiences for customers and improves their financial and operational performance.

Position Overview:

We are seeking a mature, polished, and technically elite Staff Production Data Engineer to join our team in a mission-critical, always-on environment. This role is ideal for a self-starter who thrives with minimal supervision, takes initiative and direction well, and brings a rare blend of skills across data architecture, database administration, cloud engineering, and system reliability.

You will begin as a high-impact individual contributor at the Staff level, with a focus on ensuring the performance, scalability, and reliability of our data platforms across AWS and Azure. You’ll work closely with our Production DBAs and Data Engineers to support and modernize critical systems across the enterprise.

Over time, based on demonstrated performance and initiative, select leadership responsibilities may be added to this role. While this is not a promotional track or title change, it does present an opportunity to take on greater ownership—such as mentoring teammates, guiding technical direction, and influencing team operations.

Key Responsibilities:

Leadership & Team Management

• Lead, mentor, and upskill a team of Production DBAs and Data Engineers.
• Foster a culture of ownership, accountability, proactiveness and continuous learning.
• Provide coverage and support for team members, including weekends and holidays when necessary.
• Drive a high-performance, high-uptime mindset across the team.

Production Data Engineering & Administration

• Own the health, performance, and uptime of all production data systems.
• Troubleshoot complex issues across the full stack: hardware, networking, OS, services, databases, and application code.
• Manage and optimize relational databases including SQL Server, PostgreSQL, and others.
• Implement and maintain observability using New Relic, custom dashboards, and alerting systems.

Cloud & Platform Expertise

• Architect, monitor and manage data platforms in AWS, Azure and Private Clouds, including services like:
  • AWS RDS, Redshift, Glue, S3, Lambda, AWS Aurora, Elasticache
  • Azure Managed Instances, Azure VMs with IaaS extension, Azure SQL, Synapse, Data Factory, Blob Storage, Azure Fabric
• Ensure secure, scalable, and cost-effective cloud data infrastructure.

Data Engineering & Integration

• Design and maintain robust ETL/ELT pipelines using tools like Airflow, Kafka, Debezium, Qlik.and SSIS
• Support real-time and batch data processing needs across business units.
• Collaborate with application teams to modernize legacy systems and integrate new platforms.

Tooling & Automation

• Develop and maintain automation scripts using PowerShell and other scripting languages.
• Implement CI/CD pipelines for data infrastructure and code deployments.

Preferred Skills & Technologies:

• Databases: SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Snowflake
• Cloud: AWS (RDS, Redshift, Glue), Azure (SQL, Synapse, Data Factory)
• Data Tools: Kafka, Debezium, Airflow, Qlik, Looker
• Monitoring: New Relic, CloudWatch, Azure Monitor
• Scripting: PowerShell, Python, Bash
• Other: Git, Terraform, Docker, Kubernetes

Ideal Candidate Profile:

• 8+ years of experience in data engineering, database administration, or infrastructure roles.
• 3+ years in a leadership or senior technical role.
• Deep understanding of data architecture, performance tuning, and high-availability systems.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to mentor and inspire.
• Self-starter who thrives with minimal supervision and takes full ownership of responsibilities.