Director of Data Engineering

1stDibs is a one-of-a-kind online marketplace that connects design lovers to more than one million extraordinary pieces, from furniture and fine art to jewelry and fashion. As a leading global marketplace for design lovers, we enable shoppers to discover beautiful things and engage with top sellers from around the world. We encourage our shoppers to interact with sellers throughout all stages of the transaction, including item inquiries, price negotiations and customization requests.

We are seeking an experienced and visionary Director of Data Engineering to lead our data strategy, architecture, and infrastructure. In this critical leadership role, you will oversee the design, development, and evolution of our modern data platform, from real-time streaming pipelines to scalable data warehouse and lake architectures. You will partner closely with Product, Engineering, and Analytics to ensure reliable, high-quality data powers analytics, reporting, experimentation, and machine learning across the organization.

What You Will Do

• Lead, mentor, and grow a team of data engineers and database administrators, fostering a culture of collaboration, accountability, and continuous improvement.
• Own the end-to-end design, development, maintenance, and migration of scalable ETL/ELT pipelines and data systems.
• Define and implement modern data architecture strategies, including data warehousing (e.g., Snowflake, BigQuery), data lakes, and real-time streaming pipelines.
• Establish best practices for data reliability, including monitoring, alerting, incident response, and data quality validation.
• Integrate and manage data from analytics platforms (including Google Analytics 4 / GA4) to support comprehensive reporting and insights.
• Partner with Analytics to enable self-service BI using tools such as Looker, including well-modeled, trusted datasets.
• Collaborate with Product and Engineering to ensure accurate instrumentation and reporting for A/B tests and experimentation.
• Communicate effectively with stakeholders to align data priorities with business goals and ensure the timely delivery of high-impact initiatives.
  
  

Who You Are

• 8+ years of experience in data engineering, including 2+ years leading teams or managing engineering functions.
• Strong experience with cloud data platforms (AWS preferred) and modern big data technologies.
• Advanced SQL skills for designing, querying, and optimizing relational databases and large datasets.
• Proven ability to lead and grow teams, with strong stakeholder management and communication skills.
• Deep experience with data warehousing (e.g., Snowflake, BigQuery) and data lake architectures.
• Strong proficiency with Python and familiarity with distributed compute frameworks such as Spark.
• Experience with orchestration frameworks such as Apache Airflow, Dagster, or similar.
• Experience enabling BI and analytics teams through tools like Looker, Tableau, or Power BI.
• Hands-on experience with dbt for transformation, modeling, and scalable analytics engineering patterns.
  
  

Nice to Have

• Experience leading teams in an Agile environment, including sprint planning, delivery execution, and cross-functional coordination.

Our overall compensation package is made of several parts, base compensation being one of them. At 1stDibs we value and are proud of our culture, innovation, professional development and training workshops, trust and giving back to the community.  Equity, a comprehensive benefits package, and incentive (IF APPLICABLE)  are all are components of your total compensation package.  Ultimately, in determining your pay, we'll consider your location, experience, and other job-related factors.

Tri-State Pay Range$181,000—$226,000 USD

1stDibs is an Equal Opportunity Employer

The 1stDibs mission, to enrich lives with the extraordinary, can only be achieved when diversity, equity and inclusion are embedded into our values, culture and the way we do business. Enabling access to and celebrating unique and diverse perspectives is at the very core of what we do. We are committed to attracting and retaining the best talent in the industry, who are reflective of the diversity of our communities, and fostering an environment where every individual feels they belong, are valued and heard. As a leading design marketplace, we leverage the power of our platform and brand to empower historically underrepresented individuals, and the businesses they own, across the art and design industries.

 

Total Compensation Statement 

1stDib