Lead Data Engineer

Full-time

Description

The Lead Data Engineer will play a critical role in designing, building, and maintaining the data architecture that powers enterprise business intelligence and analytics at the credit union. This individual will serve as a hands-on senior data engineer mentoring more junior team members, partnering closely with BI developers, analysts, and business stakeholders to deliver trusted, scalable, and well-governed data solutions.

This role is ideal for a technically strong data professional who enjoys balancing architecture, engineering, and data enablement in a regulated financial environment, and who is also excited by the prospect of taking the Data & Analytics practice to the next level of maturity.

Business Hours: Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.*

*Based upon business needs, our positions may require working flexible hours, including weekends.

This position is based in Anaheim Hills, CA with the opportunity to work on a hybrid-remote schedule which consists of 2 days in-office and 3 days working remote from home.

Why Work at CU SoCal?

CU SoCal is one of the fastest growing credit unions and is more than just a place to work. It’s a place where people come before profit, a place where you can build a career that’s more than a job, and where the work you do has meaning and purpose. We offer competitive pay, great health benefits and a culture like no other!

CU SoCal is a Gallup Exceptional Workplace Award Recipient

In 2025, Credit Union of Southern California (CU SoCal) was once again honored with the Gallup Exceptional Workplace Award, marking our second consecutive win and ranking us among the top workplaces worldwide for outstanding employee engagement!

The CU SoCal culture fosters Building Better Lives for our Members, personal development, open communication, and genuine care for each other. We prioritize C.A.R.E. 4: professional competence, positive attitude, relationship building, and eager service to others. If you're passionate about making a difference and want to be part of a dynamic team, explore CU SoCal career opportunities today!

Requirements

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Data Engineering, or related field (or equivalent experience)
• 10+ years of experience in data and analytics engineering and support operations
• Deep experience working with data warehouses or lakehouse platforms (cloud or on-prem)
• Experience with Snowflake/AWS cloud data platform
• Advanced proficiency with SQL and at least one data transformation framework or ETL/ELT tool
• Solid understanding of data governance, data quality, and security concepts

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in financial services, banking, or credit unions
• Strong experience designing analytical data models (star schema, snowflake, fact/dimension modeling)
• Experience designing and evolving enterprise data architecture that supports reporting, analytics, and self-service BI
• Ability to define and maintain logical and physical data models (dimensional, relational, and analytical)
• Understanding of data standards, naming conventions, and modeling best practices
• Working knowledge of aligning architecture with security, privacy, regulatory, and governance requirements
• Ability to develop in Tableau Desktop independently as needed
• Familiarity with CI/CD, version control
• Experience with metadata management or data catalog tools
• Comfortable working within the Agile framework

Skills and Abilities

• Proficient in all applicable MS Office programs (i.e., Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams, etc.)
• Provide mentorship and technical guidance to team members
• Collaborative mindset with a passion for enabling data-driven decisions
• Ability to think strategically while remaining hands-on
• Strong communication skills with technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Attention to data accuracy, reliability, and compliance

Essential Responsibilities

• Design, build, and maintain scalable data pipelines (batch and/or near-real-time)
• Ingest, transform, and integrate data from core banking systems, third-party vendors, and internal applications
• Optimize data performance, reliability, and cost across storage and compute layers in Snowflake
• Implement data quality checks, monitoring, and error handling
• Partner with BI developers and analysts to ensure data structures support reporting and analytics needs
• Create curated data marts, semantic layers, or analytics-ready datasets, balancing immediate needs with the strategic vision for the data model/architecture
• Support and troubleshoot downstream BI solutions and dashboards
• Develop or enhance dashboards in Tableau Desktop when needed
• Implement data access controls, masking, and lineage
• Support regulatory, audit, and risk management requirements common to financial institutions
• Contribute to metadata management and documentation
• Advise on best practices as they relate to BI data governance, security, and compliance
• Serve as a technical lead and mentor for BI analysts and data engineering team members
• Translate business requirements into technical solutions
• Collaborate with IT, Information Security, and business units
• Complete understanding and active application the C.A.R.E. 4 Guide expectations and the Brand Communications Standards Accountability Philosophy
• Must be able and available to work a “hybrid” schedule, per business operations requirement, as needed
• Additional duties and responsibilities, as assigned

We support Pay Transparency and are a pay-for-performance organization that benchmarks base pay to the 50th percentile of market data.

Pay Scale: Min. $126,667 / Mid. $152,000 / Max. $188,240* per year

*Actual compensation will be based on geographical location, work experience, education, and/or skill level.

CU SoCal is an equal opportunity employer. All decisions are based only on the individual’s qualifications/ability to perform the work. The above statements are intended to describe the essential functions, nature and level or work to be performed as of the document preparation date; they are not intended to be an exhaustive list of all duties and responsibilities. CU SoCal reserves the right to modify this job description at any time, without notice.

We foster an environment and culture where ideas and decisions from all people help us grow, innovate, and fulfill our mission of Building Better Lives.