Associate Director, Data Engineering

Brainlabs is the media agency built to answer one question: what's actually driving profit? Founded in 2012 by Daniel Gilbert, we were built by engineers before we were a media agency. Today, 1,000+ Brainlabbers across five continents use our proprietary agents, built on 32 media tools and over 2,500 logged experiments, to help brands connect every channel they plan and buy to one thing: the bottom line.

Role type: Full-time
Team: Data
Estimated Start: July 2026
Location: New York City, New York | Dallas Fort Worth, Texas | Boca Raton, Florida | Los Angeles, California | San Francisco, California
Compensation: We hire candidates across our US office locations and at varying levels of experience. Our posted salary ranges reflect differences in both location and experience, with final compensation determined once a candidate’s background and location are confirmed.
Work Authorization: Candidates must be legally authorized to work in the United States. We are unable to provide visa sponsorship or continuation for this position.

What's the role 

We are looking for a data engineer that will set the direction for how data is built at Brainlabs, not just how it's delivered on a given project. You'll lead a team of data engineers, own the technical standards the practice works to, and be the person clients and internal stakeholders rely on when the architectural decisions get hard. You'll still get into the work where it matters, but your primary leverage is through the people and systems you build 

So, tell me about the company

Brainlabs is culture-first. You’ve probably heard other companies describe themselves as people, clients, or profit first – but we see people, clients and profit as the building blocks of our ecosystem. Culture powers all three and we know that when the ecosystem is balanced, we all win! That's why the culture we cultivate is a culture of winning together.

To learn more about what it’s like to be a Brainlabber, check out our culture code.

What you do

• Define and own the data engineering capability roadmap for NAMER, setting standards for how pipelines are designed, maintained, and scaled across the practice.
• Lead and develop a team of data engineers, providing technical direction, career development support, and hands-on guidance on complex problems.
• Architect scalable, production-grade data solutions on GCP, covering the full stack from ingestion and transformation through to warehousing and serving layers in BigQuery.
• Own the quality bar for data engineering output across the team, including pipeline reliability, query performance, data quality frameworks, and documentation standards.
• Partner with Data Science, Digital Analytics, and client teams to scope and deliver integrated data solutions, translating complex business requirements into sound technical architecture.
• Represent the data engineering practice in client conversations and new business contexts, communicating technical approaches clearly to non-technical stakeholders and contributing to proposals and SOW scoping.
• Drive adoption of engineering best practices across the team, including CI/CD, version control, infrastructure-as-code, data governance, and security on GCP.
• Evaluate and introduce new tooling and approaches, including orchestration platforms, streaming architectures, and GCP's AI/ML capabilities, where they materially improve what the team can deliver.

Who you are 

What We Really Want:

• A technically deep data engineering leader who has grown past needing to prove themselves through individual output and is ready to be judged by what their team produces. You've made architectural decisions that mattered, you've managed engineers and made them better, and you know how to hold a technical conversation with a client without making it feel like a lecture.

What Particular Set of Skills Would Suit This Role:

• • 8+ years in data engineering, with at least 3 years in a leadership or senior technical lead role.
  • Deep hands-on expertise with GCP, including BigQuery, Cloud Functions, Cloud Run, Dataflow, Pub/Sub, Cloud Storage, and Cloud Composer.
  • Strong Python and SQL skills, with a track record of building and reviewing production-grade pipelines, not just prototypes.
  • Proven experience designing data warehouse and data mart architectures for analytics and reporting at scale.
  • Solid grounding in both batch and streaming pipeline patterns, and the judgment to know which one a given problem actually needs.
  • Experience with orchestration tools (Apache Airflow, Cloud Composer, or equivalent) and CI/CD practices including Git, Terraform, and pipeline deployment workflows.
  • Working knowledge of data governance, security, and compliance considerations in cloud environments.
  • Exposure to additional cloud stacks (AWS or Azure) and GCP AI/ML tooling is a plus.
  • Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field. GCP certification is a bonus, not a requirement.

How you succeed

You're succeeding when the team ships reliable, well-documented data infrastructure that the rest of the practice can build on with confidence. Clients trust the technical advice they get from you. The engineers you manage are growing. And the data engineering practice has a clear point of view on how things should be built, because you've put one in place.

What happens next

We know searching for a job is tough and that you want to find the best career and employer for you. We also want to ensure that this position is the best fit for both you and us. Therefore, you will participate in a comprehensive interview process that includes skills interviews with our team. The goal of this process is to allow you to get to know us as we learn more about you.

Brainlabs actively seeks and encourages applications from candidates with diverse backgrounds and identities. 

Thank you for your interest in Brainlabs! We look forward to getting to know you!

#LI-MB1

What happens next?

We know searching for a job is tough and that you want to find the best career and employer for you. We also want to ensure that this position is the best fit for both you and us. Therefore, you will participate in a comprehensive interview process that includes skills interviews with our team. The goal of this process is to allow you to get to know us as we learn more about you.

Brainlabs actively seeks and encourages applications from candidates with diverse backgrounds and identities. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace: we are committed to equal opportunity for all applicants and employees regardless of age, disability, sex, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion, or belief, and marriage and civil partnerships. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation during the application process, please let us know!

Please note that we will never ask you to transfer cash or make any other payment to us in order to apply for a role or to work for Brainlabs. Any such asks are fraudulent and should be reported to the appropriate authorities in your area.