Senior Staff Data Engineer (Advertising Technology - AWS experience required)

About the role

Storytelling is, and will always be, the heart of what we do at Skydance.

Our vision is to build a thriving entertainment ecosystem where stories and worlds are imagined, brought to life and experienced. We create for every age and audience, anchored by the strength of our content and experiences and the depth of our connection with fans. We are creator-first, audience-focused, tech-forward, globally scaled.

Here, you'll work with talented teams that move fast, think boldly and collaborate with purpose to deliver results. We aim high, champion the best ideas and win together, earning the trust of our employees, creators, partners and audiences every day.

If you're energized by the opportunity to help build the next-generation global media and entertainment company powered by creativity and technology, we'd be thrilled to welcome you aboard. LET'S GO!

Your New Role

The Senior Staff Data Engineer is accountable for designing and delivering data pipelines that process billions of ad events daily across WBD's global ecosystem. This role sets technical standards for distributed data engineering, drives modernization of legacy workflows into modular cloud-native systems, and ensures mission-critical data is delivered reliably, securely, and cost-efficiently for monetization and decisioning.

Your Role Accountabilities

High-Scale Data Pipeline Engineering

• Design and maintain ingestion, ETL, and activation pipelines supporting real-time and batch processing of multi-billion event datasets.
• Optimize data workflows for latency, reliability, and scalability in cloud-native environments.

Platform Modernization & Lakehouse Development

• Modernize legacy ad-tech systems into open, lakehouse-based architectures (Iceberg, Delta, Hudi) for unified analytics and monetization.

Embed observability, data lineage, and automation frameworks to reduce technical debt and improve resiliency.

Cross-Functional Data Delivery

• Partner with Data Science to operationalize ML models for forecasting, optimization, and personalization.
• Ensure downstream data delivery into ad servers, identity systems, and activation platforms is low-latency and privacy-compliant

Architectural Leadership & Mentorship

• Act as a domain expert in distributed systems, streaming, and big data engineering.
• Mentor junior engineers, share best practices, and elevate engineering standards across global teams.

Qualifications & Experience

• Education: Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field. PhD preferred for advanced expertise in distributed systems or statistical optimization.
• Data Engineering Expertise: 12+ years of experience designing and operating enterprise-scale data platforms with high-throughput pipelines.
• Cloud & Lakehouse Architectures: Hands-on expertise with AWS/GCP/Azure, open table formats (Iceberg, Delta, Hudi), and distributed compute (Spark, Flink, Presto).
• Streaming & Real-Time Systems: Deep knowledge of Kafka, Kinesis, or Pub/Sub for powering low-latency ingestion and activation.
• Operational Excellence: Skilled in CI/CD, automation, observability, and governance frameworks for enterprise-grade data engineering.
• AdTech Domain Knowledge: Familiarity with advertising workflows including forecasting, yield optimization, identity, and campaign execution.
• Collaboration & Mentorship: Demonstrated ability to partner with data scientists, product, and platform engineering, while mentoring junior engineers.

#LI-Hybrid

Some Important Details

If you're a qualified candidate with a disability and you require adjustments or accommodations during the job application and/or recruitment process, please visit our accessibility page for instructions to submit your request.

Hiring Salary Range

$144,060.00 - $267,540.00 per year

In compliance with local law, we are disclosing compensation, or a range thereof, for roles where legally required. Actual salaries will vary based on a variety of job-related factors, including but not limited to geographic location, external market data, internal equity, skill set, experience, training, education, and/or performance. Base pay is just one component of our total compensation package.

Other rewards may include annual bonuses, short- and long-term incentives, and program-specific awards. In addition, Warner Bros. Discovery provides a variety of benefits to employees, including health insurance coverage, an employee wellness program, life and disability insurance, a retirement savings plan, paid holidays and sick time and vacation.