Data Engineer, Lead

Farmer's Fridge Careers • Chicago, IL

20d • Onsite

About The Position

This is a rare opportunity for an experienced Data Engineer who wants to own something. Farmer's Fridge is growing fast, and our data infrastructure needs to grow with it. You won't be one of dozens of engineers waiting in line to ship. You'll be the person setting the direction. Small team, big problems, massive amounts of data, and the latitude to solve them the right way. If you're energized by impact over organizational overhead, this is your kind of role.
This role is based in Chicago and requires in-office availability.

Requirements

• 5–8 years of experience in data engineering or a related field, with at least 1–2 years in a lead or senior individual contributor role.
• Strong hands-on SQL and data modeling skills; experience building and maintaining production data pipelines.
• Experience with cloud data warehouses (Snowflake preferred) and ELT tools (Fivetran or similar).
• Proficiency with dbt for data transformation and data modeling. Experience owning or contributing to a semantic layer is a strong plus.
• Familiarity with NoSQL databases (DynamoDB or similar) and working with REST APIs for data ingestion.
• Experience with analytics engineering concepts and tools.
• Proven ability to lead and manage technical contractors or small teams.
• Strong communication skills—comfortable translating technical complexity for non-technical stakeholders and working cross-functionally across the business.
• Familiarity with using AI tools in your day-to-day workflow.
• Based in Chicago or willing to relocate. This is an in-office role.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with BI platform integrations (Sigma, Tableau, Hex, or similar) is a strong plus.
• Experience operationalizing data science or optimization models is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Lead data engineering and analytics engineering at Farmer’s Fridge, setting technical direction and quality standards across the stack.
• Rebuild FF’s data infrastructure to reduce data silos, improve data reliability, and enable scalable self-service analytics across the organization.
• Own FF’s dbt environment and lead the development of a semantic layer strategy—defining metrics, business logic, and data models that create a single source of truth across the organization.
• Coordinate closely with the Data Product Analyst and Head of Data on roadmap planning, sprint priorities, and overall data strategy.
• Partner with the Supply Chain tech team to revamp data infrastructure and tooling for the manufacturing team, improving visibility and operational efficiency.
• Lead the integration of Sigma as FF’s next-generation BI platform, working with business stakeholders to drive adoption and build out reporting capabilities.
• Lead the integration of optimization models developed by the data science team into production data pipelines, ensuring models are operationalized reliably and at scale.
• Drive new data initiatives—identifying gaps in available data and leading efforts to bring in, model, and surface new data sources that unlock business value.
• Direct a team of three contractors: one data engineer and two analytics engineers, providing technical guidance, code reviews, and mentorship.
• Work directly with stakeholders across supply chain, operations, finance, sales, and marketing to understand data needs and deliver high-quality solutions.
• Establish and enforce best practices for data modeling, pipeline development, documentation, and testing.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance (multiple plans available)
• 401(k) with immediate employer match vesting
• Paid time off (including vacation, sick leave, and holidays)
• Paid sabbatical after 5 years of service
• Employee discounts
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
• Daily Farmer's Fridge meal, Thursday charcuterie, draft cold brew and beer, office snacks, and Friday happy hours

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: No Education Listed
• Number of Employees: 101-250 employees