Overview:
Sr. Manager, Data Engineering
Location: Tire Rack – South Bend, IN
Department: Information Technology
Employment Type: Full-Time, Exempt
Schedule: Monday–Friday, typically 8:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
About the Role
Join Tire Rack’s IT team and help shape the future of data across the organization. As the Sr. Manager, Data Engineering, you’ll lead the strategy and evolution of our enterprise data engineering capabilities, guide a talented team of engineers and technical leaders, and drive the modernization of our data platform using Databricks and AWS.
This is an opportunity to influence how data is built, governed, and delivered at scale—and turn major technology investments into meaningful business impact.
This role is ideal for an experienced data engineering leader who enjoys tackling complex technical challenges, developing high-performing teams, and turning ambitious ideas into enterprise solutions. You’ll set direction, champion modern engineering practices, partner with leaders across the business, and play a key role in building the next generation of Tire Rack’s data ecosystem.
What You’ll Do
- Set the vision and strategy for Data Engineering, creating a roadmap that connects platform capabilities with Tire Rack’s long-term business priorities.
- Lead, coach, and develop a high-performing Data Engineering team, including team leads and senior engineers.
- Drive the enterprise-wide transition to a modern Databricks lakehouse architecture, leading one of the organization’s most important data modernization initiatives.
- Own the long-term data platform roadmap and guide the architecture, design, and evolution of Databricks and AWS capabilities.
- Champion modern engineering practices, emerging technologies, and innovative approaches that improve performance and deliver measurable business value.
- Build a culture of technical excellence, accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
- Develop future leaders by building bench strength and preparing team leads for increased scope and responsibility.
- Establish engineering standards, delivery practices, and an operating model that enables teams to deliver effectively at scale.
- Lead enterprise data integration and governance strategy, ensuring data is secure, reliable, high-quality, compliant, and performance-ready.
- Partner with Business Data Intelligence and teams across the organization to turn enterprise priorities into scalable, governed data products.
- Communicate platform strategy, progress, risks, and results to Director-level and executive stakeholders, building alignment around enterprise data priorities.
- Own platform reliability, performance, and cost management while continuously identifying opportunities to improve the data ecosystem.
- Lead budget planning, headcount forecasting, and resource strategy for the Data Engineering function.
- Monitor key initiatives, workloads, budgets, quality, and KPIs to ensure the department continues moving toward its goals.
- Collaborate across departments to solve complex challenges, remove roadblocks, and improve how teams work together.
- Stay ahead of emerging data technologies and industry trends, identifying new ideas and solutions that can create value for Tire Rack.
- Perform additional duties as assigned to support department and company objectives.
What We’re Looking For
We’re looking for a strategic, forward-thinking data engineering leader who can see the big picture while understanding the technology required to make it happen.
You bring deep cloud data platform expertise, strong business judgment, and a track record of leading teams through meaningful transformation. Just as importantly, you know how to bring people together, communicate a clear vision, and turn complex technical initiatives into results the business can see and measure.
Required Qualifications
- Minimum of 3 years of experience as a Supervisor, Assistant Manager, or comparable people leadership role.
- Minimum of 8 years of professional experience with progressive responsibility in data engineering, data platforms, or a related technical field.
- Proven success leading a significant cloud data platform modernization or migration with demonstrated business impact.
- Deep expertise in Databricks and AWS data architecture, including platform security, governance, integration, and enterprise-scale workload optimization.
- Demonstrated ability to establish departmental strategy and lead budget, headcount, and resource planning.
- Ability to influence, collaborate with, and build consensus among Director-level and executive stakeholders.
- Strong leadership skills with experience developing teams, coaching technical talent, and building relationships across internal and vendor partners.
- Expert communication skills with the ability to make complex technical concepts clear, relevant, and actionable for both technical and non-technical audiences.
- Excellent analytical, planning, negotiation, organizational, and interpersonal skills.
- Strong business acumen with an understanding of organizational priorities, goals, and strategy.
- Demonstrated ability to lead organizational transformation and succeed in a fast-paced, goal-oriented environment.
- Proficiency with Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
- Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Data Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent combination of education and professional experience.
Preferred Qualifications
- Hands-on or leadership experience with Databricks lakehouse architecture.
- Professional certifications related to Databricks, AWS, data engineering, cloud platforms, or related technologies.
Work Schedule
Work Days: Monday through Friday. Occasional Saturday and Sunday work may be necessary based on business needs.
Work Hours: Typical hours are 8:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. Additional hours may be necessary to support projects, platform initiatives, and business needs.
Why Tire Rack
At Tire Rack, data plays an increasingly important role in how we understand our customers, operate our business, and make decisions. As Sr. Manager, Data Engineering, you’ll have the opportunity to lead a major evolution of our data capabilities while building the people, platforms, and practices that will support the organization for years to come.
If you’re ready to lead meaningful transformation, develop great technical talent, and build an enterprise data platform that delivers real business value, we’d love to hear from you.