Lead Data Engineer

At Ticketure, we’re on a mission to modernize ticketing for museums, zoos, aquariums, gardens, science centers, performing arts organizations and cultural attractions around the world. Through our two complementary platforms, Ticketure and PatronManager, we power ticketing, admissions, memberships, subscriptions, donations, CRM, and audience engagement, helping organizations replace outdated systems with modern, cloud-based solutions.

Our technology enables cultural institutions to create seamless visitor experiences, strengthen patron relationships, improve operational efficiency, and unlock new revenue opportunities. Ticketure is built for institutions that expect more from their technology and value a true partner in growth.

No matter your role, whether you’re building the platform, supporting our clients, or driving our growth, you’ll be part of a collaborative team that values innovation, ownership, and meaningful impact. If you’re excited to help organizations connect people with culture and create exceptional experiences, we’d love to meet you.

Job Summary

As Lead Data Engineer, you'll design, build, and maintain the data pipelines, models, and reporting assets that make our data accessible, trusted, and valuable across internal teams and clients. You'll bring strong engineering discipline and hands-on technical leadership, working with Snowflake or similar platforms to deliver governed, well-tested, cost-aware data solutions. Reporting to the Director, Engineering, you'll independently own complex data engineering initiatives with guidance from leadership, while collaborating closely with engineering peers and stakeholders to turn business needs into scalable solutions. You'll bring sound technical judgment and the confidence to challenge assumptions constructively, helping raise the bar for data quality and engineering standards across the platform.

What You’ll Do

• Design, build, and maintain reliable data pipelines, models, and reporting assets within our Snowflake-based platform, powering internal analytics, tenant-facing reporting, data shares, AI/NLQ use cases, and usage-based billing

• Partner cross-functionally with Engineering, Product, Finance, and Client Success to understand business and tenant needs, ensuring data is ingested, transformed, and exposed accurately

• Champion strong engineering practices, version control, CI/CD, automated testing, documentation, and infrastructure as code, along with data quality checks, observability, and alerting to keep critical pipelines reliable

• Provide hands-on technical leadership on platform architecture, tooling, governance, and cost management, leading code and design reviews and driving improvements to engineering standards

• Lead complex initiatives end to end, from problem definition through delivery, managing priorities, communicating trade-offs, and surfacing risks early

• Influence technical decisions by presenting clear options and evidence, and help teams self-serve trusted data through strong documentation and discoverability

• Use AI thoughtfully to boost engineering productivity, code quality, testing, documentation, and problem-solving

Other Duties

This job description is intended to provide an overview of the position and does not represent a comprehensive list of duties. The employee may be required to perform other duties that are reasonably related to the role, as directed by the employer, and the scope of responsibilities may be reviewed and updated from time to time in consultation with the employee.

Qualifications

Minimum Requirements

• Significant hands-on experience in data engineering roles, designing, building and maintaining production-grade ETL/ELT pipelines, data models and data products

• Strong SQL skills and practical experience with Snowflake or a similar cloud data platform, including performance, security and access control considerations

• Experience working in a SaaS, multi-tenant or similarly complex and governed data environment, including secure data access, tenant isolation, data quality and PII considerations

• Practical experience using modern data engineering practices, including version control, automated testing, CI/CD and repeatable code-based delivery

What You Bring

• Proven ability to independently lead complex data engineering initiatives and work cross-functionally with Engineering, Product, Finance and customer-facing teams, managing priorities and communicating trade-offs and risks clearly

• Strong engineering discipline and a code-first mindset, with the ability to lead high-quality code and design reviews and uphold high standards for testing and maintainability

• Strong problem-solving skills and technical judgment, with a collaborative, influential working style that challenges assumptions constructively and communicates trade-offs clearly

• Ability to enable self-service data access through trusted, governed data products, and a strong understanding of cloud cost drivers to make informed trade-offs

• Active, practical use of AI tools to improve engineering productivity and quality, applied with critical thinking and verification

Nice to Have

• Experience exposing AI/NLQ or semantic search capabilities to end users, with attention to accuracy, trust and guardrails

• Experience with usage-based billing, cost attribution or customer-level usage reporting in a SaaS environment

• Experience with streaming and batch ingestion patterns, or with document databases such as ElasticSearch

• Experience implementing infrastructure as code, deployment automation or other initiatives that improve platform cost efficiency and reliability

Equipment/Software/Tools

• Google

• Slack

• AWS

• ELK

• Git/Github

• Snowflake

• DBT

• FiveTran

• BI Tools

 

What We Offer

• Competitive base annual salary, commensurate with experience

• Annual discretionary bonus based on performance and company success

• Incentive equity opportunity

• 3.5% employer KiwiSaver contribution

• Home office stipend

• Annual leave that increases with tenure

• Paid volunteer leave

• Working abroad opportunities

• Learning and development support, including reimbursement for approved educational expenses

• Flexible working arrangements

Location: This role is primarily performed in a remote work environment with quarterly meet-ups in Wellington

Work Environment & Physical Requirements

The physical requirements described below are representative of those that must be met to successfully perform the essential functions of this role. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable qualified individuals with disabilities to perform these essential functions.

In this position, you can expect to:

• Collaborate & Communicate: Regularly communicate and exchange information with colleagues, clients, and stakeholders

• Work Digitally: Spend extended periods working on a computer, utilizing software applications, and operating standard office equipment

• Remain Stationary & Move About: Remain in a stationary position for extended periods, with occasional movement throughout the work environment

• Use Hands & Vision: Frequently use hands and fingers to operate a computer, keyboard, and other office equipment, and regularly observe and interpret information displayed on screens

• Handle Materials: Occasionally move, lift, or transport items weighing up to 15 pounds

• Location: This role is primarily performed in an office or remote work environment

 

Our Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion

At Ticketure, we believe great ideas come from diverse voices. We’re committed to creating a workplace where every team member feels welcome, respected, and empowered to thrive.

We do not tolerate discrimination of any kind and provide equal opportunities regardless of race, color, religion, marital status, age, national origin, ancestry, disability, medical condition, pregnancy, genetic information, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, or any other status protected under applicable law.

What makes Ticketure strong is the variety of perspectives, experiences, and cultural backgrounds our people bring to the table. We celebrate those differences and know they help us innovate, grow, and serve our clients better. Our focus is on building a culture of inclusion where everyone belongs, because when we do that, we all succeed together.

Our team is here to support you throughout the hiring process with reasonable accommodations. We strive to provide an unbiased and equitable interview experience for all applicants. If you need assistance applying for a role due to a disability or special need, please let us know by emailing accommodations@ticketure.com.

Ticketure Global Applicant Privacy Notice

 

We do not believe in a perfect candidate. If you are excited about this role and meet most of what is listed above, we encourage you to apply, including if you have a non-traditional background or career path.