Senior Data Engineer

Senior Data Engineer 6-month Contract-to-Hire (with potential extension prior to conversion) Location: New York, NY (Hybrid – 3 days/week onsite in Midtown) About the Opportunity Our client is a leading organization in the media, entertainment, and digital content space, operating at enterprise scale with a strong focus on innovation, reliability, and data-driven experiences. They connect audiences to content across multiple platforms through a robust combination of technology, services, and high-impact products. Role Overview The Data Platforms team serves as the central data hub across the organization, unifying systems into a secure, scalable, and real-time data environment. We are seeking a Senior Data Engineer to help build and evolve modern data platform services. This is a hands-on role ideal for someone with a strong backend engineering mindset who is comfortable working across Node.js, TypeScript, Python, and SQL. This role is best suited for an engineer who values strong software engineering principles, clean architecture, and production-grade systems. Key Responsibilities • Design, build, and maintain data platform services and workflows using Node.js and TypeScript • Develop scalable data ingestion, transformation, and access patterns • Utilize Python and SQL for data processing, validation, and operational workflows • Partner with cross-functional teams to support: • Data contracts and schema evolution • Metadata and lineage tracking • Data quality and freshness standards • Build reusable, reliable data components and abstractions • Write clean, testable, production-quality code with strong automated testing practices • Contribute to CI/CD pipelines and deployment processes • Optimize system performance, reliability, and maintainability • Participate in design discussions and code reviews • Collaborate across technical and non-technical teams in a fast-paced environment Qualifications • 5–8+ years of experience in software engineering or data engineering with strong backend focus • Strong proficiency in Node.js and TypeScript in production environments • Working experience with Python and SQL • Solid foundation in: • Object-oriented design • Design patterns • API and service architecture • Modular or service-based systems • Experience building scalable data systems (ingestion, transformation, access) • Strong testing practices (unit, integration, and local development workflows) • Experience with CI/CD and modern DevOps practices • Familiarity with data platform concepts, ELT patterns, and lakehouse architectures • Ability to operate with ownership in a fast-moving environment • Strong communication and collaboration skills Nice to Have Skills • Experience with data governance, metadata, or lineage systems • Familiarity with observability for data platforms • Experience modernizing legacy systems or integrating with cloud-native platforms • Background in large-scale or enterprise environments (media/streaming is a plus) What’s In It For You? • Weekly paychecks • Medical, Dental, and vision benefits • Help shape systems, standards, and architecture from the ground up while backed by a major, established enterprise