Senior Data Engineering Manager, Grindr

• BS or higher in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field
• 8 - 12+ years of industry experience in data engineering and technical leadership, including several years managing high-impact teams and working directly with VP- and C-level stakeholders to align technical direction with high-level business strategy
• You bring a strong sense of ownership and thrive in roles with significant autonomy and decision-making power - especially around platform design, tooling, and team practices
• Hands-on experience with modern data stack components like Snowflake, Airflow (Astronomer), and Looker, and a practical mindset when balancing innovation with stability
• Deep understanding of SQL, data modeling, and building reliable, scalable pipelines used across an organization
• Proven experience leading SOC1/SOC2 compliance initiatives - including vendor onboarding, legal/security reviews, and designing policies to support a regulated environment. This work is critical to Grindr’s ability to operate and grow
• Comfortable evaluating and integrating new technologies (e.g., Iceberg, dbt, streaming) - with a strong point of view on what the data platform should look like 1-2 years from now, and the initiative to make it real

Desirable

• We’re looking for a process-oriented, high-EQ, customer-focussed Senior Data Engineering Manager to lead Grindr’s Data Engineering and Core Product Analytics team - a small but mighty group that sits at the center of Grindr’s data strategy
• This is a high-autonomy, high-impact role, with real ownership over how our data platform evolves and how data is used across the business
• We recently finished a lift-and-shift of our PB-scale Data Lake to Snowflake and we’re now entering the next phase: redesigning our pipelines and data models to unlock richer real-time analytics, more robust ML use cases, and platform-wide data quality
• Key initiatives include building a common event taxonomy, supporting A/B testing frameworks, and improving observability and monitoring
• You’ll help shape the long-term technical direction of the platform - driving tool evaluation (e.g. , Iceberg, dbt), standardizing practices, and reducing tech debt
• The Data Engineering and Core Product Analytics team has visibility and impact on a broad set of crucial business functions - including Product, Finance, Trust & Safety, and Marketing
• We support both long-term, multi-quarter initiatives with these squads and also operate a Data Desk that triages incoming requests from many internal customers throughout the company, with an SLA to ensure responsiveness and internal success
• You’ll work closely with a dedicated Data Technical Program Manager to manage these workflows and keep things running smoothly
• You’ll also play a critical role in SOC1/SOC2 compliance and vendor onboarding — owning how new data tools are evaluated, integrated, and secured in a regulated environment
• This work is essential to Grindr’s ability to scale responsibly and safely
• Finally, Grindr’s unique mission-driven culture is supported by a deep investment in career development, diversity and inclusion, and empathy and care
• These behavioral character traits are a must have priority for success in this role
• Lead a team of 6–7 Data Engineers and Analytics professionals (with headcount to grow) in building and maintaining high-quality, scalable pipelines and infrastructure
• Act as both a hands-on technical lead and strategic manager — spending about 70% of your time guiding and unblocking the team, and 30% diving in technically when needed
• Drive the evolution of our data platform — identifying tooling gaps, evaluating emerging tech (like Iceberg), and setting the 1–2 year roadmap for our infrastructure
• Own and operate core systems like Snowflake, Astronomer (Airflow), and Looker, with responsibility for quality, security, and uptime
• Partner cross-functionally with Product, Finance, Marketing, and Trust to align data solutions with company priorities
• Collaborate closely with Data Science and ML teams to ensure the platform is ready for real-time and feature-rich applications
• Lead critical SOX/SOC1/SOC2 compliance initiatives — including onboarding new SaaS vendors, security reviews, and data handling policies
• This is a core accountability with company-wide impact
• Promote engineering excellence and autonomy — designing practices that support on-call rotations, observability, runbooks, and a culture of ownership