Manager – Data Engineering & Operations

THE TEAM YOU WILL BE JOININGA fast-growing, privately owned sports and live entertainment organization in Charlotte that runs pro teams, major venues and a year-round calendar of eventsYou’ll sit in the business strategy and analytics group, the commercial side of the house, which drives revenue across ticketing, partnerships, food and beverage, and retailYou’ll report to the Director of Business Analytics, and work alongside the CRM and marketing analytics and ticket and revenue analytics functionsThe team is moving away from relying on third-party data services and building its own internal data platformWhy now: this is a critical seat, and the organization is investing in data engineering, automation and AI as a core capabilityThere’s a plan to add 1-2 people under this role as the function growsWHAT THEY OFFER YOUFull ownership of the enterprise data foundation, as the go-to owner for integrations, infrastructure and automation A real hand in shaping the platform from the ground up, not just maintaining something someone else built A clear path to lead a team as the function scalesExposure to 1:1 marketing, predictive analytics, recommendation engines and AI-enabled fan engagementHigh visibility with Marketing, Ticketing, Partnerships, Technology, Finance and league-level data partnersWork that connects directly to the fan experience and to big initiatives like venue renovation and new fan technologyCompetitive compensation and bonus eligibilityLOCATIONCharlotte, NC, onsite, with work at stadium events on some nights, weekends and holidaysWHY THIS ROLE IS IMPORTANTOwns every data integration across CRM, ticketing, marketing automation, mobile app, web, loyalty and partnership systemsDesigns and builds scalable batch and real-time pipelines, along with the enterprise data lake and a unified fan data environmentLeads identity resolution and master data management, so every fan touchpoint connects to a single viewPowers automated 1:1 marketing journeys, including campaign triggers, lead scoring, renewal intent models and lifecycle orchestrationBuilds secure API connections between enterprise data and approved AI platforms, and routes AI insights back into CRM, ticketing and marketing systemsSets and enforces data governance, quality, privacy and consent standards, and serves as the internal expert on data reliabilityTurns business needs into practical solutions, from automating sales appointment routing to supporting next-best-action enginesRepresents the organization in league-level working groups on data standards and integrationsTHE BACKGROUND THAT FITS7-10 years in data engineering or analytics engineering, ideally at a senior or lead level A track record of building and owning enterprise cloud data platforms (Snowflake, Azure, AWS or similar) Strong SQL and Python, plus production ETL/ELT pipeline development and data modelingExperience integrating CRM (Salesforce a plus), marketing automation and digital platforms through APIsHands-on experience putting data governance and quality frameworks in place A plus: sports, entertainment, media or other consumer-facing industries (not required)A plus: CDPs, identity resolution, real-time streaming and operationalizing ML modelsYou have the confidence and foresight to move an organization off third-party tools and onto its own platform, and you’re happy to get hands-on with ingestion when something breaksReference: 70829