Contractor: Lead Analytics Engineer
Job description
Lead data/analytics engineer role at Newsela, setting the technical direction for the analytics team and owning data models, the semantic layer, and analytics infrastructure. The role combines hands-on data engineering with mentoring and stakeholder partnership across Product, Finance, Marketing, and Engineering.
At a glance
- Work mode
- Remote
What you'll do
- Set the technical direction for the analytics team (architecture, conventions, approach)
- Raise the technical floor through code review, design reviews, and pairing, holding a consistent bar for what ships
- Own the architecture of our data models, with accountability for long-term maintainability
- Own the semantic layer, metric definitions, and governed self-service
- Act as the primary technical partner to Product, Finance, Marketing, and Engineering, translating needs into a roadmap
- Negotiate scope directly with stakeholders
- Drive a cadence of proactive analysis so the team surfaces questions the business hasn't asked
- Define the team's data testing strategy and govern how business logic is validated across the analytics layer
- Own the operational health of the analytics layer (monitoring, alerting, incident response, and release readiness)
- Mentor the engineers around you and build shared understanding through documentation and technical presentations
- Lead large-scale migrations and performance efforts, setting the approach and enabling the team to execute
What we're looking for
- 8+ Years experience working with data in a software environment
- Mastered proficiency in SQL and Python
- Advanced experience managing business semantic layer tooling, data catalog tooling and data integrity testing frameworks
- Experience with dbt orchestration and best practices
- Track record of working autonomously and proactively, with deep domain knowledge of data analysis and data systems
- Required Tech Stack: SQL, Python, relational datastores, DAG tooling (like Dagster or Airflow), dbt and Tableau
- Experience with cloud-based infrastructure (AWS, GCP, Terraform) and document, graph, or schema-less datastores
Your team
analytics team
Apply
About Newsela
A leading education technology company dedicated to meaningful classroom learning for every student
Newsela delivers integrated, AI-powered solutions designed to unlock student engagement, empower teachers, and drive meaningful learning outcomes. Its suite of products supports knowledge and skill development, writing practice, daily instruction, assessment, and data-informed decision-making across K–12 classrooms. Grounded in learning science research, Newsela's solutions integrate content, assessment, and analytics to help educators track progress, understand student outcomes, and deliver high-impact instruction.
Mission
Meaningful classroom learning for every student
Key facts
- education technology
- All offers of employment are contingent upon the successful completion of a background check as part of the pre-employment process