As a Senior Staff Data Engineer at Warner Bros., you will lead the design and delivery of data pipelines that process billions of ad events daily across the company’s global ecosystem. You will set technical standards for distributed data engineering, modernize legacy workflows into modular cloud-native systems, and ensure mission-critical data is delivered reliably, securely, and cost-efficiently. Your responsibilities include designing ingestion, ETL, and activation pipelines supporting real-time and batch processing of multi-billion event datasets while optimizing data workflows for latency, reliability, and scalability in cloud-native environments. You will also modernize legacy ad-tech systems into lakehouse-based architectures using Iceberg, Delta, Hudi, and embed observability frameworks to reduce technical debt. Additionally, you will partner with Data Science teams to operationalize ML models and ensure low-latency, privacy-compliant data delivery into various platforms. This role requires 12+ years of experience in enterprise-scale data platforms, hands-on expertise with AWS/GCP/Azure, open table formats, distributed compute frameworks like Spark and Flink, and deep knowledge of streaming systems such as Kafka or Kinesis.
Skills
AWS
GCP
Azure
Iceberg
Delta
Hudi
Spark
Flink
Presto
Kafka
Kinesis
CI/CD
Docker
Python
SQL
Lakehouse
Observability
Data Lineage
Automation
Big Data Engineering
Mentorship
What you'll do
Design and maintain high-scale data pipelines for real-time and batch processing of multi-billion event datasets.
Optimize cloud-native data workflows for latency, reliability, and scalability.
Modernize legacy ad-tech systems into lakehouse-based architectures using Iceberg, Delta, Hudi formats.
Partner with Data Science to operationalize ML models for forecasting and personalization.
Ensure low-latency and privacy-compliant downstream data delivery to various platforms.
Mentor junior engineers in distributed systems, streaming, and big data engineering.
What we're looking for
12+ years of experience in designing and operating enterprise-scale data platforms with high-throughput pipelines.
Expertise in AWS/GCP/Azure, open table formats (Iceberg, Delta, Hudi), and distributed compute frameworks like Spark and Flink.
Deep knowledge of streaming technologies such as Kafka, Kinesis, or Pub/Sub for real-time data processing.
Hands-on experience modernizing legacy systems into cloud-native lakehouse architectures for unified analytics.
Skilled in CI/CD, automation, observability, and governance to ensure reliable, secure, and cost-efficient data delivery.
Market check
Salary context
This
$146,440–$271,960
range sits above
65%
of similar postings on FindRole.
Peer median band
$140,000–$220,100
Median floor and ceiling across peers.
Typical midpoint (25–75%)
$142,400–$226,525
Middle half of comparable postings.
Based on 239 comparable postings.*
* 240 is the maximum number of comparable postings sampled.
Employer
About Warner Bros. Discovery
Warner Bros. Discovery is a global media and entertainment company operating a broad portfolio of iconic content and brands including Warner Bros. film studio, HBO, CNN, Discovery Channel, and Max streaming service. Industry: Media & Entertainment
Warner Bros. Discovery currently has
54 open roles
on FindRole.
Listed pay typically runs
$121,100–$224,900
across 37 roles with salary data.