Data Engineer

Data Engineer

The Daily Beast delivers award-winning original reporting and sharp opinions in politics, pop culture, and world news. We reach more than 20 million readers per month and are based in New York as an operating business of IAC.

Media on the internet is at an inflection point. Success requires data-driven decision making in ways it never has before - and we recognize that. We're looking for a Data Engineer to own how we collect, store, and use data across the organization.

There's foundational infrastructure work to tackle first, but this role extends well beyond that - you'll explore creative ways to leverage data once the foundation is solid. Your work will directly enable leadership to incorporate more data into strategic decisions across editorial, product, and revenue.

This role reports directly to the CTO, who will be reviewing applications directly - no recruiters in between. You'll have real ownership from day one, direct access to leadership, and the chance to work with smart people who care about getting things done. No endless meetings, no approval chains, no politics - just interesting problems and the autonomy to solve them.

You're pragmatic and outcome-driven. You know when to build custom solutions and when to leverage existing tools. You thrive in environments where you can take ownership, make decisions, and see direct impact - not ones where you're drowning in process.

You're familiar with the modern data stack and can evaluate vendors intelligently. You're fluent with AI tools and use them to work faster and smarter - writing code faster, debugging more efficiently, and exploring solutions more quickly.

You're comfortable with ambiguity and prefer iterative approaches - ship something that works, learn from it, and improve it. You want to work somewhere that respects your time and intelligence. You'd rather have one direct conversation with the CTO than ten status update meetings with middle management.

What You'll Do

• Own Our Data Infrastructure – Take ownership of how we collect, store, and transform data. This includes migrating some data outliers to GCP and implementing a modern data stack using BigQuery, dbt, and Dagster—but it doesn't stop there.
• Enable Data-Driven Strategy – Your work will directly impact how leadership makes decisions about editorial content, revenue strategy, and product direction.
• Evaluate and Implement Vendor Solutions – Research, test, and recommend tools for our data stack. We lean on vendors when it makes sense—you'll help us figure out what to build, what to buy, and what to integrate.
• Define Our Data Future – Establish best practices, build reliable pipelines, and create the systems that will scale with us.
• Drive Toward Outcomes – Take ownership of projects from start to finish. We care about impact, not perfection.
• Find Creative Uses for Data – Look for opportunities to surface more sources of data and automate workflows to save everyone time.

What You'll Bring:

• Several years of professional experience building data pipelines, ETL/ELT workflows, and working with production data systems.
• Experience with cloud data warehouses, transformation tools, orchestration platforms, and ingestion tools.
• You actively use AI tools to accelerate your work—you see AI as a productivity multiplier, not a crutch.
• Pragmatic problem-solving: you balance quick wins with long-term architecture decisions.
• Bias for action: you'd rather ship something and iterate than wait for the perfect plan.
• Strong communication skills with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

More talent than tenure? We care about what you can build, not just your resume.

Why Work for Us?

• The Daily Beast is a globally recognized publication at IAC HQ in New York City. As part of IAC, we offer best-in-class benefits, including:
• Flexible vacation
• Hybrid working model with flexibility for remote work
• Comprehensive, employer-subsidized insurance plans
• Pre-tax commuter benefits
• 401(k) matching
• Tuition reimbursement

The pay range for this position is $150,000 - $180,000. The range represents the anticipated low and high end of the base salary range for this position. Actual salaries may vary and may be above or below the range based on various factors including but not limited to work location, experience, and other factors. The Daily Beast is a globally recognized publication at IAC with our headquarters in New York City.

Don't meet every single requirement listed here? If you're interested in joining the Beast but your past experience doesn't align perfectly with this job description, we encourage you to give it a shot all the same. It might turn out that you're just the right candidate for this or other roles.

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.