Data Engineer

Summary

The Dallas Mavericks are seeking an experienced Data Engineer to join our Basketball Analytics department. This role offers a unique opportunity to play a key part in building and maintaining the data infrastructure that powers decision-making across basketball operations. The position reports directly to the Director of Basketball Analytics and will work closely with analysts, developers, and basketball staff to support high-impact initiatives. 

Duties & Responsibilities

● Build and maintain robust databases, schemas, and data pipelines to support basketball operations

● Implement, automate, and optimize systems for data collection, storage, and retrieval across all basketball-related sources

● Prepare large-scale, structured and unstructured datasets for analysis by transforming raw data into clean, usable formats

● Collaborate with data scientists, developers, coaches, and other members of the basketball analytics department to support research and decision-making

● Research, evaluate, and integrate new data sources and technologies

● Maintain clear documentation for pipelines, schemas, and workflows

● Support real-time and ad hoc data needs, including time-sensitive requests during the season

● Perform additional data engineering and basketball analytics tasks as needed

Qualifications

● Strong knowledge of and passion for basketball and the NBA

● Bachelor’s degree or higher in computer science, software engineering, information systems, or a related technical field

● 3+ years of professional experience as a data engineer, preferably in professional sports

● Proficiency in SQL and experience with modern data warehousing technologies (e.g., Redshift, Snowflake, BigQuery)

● Proficiency in R or Python for data transformation and scripting

● Experience designing and managing ETL/ELT workflows, preferably using orchestration tools (e.g., Airflow, dbt, Dagster, Prefect)

● Experience working with cloud platforms such as AWS, including S3, Lambda, and RDS

● Familiarity with API integration

● Comfortable working with large, complex, and varied datasets

● Experience automating data validation, unit testing, and quality monitoring

● Experience using Git for version control in a collaborative development environment

● Excellent communication skills and ability to work cross-functionally with both technical and non-technical stakeholders

● Ability to manage competing deadlines and work evenings, weekends, and holidays as required during the NBA season

● Prior experience with sports data, especially player tracking, play-by-play, or scouting datasets is preferred

The Dallas Mavericks provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.