Senior Analytics Engineer
Avison Young, Chicago, IL, United States
Overview
Avison Young’s Data Architecture team seeks a Senior Analytics Engineer to own and scale our analytics layer in Snowflake using dbt. This is a hands-on leadership role focused on building high-quality, business-aligned data models that power reporting, analytics, and data products across the organization. You will act as a player-coach, balancing hands-on development with leadership of other engineers, while partnering closely with business stakeholders to define metrics, data models, and semantic consistency across the company. Your work will enable better decision-making by ensuring data is not just available, but trusted, well-structured, and meaningful. This role emphasizes analytics engineering and data modeling, not traditional pipeline-heavy data engineering. We value the ability to understand the why behind the data, not just the how.
Responsibilities
Analytics Engineering & Data Modeling (Core Focus): design, develop, and maintain scalable, business-aligned data models in Snowflake using dbt (staging, intermediate, marts layers); define and enforce semantic consistency (metrics, dimensions, KPIs); build and manage dbt projects (models, tests, documentation, lineage); design, deploy, and maintain Snowflake Cortex Search and semantic models for LLM-powered applications and AI initiatives; oversee development operations and deployments of the data platform; translate business requirements into well-structured, reusable data models; implement data quality testing, validation, and documentation; optimize query performance and transformation efficiency; establish and enforce data modeling standards, best practices, and design patterns; develop reusable analytics components.
Data Product & Stakeholder Engagement: partner with business stakeholders to define metrics, KPIs, and data definitions; ensure alignment between business needs and technical implementations; contribute to data products and semantic layers that support analytics and reporting; drive adoption and usability of data models across analytics and business teams.
Leadership & Team Responsibilities (Player-Coach): lead and mentor a small team of analytics/data engineers; set standards for dbt development, code reviews, testing, and documentation; contribute hands-on to development (60-70%) while guiding team delivery; drive team productivity, technical direction, and project execution; support Agile processes including backlog prioritization and sprint planning.
Coordination & Delivery: gather and refine business requirements for data initiatives; translate business needs into clear technical requirements and user stories; support deployment, environment management, and release processes; ensure high-quality delivery through testing, validation, and stakeholder alignment; maintain 5+ years of experience in analytics engineering, data engineering, or related roles; demonstrate strong SQL and data warehousing expertise; proficiency with dbt and Snowflake; experience in dimensional data modeling (star schema, marts, semantic layers); build and maintain analytics-ready data models and transformations; lead projects or mentor team members in a player-coach capacity; apply data quality, testing frameworks, and documentation practices; familiarity with Airflow/Astronomer or similar orchestration tools; experience with data pipelines, ETL/ELT processes, and cloud data platforms; strong analytical thinking and ability to connect data solutions to business outcomes; bachelor’s degree in IT, Business, or related field, or equivalent experience.
Nice to have
Experience in commercial real estate, geospatial data, or location-based analytics
Experience building data products or semantic layers for BI tools
Salary
The base salary is aligned with market data and is estimated between $93,000 to $120,000 with the ability to achieve additional compensation through bonus. This salary range reflects base compensation for the position across all US locations. Within this range, individual pay is determined by work location and other factors, including relevant education/training, experience, and internal equity.
Compliance & Workplace
Avison Young practices as an equal opportunity employer in all service locations worldwide. We are committed to building and maintaining a diverse workforce with uniformity in service excellence, commitment and integrity. The firm maintains a strict policy to ensure equal employment opportunities and does not discriminate based on race, color, religion, creed, age, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, citizenship, disability, marital and civil partnership/union status, protected veteran or military service status, or any other elements protected by law. Avison Young welcomes and encourages applications from people with disabilities. Accommodations are available upon request for candidates during the recruitment process. Information relating to accommodation needs will be addressed confidentially. Apply with us today!
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Avison Young’s Data Architecture team seeks a Senior Analytics Engineer to own and scale our analytics layer in Snowflake using dbt. This is a hands-on leadership role focused on building high-quality, business-aligned data models that power reporting, analytics, and data products across the organization. You will act as a player-coach, balancing hands-on development with leadership of other engineers, while partnering closely with business stakeholders to define metrics, data models, and semantic consistency across the company. Your work will enable better decision-making by ensuring data is not just available, but trusted, well-structured, and meaningful. This role emphasizes analytics engineering and data modeling, not traditional pipeline-heavy data engineering. We value the ability to understand the why behind the data, not just the how.
Responsibilities
Analytics Engineering & Data Modeling (Core Focus): design, develop, and maintain scalable, business-aligned data models in Snowflake using dbt (staging, intermediate, marts layers); define and enforce semantic consistency (metrics, dimensions, KPIs); build and manage dbt projects (models, tests, documentation, lineage); design, deploy, and maintain Snowflake Cortex Search and semantic models for LLM-powered applications and AI initiatives; oversee development operations and deployments of the data platform; translate business requirements into well-structured, reusable data models; implement data quality testing, validation, and documentation; optimize query performance and transformation efficiency; establish and enforce data modeling standards, best practices, and design patterns; develop reusable analytics components.
Data Product & Stakeholder Engagement: partner with business stakeholders to define metrics, KPIs, and data definitions; ensure alignment between business needs and technical implementations; contribute to data products and semantic layers that support analytics and reporting; drive adoption and usability of data models across analytics and business teams.
Leadership & Team Responsibilities (Player-Coach): lead and mentor a small team of analytics/data engineers; set standards for dbt development, code reviews, testing, and documentation; contribute hands-on to development (60-70%) while guiding team delivery; drive team productivity, technical direction, and project execution; support Agile processes including backlog prioritization and sprint planning.
Coordination & Delivery: gather and refine business requirements for data initiatives; translate business needs into clear technical requirements and user stories; support deployment, environment management, and release processes; ensure high-quality delivery through testing, validation, and stakeholder alignment; maintain 5+ years of experience in analytics engineering, data engineering, or related roles; demonstrate strong SQL and data warehousing expertise; proficiency with dbt and Snowflake; experience in dimensional data modeling (star schema, marts, semantic layers); build and maintain analytics-ready data models and transformations; lead projects or mentor team members in a player-coach capacity; apply data quality, testing frameworks, and documentation practices; familiarity with Airflow/Astronomer or similar orchestration tools; experience with data pipelines, ETL/ELT processes, and cloud data platforms; strong analytical thinking and ability to connect data solutions to business outcomes; bachelor’s degree in IT, Business, or related field, or equivalent experience.
Nice to have
Experience in commercial real estate, geospatial data, or location-based analytics
Experience building data products or semantic layers for BI tools
Salary
The base salary is aligned with market data and is estimated between $93,000 to $120,000 with the ability to achieve additional compensation through bonus. This salary range reflects base compensation for the position across all US locations. Within this range, individual pay is determined by work location and other factors, including relevant education/training, experience, and internal equity.
Compliance & Workplace
Avison Young practices as an equal opportunity employer in all service locations worldwide. We are committed to building and maintaining a diverse workforce with uniformity in service excellence, commitment and integrity. The firm maintains a strict policy to ensure equal employment opportunities and does not discriminate based on race, color, religion, creed, age, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, citizenship, disability, marital and civil partnership/union status, protected veteran or military service status, or any other elements protected by law. Avison Young welcomes and encourages applications from people with disabilities. Accommodations are available upon request for candidates during the recruitment process. Information relating to accommodation needs will be addressed confidentially. Apply with us today!
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