Sr. Staff Data Architect, CNN Data Analytics, Science & Insights

Welcome to Warner Bros. Discovery… the stuff dreams are made of.

Who We Are… When we say, “the stuff dreams are made of,” we’re not just referring to the world of wizards, dragons and superheroes, or even to the wonders of Planet Earth. Behind WBD’s vast portfolio of iconic content and beloved brands, are the storytellers bringing our characters to life, the creators bringing them to your living rooms and the dreamers creating what’s next…

From brilliant creatives, to technology trailblazers, across the globe, WBD offers career defining opportunities, thoughtfully curated benefits, and the tools to explore and grow into your best selves. Here you are supported, here you are celebrated, here you can thrive.

We are CNN. The world's most essential and engaging source of digital news. We are in the midst of rapid transformation and need our next generation of innovators, makers, and dreamers who will lead and drive our growth. We aim to make the world a better, more connected place.

Your New Role...

We are seeking a visionary and hands-on Sr. Staff Data Architect to join our team and play a pivotal role in shaping the future of our data ecosystem. This is a strategic leadership role responsible for designing the blueprint of our next-generation data platform. You will lead the design and evolution of our gold semantic layer, drive metrics standardization across the enterprise, and ensure our data architecture is scalable, reliable, and future-proof. You will be a technical authority and a mentor, guiding the team in building robust data models for audience segmentation, content analytics, product analytics, growth analytics, and more. If you are passionate about building foundational data systems from the ground up and want to have a massive impact on our transformation into a data-driven organization, this is the role for you!

Your Role Accountabilities...

• Lead the design, development, and evolution of our enterprise data architecture on Snowflake and data models framework in dbt, ensuring they meet current and future business needs for scalability, performance, and cost-effectiveness

• Design the evolution of the semantic layer, creating a centralized, reliable, and well-governed source of truth for all key business metrics and entities (e.g., user, content, subscription).

• Establish and evangelize company-wide standards for data definitions, metrics, and KPIs. Create the frameworks and governance models that ensure consistency and trust in data across all teams

• Oversee and contribute to the end-to-end data modeling lifecycle, from conceptual and logical design to physical implementation. Design data models for complex domains like audience segmentation, content performance, and revenue attribution.

• Build and lead a Data Center of Excellence, defining and documenting best practices, design patterns, and standards for data engineering, data quality, and data governance.

• Design a comprehensive data quality and observability framework using tools like Monte Carlo and dbt tests, ensuring proactive monitoring, alerting, and root cause analysis for all critical analytics data pipelines

• Provide technical data leadership on projects involving instrumentation for new product launches, customer data platform, experimentation, analytics, and data services APIs.

• Act as a key technical mentor for analytics engineers and analysts on the team. Collaborate with and influence cross-functional stakeholders to ensure data strategies are aligned with business objectives and that our platforms can support advanced measurement and segmentation.

Qualifications & Experience...

• 8+ years of experience in data engineering, data architecture, or a related field, with at least 3 years in a senior architectural role.

• Deep expertise in cloud data warehousing, specifically Snowflake. You have hands-on experience with performance tuning, security, cost optimization, and data modeling strategies at scale.

• Strong proficiency with the modern data stack, including hands-on experience building and orchestrating data pipelines with dbt and implementing data quality/observability with Monte Carlo or similar tools.

• Experience with event data collection, ideally with Snowplow or a comparable solution. You understand the challenges and best practices for clickstream data instrumentation and processing.

• Proven experience designing and building semantic layers or metric stores to create a single source of truth for business intelligence.

• Strong understanding of how to architect data models for optimal consumption in BI tools. You are proficient with platforms like Looker, Tableau, or Domo, and can translate business reporting needs into efficient and scalable data structures

• Exceptional strategic thinking, communication, and presentation skills. You can articulate complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders and build consensus around a long-term vision.

• A builder's mindset. You are not afraid to roll up your sleeves and write code, review pull requests, and lead by example.

• Experience in the media or publishing industry is a strong plus.

Nice to Haves:

• Experience with Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) like Segment, Tealium, Census, or Blueconic

• Familiarity with building and exposing data via RESTful APIs.

• Experience with data orchestration tools like Airflow or Dagster.

• Knowledge of data privacy and compliance regulations (e.g., GDPR, CCPA)

How We Get Things Done…

This last bit is probably the most important! Here at WBD, our guiding principles are the core values by which we operate and are central to how we get things done. You can find them at www.wbd.com/guiding-principles/ along with some insights from the team on what they mean and how they show up in their day to day. We hope they resonate with you and look forward to discussing them during your interview.

Championing Inclusion at WBD Warner Bros. Discovery embraces the opportunity to build a workforce that reflects a wide array of perspectives, backgrounds and experiences. Being an equal opportunity employer means that we take seriously our responsibility to consider qualified candidates on the basis of merit, without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, mental or physical disability, and genetic information, marital status, citizenship status, military status, protected veteran status or any other category protected by law.

If you’re a qualified candidate with a disability and you require adjustments or accommodations during the job application and/or recruitment process, please visit our [accessibility page](accessibility page) for instructions to submit your request.

In compliance with local law, we are disclosing the compensation, or a range thereof, for roles in locations where legally required. Actual salaries will vary based on several factors, including but not limited to external market data, internal equity, location, skill set, experience, and/or performance. Base pay is just one component of Warner Bros. Discovery’s total compensation package for employees. Pay Range: $136,500.00 - $253,500.00 salary per year. Other rewards may include annual bonuses, short- and long-term incentives, and program-specific awards. In addition, Warner Bros. Discovery provides a variety of benefits to employees, including health insurance coverage, an employee wellness program, life and disability insurance, a retirement savings plan, paid holidays and sick time and vacation.