Director of Data Engineering

Description

The company makes video games across many genres, including NBA 2K, BioShock, Borderlands, Mafia, Civilization, XCOM, WWE 2K, TopSpin and PGA TOUR 2K. Its games are built by nine studios, among them Visual Concepts, Firaxis Games, Hangar 13, Cat Daddy Games, 31st Union, Cloud Chamber, Gearbox, HB Studios and 2K SportsLab.

The team is looking for a Director of Data Engineering to design the data foundations behind the company's global games business. You will set the engineering strategy, telemetry standards and infrastructure that turn raw player activity into clear, usable insight.

The role is hybrid.

Responsibilities

• Set the long-term data engineering direction for Sports, Core and R&D, with a focus on high-scale telemetry and proactive data modeling.
• Move the infrastructure toward AI-assisted data processing, using tools such as Snowflake Cortex or Databricks Genie to automate and improve the data lifecycle.
• Own the cloud infrastructure budget and apply FinOps practices to track, manage and reduce data processing costs.
• Weigh technical debt against new work, making sure platform growth is affordable and returns measurable value.
• Lead the telemetry strategy from game-client events through to downstream analysis, and set standards that give high-signal, low-latency data across all titles and platforms.
• Design and scale an ML Ops framework so Data Scientists can deploy, monitor and improve models efficiently.
• Push for proactive modeling that anticipates player needs and business trends.
• Build strong working relationships with Studio Engineering, DevOps and Commercial leadership so data roadmaps match product goals.
• Work closely with the Director of Product at 2K Data to define and deliver a current, complete data strategy.
• Hire, mentor and grow data engineers, telemetry specialists and ML platform engineers.
• Build a culture of technical rigor, financial accountability and cross-team collaboration, and encourage bold technical thinking across the data teams.

Requirements

• Substantial experience in data or software engineering, especially with large distributed systems and telemetry.
• A record of leading engineering teams across several titles, including promoting engineers in role and in technical scope.
• Deep understanding of event-driven architecture and of designing schemas that capture how a product behaves.
• Experience building large-scale, global streaming data services that are scalable and sustainable, and that support real-time machine learning and features.
• Proven ability to manage large cloud budgets while balancing performance and cost.
• A history of winning over difficult technical partners and widening your team's remit.
• A willingness to learn from challenges and to drive change in individuals and in the organization.
• Experience working in matrixed, product-led organizations guided by product strategy and roadmaps.
• A record of raising the standard of global data operations, with solid knowledge of SRE or DevOps. You build the guardrails, automation and infrastructure that let systems scale reliably.
• Preferred: Full data science lifecycle experience, from exploratory analysis and feature engineering to model deployment and monitoring.
• Preferred: Software engineering background in full-stack development or systems architecture.
• Preferred: Hands-on work with Unreal Engine, Unity or a proprietary engine, particularly how they emit data.
• Preferred: Experience with Snowflake Cortex, Databricks Genie, Langchain, Rust or similar AI-integrated data platforms.
• Preferred: A passion for games and a focus on the player.

Conditions

Hybrid work.

Applicants are contacted only through 2K.com email addresses. The company and its studios do not use instant messaging or personal email to reach candidates or run interviews.

The company is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes people of all backgrounds.