Director, Data Engineering & Analytics

About Second Harvest of Silicon Valley

Founded in 1974, Second Harvest of Silicon Valley is one of the largest food banks in the nation and a trusted nonprofit leader in ending local hunger. The organization distributes nutritious groceries through a network of nearly 350 partners at drive-thru and walk-up sites across Santa Clara and San Mateo counties. Due to the prohibitively expensive cost of living in Silicon Valley, the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the rise in inflation, Second Harvest is now serving an average of about 500,000 people every month. Second Harvest also connects people to federal nutrition programs and other food resources, and advocates for anti- hunger policies on the local, state and national levels. To learn more about how Second Harvest is responding to the incredible amount of need in Silicon Valley, visit shfb.org.

 

About the Position

Second Harvest is building a small enterprise data function at a moment when the organization’s operations, programs and systems are becoming more connected and more consequential. The director will inherit work already underway and turn it into a durable internal capability.

This is a builder-leader role. Roughly half of the job is setting direction, decision rights, delivery discipline and team standards; the other half is hands-on review and problem solving across architecture, models, SQL, Python, quality controls and production issues. The person in this role will have the mandate to create a trusted source-to-decision system across food flow, transportation, programs, partners, finance, fundraising and workforce data—without building an oversized central team or turning the function into a dashboard factory.

 

This job might be for you if:

• You are passionate about ending hunger.
• You enjoy moving from an executive prioritization discussion to a data-model review then to a warehouse or program workflow conversation in the same day
• You are comfortable leading a small core team which guides a “federation” of departments to enable enterprise data analytics
• You are energized by building on existing products and systems while navigating real-world constraints, stakeholder needs, and delivery commitments.

 

What you will own (Responsibilities)

• Build and lead a small, engineering-led enterprise data and analytics team, with clear roles, standards, coaching and accountability.
• Own the enterprise data product portfolio and backlog. Keep focus tight—normally no more than three material products in active build—and make tradeoffs visible to leadership.
• Set architecture and engineering standards across ingestion, transformation, dimensional modeling, semantic models, testing, documentation, lineage, release and support.
• Personally review material data models, Python, SQL, business rules, Power BI semantic models and control designs; step into troubleshooting when accuracy or delivery is at risk.
• Establish metric certification and reconciliation practices so leaders can trace a reported number to its definition, source, transformation logic, owner and known limitations.
• Create the operating model for data: intake, prioritization, business ownership, acceptance, release, issue routing, change control and lifecycle management.
• Partner with IT on platform administration, security, identity, deployment, monitoring and reliability. Own data product outcomes without duplicating IT’s infrastructure responsibilities.
• Partner with business owners on priorities, definitions, validation and adoption. Keep metric meaning and operational action with the business while the data team owns engineering rigor.
• Manage external data partners against bounded scopes, acceptance criteria, documentation standards and transfer requirements; reduce avoidable dependency over time.
• Build trust through visible delivery, plain-language communication and disciplined follow-through—not through technical theater or architecture for its own sake.

 

What success looks like year 1

• First 90 days: Accept the current handoff, validate the architecture and priority backlog, confirm owners and decision rights, publish minimum engineering and metric-certification standards, and establish a weekly delivery and quality cadence.
• By six months: Put the first governed data products into reliable operation with documented definitions, automated checks, release controls, support routing and business acceptance; retire or reduce duplicative manual reporting where appropriate.
• By twelve months: Operate a credible internal data function with a realistic roadmap, clear business ownership, stable vendor boundaries, measurable adoption and a team capable of sustaining the products it owns.

 

The ideal candidate will possess the following professional qualifications:

• Eight or more years building and operating data platforms, analytics engineering or enterprise reporting capabilities
• At least three years of people leadership and management experience.
• Demonstrated experience leading a durable cross-functional data program.
• A technical foundation strong enough to review and challenge Python, SQL, dimensional models, pipeline design, orchestration, semantic models, quality controls and production support practices.
• Evidence that you have built a data capability inside a non-technology organization where systems, workflows and ownership were imperfect—not only inside a mature software company.
• Experience translating operational or program goals into a small portfolio of governed data products with explicit measures of adoption and business value.
• Strong judgment about where standardization is essential and where local flexibility is appropriate.
• The ability to earn trust with executives, frontline operators, analysts, engineers, IT partners and vendors without obscuring tradeoffs or overpromising.
• A commitment to Second Harvest’s mission and respect for the people represented in the data.

 

Additional Preferred Qualifications

• Azure, Microsoft Fabric, Power BI and modern lakehouse or warehouse experience.
• Experience with ERP, CRM, workforce, transportation, logistics, warehouse, grants or human-services data.
• Experience in food distribution, supply chain, healthcare delivery, government or a mission-driven organization with complex field operations.
• A bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience. We value demonstrated capability over a specific academic pedigree.

Work Sample Assessment

Finalists for this position may be asked to provide a sample of work product through completion of a 90-minute case study or online assessment.

 

Reports To

Chief Operating Officer

Location

Second Harvest of Silicon Valley, Curtner Warehouse, 750 Curtner Ave. San Jose 95124.

This is a hybrid position. Specifics of work location will depend on department need.

Starting in March 2027, this position will be required to work onsite at our new central hub, 4553 N. 1st Street, San Jose 95134 every Tuesday and Thursday.

An employee’s regular remote work site should be within

driving distance of one of Second Harvest’s locations and must be within the state of California.

Hours

Full-Time Exempt 40 hours/week, with some evening and weekend work as necessary.

Compensation

$162,954 - $191,710 is the starting wage range for this position. The hourly/salary wage offer will be commensurate with skills and experience. Outstanding and generous health benefits program, 4-5 weeks of Flexible Time Off (vacation and sick), eleven paid holidays, and retirement plan.