Director of Enterprise Analytics Engineering

Description

Job Highlights

Houston Grand Opera is building the data infrastructure that will power its next decade — and we're looking for the technical leader to design and build it. This is a hands-on Analytics Engineering role. We have a strong point of view on our stack: a grant-funded enterprise data warehouse on Snowflake, transformation and data modeling in dbt, and a modern BI and AI layer on top. You'll own that architecture from the ground up, lead a growing analytics team, and become a trusted advisor to executive leadership at one of the most decorated opera companies in the world — all in service of HGO's 2035 Strategic Vision.

If you're energized by translating business needs into well-modeled, trustworthy data, love building things that don't exist yet, and want your engineering work to have real cultural impact, we want to hear from you.

 

A Company Built by Many Crafts

Opera lives at the intersection of craft, precision, and human connection — and it takes far more than performers to bring it to life. We're looking for people across every part of our organization who bring curiosity, craft, and care to their work. If this role speaks to you but your background doesn't check every box, apply anyway — we're often looking for potential and perspective as much as a perfect resume match.

 

About the Houston Grand Opera

The mission of HGO is to enrich our diverse community through the art of opera. We do so by creating, curating, exploring, and producing outstanding experiences centered around the human voice. HGO has received a Tony Award, three Grammy Awards, and three Emmy Awards – we are the only opera company in the world to win all three honors.

Our strategic focus is two-fold: creating profoundly enriching experiences for our diverse audiences and clearly defining and positively promoting the HGO brand. We believe every team member enriches our organization by exposing a broad range of ways to understand and engage our community and discover, design, and deliver enriching experiences.

 

Compensation and Benefits

We offer robust benefits to full-time employees, including:

• Comprehensive and affordable health benefits.

• Generous paid time off.

• 403b retirement plan with employer match.

• Flexible work schedule.

• Professional development fund and opportunities.

• Discounted parking in the Theater District garage and nearby lots, plus easy access to Metro transportation.

• Free tickets to our mainstage and community productions and events.

 

Key Responsibilities

• Lead a landmark data initiative. Lead the technical execution of HGO's grant-funded project to build an integrated enterprise data warehouse on Snowflake, with dbt as the transformation and modeling layer, paired with a modern BI platform and AI capabilities — owning the analytics engineering architecture and acting as the primary liaison between our business needs and our technical implementation partners.

• Build and lead a growing team. Build the team to leverage the data infrastructure to meet the organization’s strategic and operational needs.

• Shape strategy at the executive level. Work directly with HGO's leadership to define, track, and report on the key metrics driving the organization's 2035 Strategic Vision and Campaign, turning data into narratives that support HGO's institutional growth.

• Drive revenue growth on two fronts. Partner with our Philanthropy team on donor pipeline analytics, campaign financial reporting, and predictive modeling for contributed revenue; partner with our Audiences team on ticket revenue forecasting, pricing optimization, and audience segmentation to grow earned revenue.

• Modernize how HGO works. Lead business architecture efforts across the organization — documenting current-state processes, defining future-state workflows, and identifying practical, high-value AI and technology opportunities grounded in real business needs.

 

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent combination of education and experience, with 7+ years in analytics engineering, data engineering, business intelligence, business architecture, or related roles.

• Demonstrated experience working in nonprofit arts and culture or other mission-driven organizations is highly desirable. Knowledge of opera or the performing arts is a plus, but not required — what matters most is a genuine appreciation for HGO's mission.

• Experience leading or playing a central role in business system implementations; direct experience building or migrating to a cloud data warehouse (Snowflake preferred) and rolling out an enterprise BI platform (e.g., Power BI, Tableau, Sigma) strongly preferred.

• Experience directing external consultants or implementation partners on a technical systems project.

• Familiarity with CRM, fundraising, finance, ticketing, or patron-related data and systems (Tessitura, Financial Edge NXT, or Fundriver experience a plus).

 

Required Skills

• Analytics Engineering expertise using dbt and SQL (required) — designing dimensional and semantic data models, writing production-grade transformations, and applying software engineering practices (version control, testing, documentation) to analytics code.

• Proficiency in Python and/or R is a plus.

• Strong track record gathering requirements, facilitating stakeholder discussions, and documenting business processes across cross-functional teams.

• Excellent communication and relationship-building skills — comfortable serving as a bridge between non-technical stakeholders and technical teams.

• Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities, with attention to both strategic vision and operational detail.

• Hands-on experience leading analytics engineering projects end to end — scoping the data model, building and reviewing the transformations yourself, and shipping reporting that stakeholders trust. You will manage a technical team, but the first requirement is that you can do the work.

• Comfort operating in a dynamic environment where systems, priorities, and underlying data are actively evolving.

 

Special Job Characteristics

This role sits at the intersection of strategy and execution: you'll be shaping long-term analytics capabilities for a nationally and internationally recognized cultural institution while also directing the hands-on work of a live, grant-funded systems implementation. Success in this role requires equal comfort in a boardroom with executive leadership and in a working session reviewing dbt models with your team and technical consultants.

 

Physical Demands

The physical demands described here are representative of those we consider important for an employee to successfully perform essential functions of this job: extended periods of sitting and performing tasks such as typing and using a computer mouse, with strong visual and auditory focus, occasional lifting (not exceeding 30 pounds), reaching for items, effective communication skills, and fine motor abilities, being mobile within the office for activities like attending performances, events, and meetings. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential functions.

 

Equal Opportunity

Houston Grand Opera is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all employees and to providing employees with a work environment free of discrimination and harassment. All employment decisions at HGO are based on business needs, job requirements and individual qualifications, without regard to race, color, religion or belief, national, social or ethnic origin, sex (including pregnancy), age, physical, mental or sensory disability, HIV Status, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, marital, civil union or domestic partnership status, past or present military service, family medical history or genetic information, family or parental status, or any other status protected by federal, state, or local laws or regulations. HGO will not tolerate discrimination or harassment based on any of these characteristics. HGO encourages applicants of all ages.