Data & Analytics Engineering Manager

About Understood Understood is a nonprofit helping millions of people navigate the realities of neurodivergence. We translate trusted knowledge about ADHD, dyslexia, and dyscalculia into clear guidance, practical tools, and community support — so people don’t just feel informed, they feel understood. Having a shared commitment to our values is a key factor in any hire we make. We have five core values: Continuously learn. Act with intention. Champion difference. Inspire change. Grow together. Come be part of an organization with an entrepreneurial spirit that’s helping to shape the world for difference. Together, we can build a world where everyone can reach their full potential. To learn more about Understood, please visit: www.understood.org . Who you are You're a hands-on data leader who gets energy from driving efficiency, improving delivery speed, and raising the bar for technical quality. You've built and operated production data pipelines and models yourself, but you know your highest leverage is setting direction, prioritizing effectively, and clearing roadblocks for your team. You're equally strong at coaching senior engineers toward broader ownership and developing early-career engineers' fundamentals. You challenge conventional thinking, helping engineers adopt more agile and iterative ways of working. Above all, you care deeply about ensuring the business has the reliable, timely, and actionable data it needs to succeed. This is a hybrid role that requires a minimum of three (3) days a week in our NYC office, with a focus on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. We are a Mac-based environment, and team members are provided a Mac laptop for their work. What you’ll do Team leadership and development Lead and grow the team. Manage a team of data and analytics engineers, from early-career to senior. Coach senior engineers toward broader ownership, build early-career fundamentals, and make sure every business domain has coverage. Stay hands-on where it counts. Review code, pressure-test data models, and pair with engineers on hard problems while keeping your focus on direction, priorities, and clearing roadblocks. Data delivery and operations Own the health of our data. Oversee domain-level pipelines, models, and data contracts to maintain quality and SLAs across our stack: dbt, dlt, Snowflake, Fivetran, Monte Carlo, Omni, and GitHub. Run the operational engine. Own the maintenance rotation, data quality alert triage, and intake of ad-hoc data requests from across the organization. Be our data modeling expert. Identify the dbt features we're not using enough, optimize orchestration and build performance, and set best practices in modeling, testing, and CI/CD. Strategy and partnership Turn business needs into roadmaps. Partner with cross-functional stakeholders to prioritize work, set milestones in Jira, and deliver on commitments. Connect the dots across domains. Spot dependencies early and…