Data Platform Engineer

About Chicago Public Media

Chicago Public Media is one of the nation’s largest local nonprofit news organizations. Home to WBEZ 91.5FM, the Chicago Sun-Times, and Vocalo. Chicago Public Media reaches more than 3.3 million people weekly across broadcast, print, and digital platforms. As a mission-driven organization, we aspire to be the most trusted news source Chicagoans turn to for understanding the people, events, and ideas shaping our community.

Chicago Public Media is a 100% community-funded newsroom powered by nearly 97,000 members whose support makes our journalism possible. . This sustained community investment helped drive nationally recognized work in 2025, including 29 awards from esteemed organizations, including the Public Media Journalists Association, the Edward R. Murrow Awards, and the National Association of Black Journalists.

We believe independent journalism is essential to a healthy democracy and that access to objective, fact-based news is a right for every citizen. We serve the public interest by creating diverse content that informs and enriches our community, supported by a dedicated staff of approximately 250 professionals.

For more information, please see the Chicago Public Media Annual Report.

The Opportunity

We’re looking for a versatile Data Platform Engineer to join our Enterprise Systems team. This role is ideal for someone who thrives on solving complex data problems, enjoys working across systems, and can bridge the gap between infrastructure and analytics. You'll help design, build, and maintain the pipelines and tools that ensure our organizational data flows reliably and is ready for use in critical platforms like our CRM, ESP, donation systems, and analytics environments.

You’ll work alongside the Senior Engineering Manager who will help define the architecture and systems, while you execute, troubleshoot, and improve those systems with increasing ownership over time.

General Responsibilities

• Build and maintain ETL pipelines using Python and SQL to move data between internal systems and external platforms (e.g., CRMs, ESPs).

• Ensure data reliability and integrity across systems and develop automated validation and alerting.

• Troubleshoot issues across platforms and contribute to root cause analysis and long-term solutions.

• Collaborate with team members and stakeholders to understand business requirements and translate them into scalable technical solutions.

• Participate in monitoring, performance tuning, and refactoring of existing data flows.

• Help maintain and extend internal tools that support data operations and stakeholder reporting needs.

• Document systems, processes, and logic to ensure knowledge sharing and continuity.

Qualifications

• 3–5 years of experience in a data engineering, systems integration, or similar role.

• Proficient in Python (Or Equivalent) and SQL, with experience building maintainable ETL pipelines.

• Experience working with relational databases (e.g., SQL Server, Postgres).

• Comfortable navigating and integrating with REST APIs and working with cloud-based services.

• Experience working with CRM or ESP platforms (e.g., Salesforce, RevCRM, Marketing Cloud, EveryAction, etc.) is a plus.

• Strong problem-solving skills with the ability to debug across systems.

• Excellent communication and documentation habits.

• Comfortable navigating and troubleshooting legacy pipelines and code, with a focus on understanding historical context before making changes.

Compensation

The expected pay range for this position is $101,810.00 - $120,000.00 per ANNUM.

Chicago Public Media provides pay ranges representing its good faith estimate of what the organization reasonably expects to pay for a position. The pay offered to a selected candidate will be determined based on factors such as (but not limited to the scope and responsibilities of the position, the qualifications of the selected candidate, departmental budget availability, internal equity, geographical location, and external market pay for comparable jobs.

Working at Chicago Public Media

At Chicago Public Media, we care deeply about our employees as we know attracting, developing, and growing talent is key to our success and enhancing our impact.

Our culture is one where collaboration, diversity of ideas, and innovation are encouraged. We value colleagues who will enhance our culture by bringing new ideas, divergent experiences, and talents to our dynamic workplace.

At Chicago Public Media we believe dedication to a great workplace includes supporting our employees and their families. As a result, we provide a broad and generous benefits package for employees at hire and in the years to come.

Our benefits include a competitive salary and benefits package which includes medical, dental, vision, vacation, holidays, life insurance, disability coverage, retirement savings, and a commuter benefits plan.

Chicago Public Media is an Equal Opportunity Employer, and we actively seek and welcome people from all backgrounds, orientations, and life experiences to join our team.

The essential functions described above are not all-inclusive and are not intended to create any contractual or other legal commitment. Chicago Public Media may change the content or format of this job at any time in its sole and exclusive discretion without notice.