Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Journey Engineer
💰 $95,000 - $145,000
🎯 Role Definition
As a Journey Engineer, you are the architect and builder of our customer's digital experience. You will leverage your technical expertise in marketing automation platforms, data management, and personalization technologies to create seamless, relevant, and impactful omnichannel journeys. This is a hands-on-keyboard role that sits at the intersection of marketing, data science, and engineering. You will be responsible for the technical implementation, execution, and continuous optimization of automated campaigns that guide customers through their lifecycle, from acquisition and onboarding to engagement and retention. Your work will directly influence key business metrics and shape how our customers perceive and interact with our brand.
📈 Career Progression
Typical Career Path
Entry Point From:
- Marketing Technologist
- Data Analyst (with a marketing focus)
- CRM Specialist or Manager
- Email Developer / Automation Specialist
Advancement To:
- Senior Journey Engineer / Lead Journey Architect
- Marketing Technology (MarTech) Architect
- Manager, Marketing Automation & Operations
- Product Manager, Personalization & Growth
Lateral Moves:
- Customer Experience (CX) Strategist
- Data Scientist, Marketing Analytics
- Product Analyst
Core Responsibilities
Primary Functions
- Design, build, test, and deploy complex, multi-step, and cross-channel customer journeys within our marketing automation platform (e.g., Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Adobe Journey Optimizer, Braze).
- Translate marketing and business requirements into technical specifications and functional, automated communication workflows.
- Utilize SQL and other data query languages to segment audiences, define entry/exit criteria, and create dynamic decision splits within customer journeys.
- Develop and implement personalization strategies using dynamic content, scripting languages (like AMPscript or Liquid), and data-driven triggers to deliver highly relevant user experiences.
- Integrate our Customer Data Platform (CDP) and other data sources with our journey orchestration engine to ensure a unified and real-time view of the customer.
- Architect and manage the data flows between various marketing technology platforms, ensuring data integrity, accuracy, and timely synchronization for journey activation.
- Collaborate closely with marketing strategists, product managers, and creative teams to ensure journey logic and content align with campaign objectives and brand guidelines.
- Set up, manage, and analyze A/B and multivariate tests for journey paths, timing, channels, and content to drive continuous performance improvement.
- Monitor the health and performance of all active customer journeys, proactively identifying, troubleshooting, and resolving technical issues, bugs, or data discrepancies.
- Develop comprehensive documentation for all journeys, including flow diagrams, data requirements, decision logic, and integration points.
- Act as the technical subject matter expert on our journey orchestration tools, providing guidance and best practices to marketing and other stakeholders.
- Implement and manage API connections to trigger transactional messages and enable real-time journey interactions based on user behavior.
- Ensure all automated communications and data handling practices comply with legal regulations such as GDPR, CCPA, and CAN-SPAM.
- Analyze journey performance data and create detailed reports and dashboards to provide actionable insights and recommendations for optimization.
- Partner with the data engineering team to define event-tracking requirements and ensure necessary data points are captured across our digital properties.
- Evaluate and recommend new marketing technologies or platform features that can enhance our customer journey capabilities.
- Build reusable journey templates and modules to increase the speed and efficiency of new campaign launches.
- Conduct quality assurance testing on all journey components to ensure flawless execution and a positive customer experience.
- Manage audience suppression lists and communication frequency rules to prevent audience fatigue and maintain a healthy subscriber base.
- Lead the technical execution of lifecycle marketing programs, including onboarding series, re-engagement campaigns, and churn prevention flows.
- Work within an agile framework, participating in sprint planning, daily stand-ups, and retrospectives to manage workload and deliver projects on time.
Secondary Functions
- Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis.
- Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap.
- Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements.
- Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team.
Required Skills & Competencies
Hard Skills (Technical)
- Marketing Automation Platforms: Deep, hands-on expertise in at least one major enterprise platform such as Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC) Journey Builder, Adobe Journey Optimizer (AJO), or Braze Canvas.
- SQL: Advanced proficiency in SQL for complex audience segmentation, data extraction, and analysis from relational databases and data warehouses (e.g., Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift).
- Scripting Languages: Experience with platform-specific scripting languages like AMPscript (SFMC), Liquid (Braze), or Handlebars.js for dynamic content and personalization.
- Customer Data Platforms (CDP): Practical experience working with CDPs like Segment, mParticle, or Tealium for audience building and data activation.
- APIs: Solid understanding of REST and SOAP APIs for integrating marketing platforms and triggering real-time communications.
- Data Warehousing: Familiarity with cloud data warehouse concepts and architectures.
- HTML/CSS: Foundational knowledge of HTML and CSS, particularly for troubleshooting and enabling dynamic content within email templates.
- Data Analysis & Visualization: Ability to analyze campaign performance data and use tools like Tableau, Power BI, or Google Analytics to create insightful reports.
- Python/PySpark: Experience with Python or PySpark for data manipulation and automation is a significant plus.
- Agile Methodologies: Experience working with project management tools (like Jira or Asana) in an agile or scrum environment.
Soft Skills
- Analytical Mindset: A strong ability to dissect problems, analyze data, and use evidence to make strategic decisions.
- Problem-Solving: Proactive and tenacious in identifying and resolving technical challenges and system errors.
- Collaboration: Excellent team player with the ability to work effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
- Communication: Can clearly and concisely explain complex technical concepts to a non-technical audience.
- Attention to Detail: Meticulous and thorough, with a passion for quality assurance and delivering flawless execution.
- Strategic Thinking: Ability to see the bigger picture and connect technical execution to overarching business goals.
- Adaptability: Thrives in a fast-paced, evolving technology landscape and can manage multiple priorities effectively.
Education & Experience
Educational Background
Minimum Education:
- Bachelor's Degree in a quantitative, computational, or marketing-related field. Relevant professional experience may be substituted.
Preferred Education:
- Master's Degree in a related field.
- Certifications in relevant marketing platforms (e.g., Salesforce Certified Marketing Cloud Email Specialist/Developer, Adobe Certified Expert).
Relevant Fields of Study:
- Computer Science
- Information Systems
- Marketing Analytics
- Data Science
- Statistics
Experience Requirements
Typical Experience Range: 3-7 years of hands-on experience in marketing automation, marketing operations, or a related technical role.
Preferred:
- Proven track record of building and managing complex, automated customer journeys that delivered measurable business results.
- Direct, hands-on-keyboard experience with an enterprise-level marketing automation platform and/or a Customer Data Platform (CDP).
- Demonstrable experience using SQL to query and manipulate large datasets for marketing campaigns.
- Experience in a high-growth tech, e-commerce, or subscription-based business environment is highly desirable.