Azure Data Engineer

Job Description: Azure Data Engineer (Microsoft Fabric) – Direct Hire, Hybrid (Columbus, OH)

Position Type: Direct Hire (W-2)

Location: Hybrid – 3 days/week in-person in Columbus, Ohio office

Reports To: Director, Application Services

Travel: Up to 5%

Work Authorization: This role is not available for C2C, Visa Sponsorship, Third Parties, or Student Visa candidates. U.S. work authorization required.

Purpose

As a member of the Technology team, you will serve as the hands-on technical owner of the enterprise Microsoft Fabric data platform in our client’s Central Ohio office. You will be responsible for designing, building, and operating data pipelines within Microsoft Fabric, supporting centralized data ingestion, transformation, and analytics readiness across the organization.

As an individual contributor and Data Engineering owner, you will play a key role in shaping a scalable and well-designed data environment, applying strong engineering judgment and pragmatic architectural thinking. Working within the Application Services team, you will partner closely with application teams, our business intelligence team, and business stakeholders to ensure data quality, reliability, and sustainability as the data platform matures.

Essential Functions

• Design, build, and maintain scalable data ingestion and transformation pipelines using Microsoft Fabric and Azure-native tooling (Data Factory in Fabric, Dataflows Gen2, Notebooks, Spark jobs).
• Lead technical execution of legacy data migrations into the enterprise Fabric environment.
• Implement data quality controls, validation routines, and monitoring to ensure trusted enterprise data.
• Optimize data pipelines and platform performance for reliability, scalability, and cost efficiency (Delta table maintenance, partitioning, capacity monitoring).
• Integrate and onboard new data domains in partnership with application and business teams.
• Support analytics and reporting use cases by preparing high-quality data assets for Power BI and downstream consumption (semantic models, curated datasets).
• Collaborate with Application Services, Infrastructure, Security, and external partners on data initiatives.
• Document data pipelines, standards, and operational practices to support sustainability and operational readiness.

Expectations

• Demonstrates and maintains a positive, professional manner; manages time efficiently and effectively; provides leadership as a role model to promote a team approach; collaborates and participates in policy creation and appropriate problem-solving methods.
• Completes all annual education requirements timely, including but not limited to Compliance, Privacy, Security, and HIPAA training; exhibits behavior as set forth by the Code of Conduct in the performance of duties.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, or equivalent professional experience.

Experience

• Minimum 5 years of hands-on data engineering experience building enterprise-scale data pipelines.
• Must have experience working with Microsoft Fabric and Microsoft Purview.
• Experience implementing or working within layered data architectures (e.g., raw/staging/curated or medallion pattern) in a modern cloud data platform.
• Experience developing data solutions using Python (PySpark) or similar data engineering languages; strong SQL proficiency required.
• Experience contributing to or evolving data architecture standards in collaboration with application, integration, or platform teams (preferred).
• Experience serving as the primary or sole data engineering resource in a small or maturing data organization (preferred).
• Experience supporting healthcare, housing, or nonprofit data environments (preferred).

Skills

• Strong experience with Microsoft Azure data services and data integration tooling (Azure Data Factory, Synapse, Databricks, or equivalent).
• Proficiency in SQL and data transformation frameworks.
• Familiarity with data architecture principles and analytics enablement.
• Familiarity with Microsoft Fabric concepts including OneLake, lakehouse patterns, and downstream semantic modeling considerations for analytics consumption.
• Experience working with Microsoft Power BI (dataset preparation, semantic modeling).
• Demonstrated ability to make pragmatic data design decisions, including data modeling, pipeline patterns, and integration approaches, in environments without a dedicated data architect.
• Excellent communication, comprehension, and interpersonal skills.
• Must have the ability to speak, read, write, and understand English, and the ability to make self-understood.
• Strong understanding of data quality, governance, DLP, and security best practices.

Licensure / Certifications (Preferred)

• Microsoft Azure Data Engineering certifications (e.g., DP-203: Data Engineering on Microsoft Azure) or Fabric Data Engineer Associate (DP-600).

Work Environment & Requirements

• Hybrid schedule: 3 days per week in-person at our client’s Columbus, Ohio office.
• Occasional travel up to 5% may be required for meetings, training, or project work.
• This is a direct hire (W-2) position. No C2C, no third-party agencies, no visa sponsorship, and no Student Visa candidates will be considered.