Principal Data Engineer

Role Overview

The Principal Data Engineer is a senior technical authority responsible for defining the organization's data architecture, setting long-term technical strategy, and solving the most complex data engineering challenges. This role influences company-wide data standards, mentors senior engineers, and partners with executive and cross-functional leaders to ensure data platforms scale with the business.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and evolve the long-term data architecture and technical vision
• Design highly scalable, resilient data platforms and pipelines
• Set standards for data modeling, reliability, observability, and governance
• Lead complex, high-risk technical initiatives and migrations
• Serve as the escalation point for critical data incidents and root cause analysis
• Influence tool selection and technology adoption across the data stack
• Mentor Staff and Senior Data Engineers and elevate engineering excellence
• Partner with leadership to align data strategy with business goals
• Ensure data platforms support analytics, ML, and product use cases at scale

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field (or equivalent experience)
• 10+ years of experience in data engineering or related disciplines
• Expert-level SQL and strong proficiency in Python or similar languages
• Deep experience with data warehousing, data lakes, and distributed systems
• Proven track record of designing and operating large-scale data platforms
• Strong systems thinking and architectural decision-making skills

Preferred Experience

• Cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP)
• Streaming and real-time systems (Kafka, Spark, Flink, etc.)
• Advanced data governance, security, and compliance practices
• Supporting ML, AI, or product-led data platforms
• Influencing technical direction without direct managerial authority