Sr. GCP Data Engineer - Lead / IC

Role: Sr. GCP Data Engineer

Location: New Jersey/ New York

Role Summary

This is Client-Facing, Onshore role, Senior GCP Data Engineering Lead will be responsible for leading large-scale cloud data modernization, migration, and analytics initiatives on Google Cloud Platform (GCP). The role requires strong hands-on expertise in BigQuery, Airflow/Cloud Composer, Python development, SQL optimization, and enterprise data migration programs. The candidate will act as the technical anchor for the engagement, partnering closely with business stakeholders, architects, QA teams, and offshore delivery teams to ensure successful execution of data engineering and analytics solutions.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end design and delivery of GCP-based data engineering and migration solutions.
• Design, develop, and optimize scalable data pipelines using Cloud Composer (Airflow) and Python.
• Build and manage enterprise data warehouses and analytics solutions using BigQuery.
• Perform complex SQL troubleshooting, query optimization, and data validation across large datasets.
• Drive data migration initiatives from legacy platforms to GCP while ensuring data integrity and regulatory compliance.
• Conduct data analysis to identify quality issues, transformation requirements, and optimization opportunities.
• Collaborate with business users, data architects, and cross-functional teams to translate requirements into scalable solutions.
• Review code, enforce engineering best practices, and provide technical leadership to development teams.
• Coordinate with QA teams to define test strategies, perform data reconciliation, and support defect resolution.
• Support production deployments, troubleshooting, performance tuning, and operational excellence initiatives.

Required Skills & Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in Data Engineering, Analytics, and Cloud Data Platforms.
• Strong hands-on experience with Google BigQuery.
• Strong hands-on experience with Cloud Composer / Apache Airflow using Python.
• Advanced SQL development, debugging, and performance tuning expertise.
• Experience in large-scale Data Migration and Data Modernization programs.
• Strong understanding of data modeling, ETL/ELT frameworks, and data warehousing concepts.
• Experience working with structured and semi-structured datasets.
• Knowledge of GCP services such as Cloud Storage, Dataflow, Dataproc, IAM, Monitoring, and Logging.
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines and DevOps practices in cloud environments.
• Understanding of Agile delivery methodologies.

Preferred Qualification.

• Experience in Banking, Financial Services, or Wealth Management domains.
• Exposure to Data Quality, Data Governance, and Metadata Management frameworks.
• Knowledge of QA processes, test case creation, defect management, and data validation techniques.
• GCP Professional Data Engineer Certification preferred.
• Experience with migration from Teradata, Hadoop, Oracle, SQL Server, or other legacy platforms to GCP.

Soft Skills & Delivery Expectations

• Excellent stakeholder management and client-facing communication skills.
• Ability to lead distributed onshore-offshore teams.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities.
• High accountability for delivery outcomes.
• Experience managing multiple workstreams within a fast-paced delivery environment.