Senior Principal Data Engineer

This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Senior Principal Data Engineer based in the United States.

The Senior Principal Data Engineer will serve as a senior technical leader responsible for shaping enterprise-scale data architecture and engineering strategy.
You’ll design secure, scalable data platforms that support analytical, operational, and AI-driven workloads across multiple business domains.
The role combines hands-on architecture and engineering with technical governance, standards development, and strategic decision-making.
You’ll champion modern cloud technologies, reusable frameworks, automation, and AI-assisted engineering practices to improve productivity and platform quality.
The position also provides significant technical influence, guiding complex initiatives and mentoring senior and principal-level engineers without direct people-management responsibility.
You’ll collaborate closely with Product, Data Science, Analytics, Data Governance, Enterprise Architecture, and Infrastructure teams.
This is a fully remote U.S. opportunity offering the chance to shape long-term data capabilities in a highly collaborative and innovation-focused environment.

• Design and evolve enterprise-scale data platform architectures that support analytical, operational, and AI workloads.

• Define reusable engineering frameworks, reference architectures, design patterns, and technical standards focused on scalability, security, performance, reliability, and maintainability.

• Establish long-term platform strategies and influence technical direction across multiple business domains and engineering teams.

• Lead architecture reviews, technical design sessions, and engineering governance for strategic and highly complex initiatives.

• Partner with engineering leadership to define technology roadmaps and promote consistent engineering practices.

• Design scalable ETL/ELT frameworks, enterprise data pipelines, and conceptual, logical, and physical data models.

• Develop reusable, metadata-driven data integration frameworks and establish standards for data modeling, metadata management, lineage, and performance optimization.

• Champion AI-assisted software development and evaluate emerging AI coding assistants and engineering productivity tools.

• Develop and promote AI-powered engineering accelerators, including code generation, automated documentation, code-review assistance, test generation, data-quality validation, and engineering copilots.

• Provide technical leadership across cloud and platform technologies including Databricks, Azure, AWS, Docker, Kubernetes, Python, SQL, Git, REST APIs, and CI/CD.

• Design secure, governed data platforms incorporating metadata, lineage, role- and attribute-based access controls, observability, and other enterprise controls.

• Establish engineering standards covering code quality, testing, automation, observability, reusable components, and operational excellence.

• Mentor senior and principal engineers and promote a culture of technical excellence, continuous learning, collaboration, and innovation.

• Collaborate with Product Management, Data Science, Analytics, Data Governance, Enterprise Architecture, and Infrastructure teams to deliver strategic data capabilities.

• Serve as a trusted technical advisor to engineering and business leadership, influencing complex decisions through expertise and collaboration rather than direct authority.

• Drive improvements in platform scalability, reliability, security, engineering productivity, reusable architecture, and adoption of AI-enabled development practices.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related technical discipline; a Master’s degree is preferred.

• 7+ years of experience in Data Engineering, Software Engineering, Data Platform Engineering, or a closely related field.

• Extensive experience designing and implementing enterprise-scale cloud data platforms and data architectures.

• Expert-level programming skills in Python and SQL.

• Strong expertise in conceptual, logical, and physical data modeling.

• Hands-on experience with Databricks, Azure, AWS, Docker, Kubernetes, Git, REST APIs, and CI/CD environments.

• Strong understanding of software architecture, design patterns, distributed systems, and secure data platform design.

• Experience establishing engineering standards, governance practices, reusable frameworks, and technical roadmaps.

• Demonstrated ability to lead highly complex technical initiatives through influence, collaboration, and technical credibility rather than direct people management.

• Excellent communication, stakeholder-management, presentation, and technical leadership skills.

• Strong analytical thinking, problem-solving ability, initiative, and results orientation.

• Demonstrated ability to mentor experienced engineers and foster knowledge sharing and engineering excellence.

• Experience working collaboratively across Product, Data Science, Analytics, Governance, Architecture, and Infrastructure functions.

• Preferred experience in pharmaceutical, biotechnology, healthcare, or another regulated industry.

• Preferred experience with Databricks Unity Catalog, enterprise data governance, metadata management, data lineage, and observability.

• Experience with Infrastructure as Code tools such as Terraform, Bicep, or comparable technologies is preferred.

• Experience applying Generative AI to software engineering or data engineering is preferred.

• Commitment to continuous learning, adaptability, inclusive collaboration, clear communication, and innovation.

Benefits

• Annual base salary range of $150,900–$195,900, with actual compensation determined by factors including skills, experience, education, certifications, training, and work location.

• Eligibility for an annual bonus plan for applicable non-commercial roles.

• Eligibility for incentive compensation for applicable commercial roles.

• Discretionary equity award opportunities.

• Employee Stock Purchase Plan.

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance.

• 401(k) retirement plan.

• Flexible Spending Account (FSA) and Health Savings Account (HSA) options.

• Life insurance.

• Paid time off.

• Wellness benefits and programs.

• Fully remote U.S. work arrangement.

• Opportunities to influence enterprise technology strategy and work with modern cloud, data, and AI technologies.

• Opportunities for technical leadership, mentoring, continuous learning, and professional development.