Job Description

Contract job Position!
 

Job Title: Principal Data Engineer

Work Location: Alpharetta, GA
 

Role of Principal Data Engineer

We are in search of an innovative and experienced Principal Data Engineer with a passion for using advanced engineering practices to solve complex business problems. In this key role, you will harness your deep technical expertise to drive the development of top-tier software products. As a Principal Data Engineer, you will not only contribute directly to code but also serve as a mentor to junior engineers, sharing your technical insights and promoting a culture of continuous improvement and technical excellence within the team. You will report to an Engineering Manager, and your role will extend across multiple Agile teams, providing valuable contributions to ongoing projects and sprint objectives.

Key Responsibilities

• Hands-on Coding: Serve as an active, code-contributing member across various Agile teams, focusing on the successful delivery of sprint goals.
• Technical Expertise & Leadership: Bring deep technical knowledge in software development, spanning across programming languages, frameworks, and best practices. Lead by example, providing mentorship and guidance to junior engineers and ensuring that the team adheres to high coding standards and quality practices.
• Feature Implementation: Actively participate in the design and implementation of critical features and solutions, ensuring the code is clean, maintainable, and optimized for efficiency. Your contributions will play a key role in delivering complex technical solutions that align with business needs.
• Architectural Collaboration: Work closely with other Principal Engineers to define and evolve the system's architecture. Your role will include influencing the overall design and ensuring that technical decisions are aligned with long-term business objectives.
• Guiding Technical Solutions: Provide expert-level input on designing scalable, robust, and efficient software solutions. Your guidance will ensure that the team adheres to best practices while developing solutions that meet both business and technical requirements.
• Support Across Teams: Offer technical support and mentorship to multiple teams, helping them navigate technical challenges and make informed decisions. Your role will involve fostering an environment of continuous improvement, ensuring teams are focused on delivering high-quality software solutions.
• Staying Ahead of the Curve: Keep pace with emerging technologies, tools, and industry trends. Your responsibility will include evaluating these advancements and recommending new technologies or practices that could improve the team's development processes and capabilities.
   

Required Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience delivering data-intensive solutions using Agile methodologies.
• Proficiency in programming languages such as Python, Java, or Scala, commonly used in data engineering projects.
• Expertise in software engineering best practices, including unit testing, automation, design patterns, peer reviews, and continuous integration and delivery.
• Strong command of relational databases and proficiency in SQL for querying, transforming, and managing large datasets.
• Deep understanding of Data Structures and Object-Oriented Principles to ensure efficient and scalable solutions.
• Experience designing data models that cater to analytical needs and support business intelligence efforts.
• Ability to streamline and automate data pipeline processes, ensuring efficient data flow from source to destination.
• Experience with Hadoop for data storage and processing is beneficial, along with exposure to modern data platforms like Snowflake and Databricks.
• Several years of experience developing scalable, resilient, and highly available applications on cloud-native platforms. Familiarity with container orchestration tools like Docker, Kubernetes, OpenShift, and serverless architectures is crucial.
• Demonstrated ability to provide a clear technical vision, along with guidance and mentorship to data engineering teams.
• Thrive in a dynamic, fast-paced environment, with the ability to juggle multiple tasks while maintaining a high level of quality and attention to detail.
• BA/BS Degree in a relevant field, or equivalent practical experience.
   

Preferred Qualifications

• Open-Source Tools & Frameworks: Familiarity with popular open-source data engineering tools such as Spark, Kafka, Beam, Flink, Trino, Airflow, and DBT.
• Data Formats Knowledge: Experience working with various data formats such as Iceberg, Hive, Avro, Parquet, and JSON.
• Cloud Experience: Hands-on experience with cloud platforms such as AWS or Google Cloud, including cloud-native technologies and design patterns.
• Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Proficiency in tools like Terraform and CloudFormation to manage infrastructure programmatically.
• Strategic Influence: Experience in shaping or influencing the data strategy of teams or organizations, ensuring that data initiatives align with broader business objectives.