Lead Data Engineer & Architect

Tampa, FL

Type

Permanent

Pay Rate

Salary

$140000 - $155000

Job Title: Lead Data Engineer / Data Architect

Location: Cary, NC (Primary)

Additional Locations: Bridgewater, NJ; Clarks Summit, PA; New York, NY; Tampa, FL; Wilmington, DE

Work Type: Hybrid (3 days onsite)

Position Overview

We are seeking a Lead Data Engineer / Data Architect to play a critical role in designing and delivering enterprise-scale data and analytics solutions. This position sits within a centralized Data & Analytics organization supporting enterprise-wide data initiatives and will be responsible for architecting modern data platforms that enable scalable, high-performance analytics and business insights.

This role combines hands-on data engineering expertise with architectural leadership, driving the design of data hubs, pipelines, and cloud-based data platforms. You will partner closely with business, analytics, and technology teams to build next-generation data solutions that support real-time and batch analytics use cases.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and implement end-to-end data architecture from source systems to analytics, reporting, and application consumption
• Build and maintain scalable ETL/ELT pipelines to ingest and process large volumes of structured and unstructured data
• Develop high-performance, reliable, and maintainable data pipelines using modern cloud and big data technologies
• Design and implement data lakes, data warehouses, and data products for enterprise analytics
• Create reusable frameworks and components to improve efficiency, scalability, and cost optimization
• Optimize Spark jobs and data pipelines for performance and cost in large-scale environments
• Leverage cloud platforms (preferably Azure) to deliver PaaS-based enterprise data solutions
• Implement solutions that support dynamic scaling, high-volume workloads, and real-time processing
• Establish and promote modern engineering practices including CI/CD, automated testing, and code quality standards
• Develop and manage API-based data services and data catalogs
• Collaborate with global teams, business analysts, and stakeholders to gather requirements and deliver scalable solutions
• Provide recommendations for performance tuning, architecture improvements, and optimization

Required Qualifications

• 8+ years of overall experience with 6+ years in data engineering and big data development
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field
• Strong expertise in data architecture (traditional and modern cloud-based patterns)
• Hands-on experience designing and building data lakes, data warehouses, and analytics platforms
• Extensive experience with Spark (Scala/Python) and performance tuning
• Strong experience with cloud data platforms (Azure preferred, AWS acceptable)
• Experience building data ingestion, transformation, and curation pipelines using tools such as:
• Azure Data Factory
• Databricks
• Delta Lake
• Cosmos DB
• Proficiency in Python and/or Scala for data engineering
• Experience working with unstructured and large-scale datasets
• Strong understanding of data modeling, data integration, and architecture patterns
• Experience with CI/CD and version control (e.g., Azure DevOps)
• Strong problem-solving skills and excellent communication abilities

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Azure Event Hub for streaming/data integration
• Experience with Azure Synapse (SQL Pools) performance tuning
• Knowledge of Cosmos DB and API optimization
• Experience with Hive and large-scale data partitioning strategies
• Scripting experience with Bash, Shell, or PowerShell
• Experience working with Azure DevOps pipelines
• Exposure to AI/ML-driven data workflows or automation use cases

What Makes This Opportunity Unique

• Opportunity to lead architecture for enterprise-scale data platforms
• High-impact role driving modern cloud and big data transformation initiatives
• Work across global teams and complex data ecosystems
• Blend of hands-on engineering and strategic architecture leadership
• Exposure to cutting-edge technologies in cloud, big data, and AI-driven data solutions