Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. The client is a growing technology consultancy helping banks modernize their use of data and AI. They are seeking a Lead Data Engineer to own the architecture and development of a governed lakehouse data platform, build ingestion pipelines from legacy and operational banking systems, and enable reliable data for AI and analytical applications.
Responsibilities
- Lead the architecture and development of a modern lakehouse data platform, leveraging technologies such as Apache Iceberg and object storage
- Design reliable data ingestion pipelines from banking cores, SQL Server, PostgreSQL, and other operational systems
- Implement CDC, batch, query-based, and SFTP ingestion patterns depending on the constraints of each environment
- Build data platforms that can operate within on-premises and cloud-averse environments
- Own data modeling across the semantic and metric layers, ensuring business-critical metrics are accurate, consistent, and reconcilable
- Develop and enforce data contracts, quality standards, lineage, and observability across the platform
- Solve challenges around schema drift, pipeline failures, reconciliation, data freshness, and recoverability
- Partner closely with AI/ML engineers to make governed, structured data available for AI applications and analytical workloads
- Work with security teams on PII classification, access controls, least-privilege architecture, and regulatory data requirements
- Establish the technical foundation required to rapidly onboard new banking clients and their data environments
- Provide technical leadership while remaining hands-on with architecture, development, and troubleshooting
Skills
- 8+ years of professional data engineering experience, including experience owning end-to-end data pipelines
- 2+ years in a senior, lead, or staff-level data engineering capacity
- Deep expertise with Python and SQL
- Strong experience designing and building data lakes/lakehouses
- Hands-on experience with Apache Iceberg, Delta Lake, Hudi, or a comparable technology
- Experience building data pipelines from complex, messy, or legacy operational systems
- Strong understanding of CDC and database replication mechanics, particularly when working with systems you don't directly control
- Experience with data modeling, semantic layers, metrics, and analytical data products
- A strong understanding of data quality, reconciliation, observability, lineage, and governance
- Experience working in environments where security, privacy, compliance, and access controls are critical
- Comfortable working cross-functionally with data engineering, AI/ML, platform, and security teams
- Experience with banking, financial services, or other highly regulated industries
- Familiarity with core banking systems or financial data
- Experience working with FFIEC or Call Report data
- Strong SQL Server experience
- Experience with data contracts, lineage, governance, and regulatory data requirements
- Experience deploying and operating data platforms in on-premises environments
Company Overview