Data Engineer

Talentify; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 125,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Mesirow, an independent financial services firm based in Chicago, is seeking a data engineer to modernize our data architecture and build a cloud-native estate on Azure and Databricks. You will own ETL pipelines and enable data-driven decisions across the firm.

Collaborate with data stewards and product teams, apply security-by-design, and advance testing, CI/CD, and IaC practices in a fast-moving environment.

Qualifications

• 2–5 years of experience designing, developing, and deploying data pipelines and modern cloud data solutions.
• Strong proficiency in Python programming and PySpark.
• Hands-on experience with Databricks (notebooks, jobs, Delta Lake) and Unity Catalog.
• Experience building and operating orchestration pipelines with Azure Data Factory (ADF).
• DevOps experience, Git-based workflows and CI/CD.
• Self-starter with strong ownership, problem-solving skills, and the ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-moving environment.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to translate business requirements into practical data solutions and work effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Own technical solutions that evolve our data architecture/integration patterns while also solving for changing business needs.
• Develop and maintain ETL pipelines to transform raw data into usable formats for data analysis, reporting and a centralized data repository.
• Evolve our data pipeline infrastructure using cloud native tools such as Azure Data Factory, Databricks or similar toolsets.
• Collaborate with other data stewards, product and business team members to ensure that our data is accurate, reliable, and consistent.
• Participate in an agile team dynamic; own testing through test automation, drive DevOps capabilities and infrastructure-as-code practices to create repeatable and controlled deployments across environments.
• Build trusted, well-governed data products that can support reporting, analytics, automation, and emerging AI use cases.
• Apply security-by-design principles, including least-privilege access, secrets management, encryption, data classification, and appropriate protection of sensitive data.
• Partner with data owners and stewards to implement data quality, classification, lineage, access controls, and governance standards across the data platform.

Skills

Python programming

PySpark

Data governance

Communication

Ownership

Problem-solving

Collaboration

Tools

Databricks

Unity Catalog

Azure Data Factory

CI/CD

Git

Job description

The Opportunity

Mesirow is an independent, employee-owned financial services firm founded in 1937. Headquartered in Chicago, with offices around the world, we serve clients through a personal, custom approach to reaching financial goals and acting as a force for social good. With capabilities spanning Private Capital & Currency, Capital Markets & Investment Banking, and Advisory Services, we invest in what matters: our clients, our communities and our culture. We are proud of our employee-owned culture, built on collaboration and shared success, empowering our professionals to develop meaningful relationships, pursue growth opportunities and make a lasting impact for our clients and communities. Mesirow has been named one of the Best Places to Work in Chicago by Crain’s Chicago Business multiple times and is one of Barron’s Top 100 RIA firms.

Mesirow is looking for a partner to support and modernize our data architecture with the vision of establishing a modern data estate. This is a high growth, high visibility area with plenty of opportunities to enhance your skillset and build your career. Your work will have immediate, tangible impact: the pipelines you develop will move the data that powers the firm's daily operations, reporting and decision making. You will help migrate legacy processes to a cloud-native platform built on Azure, Databricks and modern engineering practices, while helping shape the target future state architecture.

Responsibilities

• Own technical solutions that evolve our data architecture/integration patterns while also solving for changing business needs
• Develop and maintain ETL pipelines to transform raw data into usable formats for data analysis, reporting and a centralized data repository
• Evolve our data pipeline infrastructure using cloud native tools such as Azure Data Factory, Databricks or similar toolsets.
• Collaborate with other data stewards, product and business team members to ensure that our data is accurate, reliable, and consistent
• Participate in an agile team dynamic; own testing through test automation, drive DevOps capabilities and infrastructure-as-code practices to create repeatable and controlled deployments across environments.
• Build trusted, well-governed data products that can support reporting, analytics, automation, and emerging AI use cases.
• Apply security-by-design principles, including least-privilege access, secrets management, encryption, data classification, and appropriate protection of sensitive data
• Partner with data owners and stewards to implement data quality, classification, lineage, access controls, and governance standards across the data platform

Requirements:

• 2-5 years of experience in designing, developing, and deploying data pipelines and modern cloud data solutions.
• Strong proficiency in Python programming and PySpark
• Hands-on experience with Databricks (notebooks, jobs, Delta Lake) and Unity Catalog
• Experience building and operating orchestration pipelines with Azure Data Factory (ADF)
• DevOps experience, Git-based workflows and CI/CD
• Self-starter with strong ownership, problem-solving skills, and the ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-moving environment.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to translate business requirements into practical data solutions and work effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders

Nice to Have:

• Experience working with Salesforce data.
• SQL experience (complex queries, tuning, data modeling) a plus
• Experience working in an Azure environment

In accordance with the Illinois Pay Transparency Law, the anticipated hiring base salary for the role will be between $125,000and $140,000 per year. However, base pay if hired will be determined on an individualized basis and is only part of the total compensation package, which, also provides the opportunity for a bonus and the Mesirow benefit program.

EOE

Equal Opportunity Employer
This employer is required to notify all applicants of their rights pursuant to federal employment laws. For further information, please review the Know Your Rights notice from the Department of Labor.