Data Engineer I

Pekin Insurance; Pekin (IL); Hybrid; USD 73,000 - 98,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health, Dental and Vision Insurance

Generous 401(k) with company match

PTO with paid holidays

Flexible/Hybrid Work Schedule

Paid Volunteer Program

Job summary

Pekin Insurance seeks a Data Engineer to design and implement data pipelines, data infrastructure, and APIs to access key data sources. You’ll ensure governance, security, and reusable data products while moving pipelines into production for analytics teams.

You’ll collaborate with product teams, engineers, and analysts in an agile environment, supporting data transformation, integration, and quality initiatives across cloud and on-prem environments.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in IT/CS or related field.
• 0-2 years of experience in data engineering or related field.
• SQL experience.
• Python experience.
• Ability to troubleshoot programming and technical issues.
• Basic understanding of data engineering concepts.
• Basic understanding of data integration, quality, and transformation.
• Problem-solving and collaboration with stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain data pipelines and data management solutions using Snowflake, Coalesce, SQL, and Python.
• Monitor data pipelines with Airflow and other orchestration tools.
• Develop ETL/ELT processes to extract, transform, load data between systems.
• Assist data integrations involving Workday and other systems.
• Troubleshoot and resolve pipeline and production issues and perform root-cause analysis.
• Support data governance, quality, and security requirements.
• Collaborate with product teams, engineers, analysts, and business partners.
• Participate in Agile team activities and deliver product increments.
• Contribute to data dictionaries, metadata, and technical documentation.
• Stay current with cloud, automation, and AI-enabled tools.

Skills

SQL experience

Python experience

Troubleshooting skills

Data concepts basics

Data integration/quality/trans

Problem solving

Collaboration with stakeholders

Willingness to learn new tech

Agile experience

Education

Bachelor’s degree or related field

0-2 years experience

Tools

Snowflake

Coalesce

Workday

Airflow

Job description

Looking for more than just a job? You’ve found it.

At Pekin Insurance, you’re not a number—you’re part of something bigger. For over 100 years, we’ve built a community where people are valued, supported, and empowered to grow. Here, you’ll find a workplace where collaboration is real, ideas are welcome, and the work you do truly matters. We’re proud to help people through life’s toughest moments—and it’s our people who make that possible.

From day one, you’ll be encouraged to bring your whole self to work, take on meaningful challenges, and grow in ways that matter to you. Learn more about Pekin Insurance Here!

POSITION OVERVIEW

The Data Engineer is responsible for designing and implementing the data and analysis infrastructure, as well as determining the appropriate data management systems for analysis. Data Engineer builds, maintains, and optimizes data pipelines, and moves these data pipelines effectively into production for key data consumers. Data Engineer also provides data expertise when building and testing stories, features, and components; and participates in the development and management of application programming interfaces (APIs) that access key data sources. Data Engineer works to guarantee compliance with data governance and data security requirements while creating, improving, and operationalizing integrated and reusable data pipelines to enable faster data access, integrated data reuse, and improve time-to-solution for data initiatives.

The Data Engineer contributes to the development of the team backlog and architectural runway, management of work in process (WIP) levels, and support of engineering aspects of program and solution Kanban. Data Engineer may also participate in program increment planning, pre- and- post planning, system, and solution demos, and inspect and adapt events.

In addition to the Data Engineer’s typical responsibilities, the Data Engineer could be expected to be part of the Agile Development Team.

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS

• Assist in building and maintaining data pipelines and data management solutions using Snowflake, Coalesce, SQL, and Python.
• Assist in managing and monitoring data pipelines and workflows using Airflow and other orchestration technologies.
• Develop and support data transformation processes used to extract, transform, and load data between systems.
• Assist with data integrations, conversions, imports, and exports involving Workday and other internal and external systems.
• Assist in troubleshooting and resolving programming, pipeline, and production support issues while developing root-cause analysis skills.
• Learn and use modern data preparation, integration, automation, cloud, and AI-enabled tools and techniques.
• Assist in implementing processes that support data integrity, standardization, and quality.
• Contribute to data reliability, efficiency, quality, and automation improvements.
• Assist in maintaining data dictionaries, metadata, data mappings, technical specifications, test cases, and production support documentation.
• Work closely with product teams, engineers, analysts, and business partners to understand data requirements and contribute to the development of technical solutions.
• Participate in Agile Team activities and contribute to regularly producing product increments.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

EDUCATION & EXPERIENCE

Required

• Bachelor’s degree in IT Engineering, Computer Science, Business Management, Mathematics, Information Technology, Computer Engineering, or Information Sciences preferred, or equivalent experience
• Typically requires 0-2 years of experience in the desired field or may have entry level technical or business work experience, including internships
• SQL experience.
• Python experience.
• Ability to troubleshoot programming and technical issues.
• Basic understanding of data engineering concepts.
• Basic understanding of data integration, data quality, and data transformation
• Problem-solving skills
• Ability to collaborate with business and IT stakeholders
• Ability and willingness to learn new technologies

Preferred or Specialized

• Experience in an agile environment strongly preferred
• Relevant certification is preferred

CERTIFICATIONS & LICENSES

• N/A

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS & ABILITIES

Good to have requirements:

• Experience in an Agile environment.
• Experience or exposure to Snowflake, Coalesce, Workday, or Airflow.
• Relevant technical certification.
• ETL/ELT and data pipeline development
• REST APIs
• Agile methodologies
• DevOps concepts
• Data modeling
• Metadata management

Basic ability to:

• Learn and use advanced analytics tools for object-oriented/object function scripting
• Work across multiple deployment environments including cloud and on-premises, and multiple operating systems
• Work with popular data discovery, analytics, and business intelligence (BI) software tools for semantic-layer-based data discovery
• Collaborate with both business and IT stakeholders
• Use judgment to form conclusions that may challenge conventional wisdom
• Apply original thinking to produce new ideas and innovate

Basic knowledge of:

• Data management disciplines including data integration, modeling, optimization, and data quality, and/or other areas directly relevant to data engineering responsibilities and tasks
• Popular database programming languages for relational and non-relational databases
• Representational state transfer (RESTful) API design
• Agile methodologies and capable of applying DevOps principles to data pipelines to improve the communication, integration, reuse, and automation of data flows

Applicants must be authorized to work in the U.S. without sponsorship now or in the future.

Pay Range:

• $73,000 - $98,000 per year
  • This range is based on the expected level of experience and skills for this position. Final compensation will depend on individual

Benefits:

• Health, Dental and Vision Insurance
• Generous 401(k) with company match
• Paid Time Off (PTO) with Paid Holidays
• Flexible/Hybrid Work Schedule
• Paid Volunteer Program

For more information about the benefits we offer, please visit our Careers Page.

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.