IT Lead Data Engineer

BDO USA; United States; On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

BDO USA is seeking a Lead Data Engineer to partner with business teams, design data solutions, and lead data initiatives critical for efficiency and client services. You will steward data platforms, enforce governance, and mentor junior engineers, while collaborating across IT and business functions.

The role emphasizes cross-functional leadership, enterprise data movement, and rapid delivery of data-ready assets using modern pipelines and tooling.

Qualifications

• 8+ years as data engineer, data analyst or similar role.
• 8+ years with PowerBI, Tableau or similar tools.
• 5+ years on commercial cloud platforms (Azure/AWS/GCP).
• 3+ years using version control tools (GitHub/Azure DevOps).
• Strong SQL and data querying capabilities.
• Experience in large, regulated enterprise environments preferred.
• Proficiency in Python, Scala, R or Java is preferred.

Responsibilities

• Define and design data solutions to support data initiatives.
• Identify data assets across systems and integrate disparate sources.
• Provide technical leadership and effort estimates for solution design.
• Collaborate with data governance to enforce data principles.
• Create mock-ups, visualizations and reports for proposed solutions.
• Act as SME to educate on data platforms and best practices.
• Engage with business stakeholders to understand evolving data needs.
• Work with data scientists and developers on advanced technologies.

Skills

Data governance

Mentorship

Technical leadership

Stakeholder collaboration

SQL

Python/Scala/Java

Cloud platforms (Azure/AWS/GCP)

Data modeling

Education

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science / Information Management / Mathematics / Statistics

High School Diploma or GED

Tools

SSMS

PowerBI/Tableau/Looker

GitHub / Azure DevOps

Job description

Job Summary

The Lead Data Engineer is expected to be an expert at effectively working with business partners to understand their data needs and develop technical designs and requirements to meet those needs. This role is the team leader in helping extract, transform, and store the Firm's valuable data assets to achieve better operational efficiencies and provide better services to its clients through modern data movement pipelines. This role, in collaboration with other data engineers, data architects, and other IT teams, will operationalize and document data extraction and ingestion platforms. This role is the team's leader for developing strategies, policies, and governance models to ensure the Firm's data remains accurate, timely and relevant to the Firm's goals. This role will provide guidance and mentorship to junior data engineers, as well as helping delegate work items and tickets across the Data Engineering team.

Job Duties

• Works with stakeholders and data architects to define and design data solutions to support the Firm's data initiatives
• Understands and locates where data assets exist within the Firm's systems and design solutions integrating disparate data sources to solve problems and provide business value
• Collaborates with project managers to provide effort estimates and provides technical leadership in solution design and requirements
• Works closely with data governance to ensure principles are followed through the course of day-to-day data usage and solution design
• Prepares mock-up solution designs, visualizations and reports to effectively demonstrate proposed solutions and deliverables
• Acts as a subject matter expert, evangelist and catalyst to educate on the Firm's data platforms and best practices as they relate to the usage and hygiene of the Firm's data assets
• Meets regularly with business line customers to gain a better understanding of their business processes and of the customer's evolving data needs to help identify potential data-related projects
• Works with data scientists and developers to use emerging and advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to identify and extrapolate hidden patterns and trends, increasing the value of the Firm's data
• Builds and maintains constructive working relationships with project team members, vendors and other departments involved with projects, systems, and IT strategies
• Serves as a technical expert and lead to other team members, reviewing proposed solution designs, conducting code reviews, and troubleshooting advanced technical issues
• Identifies and executes continuous improvement efforts to ensure the Firm's data remains accurate and timely
• Works closely with the Information Security and Compliance teams to ensure the firm's data strategy and technologies meet or exceed both internal policies and external regulatory requirements
• Collaborates with BDO Global and other BDO member firms to ensure standards between organizations are followed in support of reusable models and rapid deployment of shared technology
• Understands and follows Project Management basics and Project Management Office policies and procedures
• Other duties as required

Supervisory Responsibilities

N/A

Qualifications, Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

Education

• High School Diploma or GED , required
• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Management, Mathematics, or Statistics, preferred

Experience

• Eight (8) or more years working as a data engineer, data analyst or similar analyst/engineer roles, required
• Eight (8) or more years working with PowerBI, Tableau or similar data visualization products, required
• Five (5) or more years working within commercial cloud platforms such as Microsoft Azure, AWS, or GCP, required
• Three (3) or more years using version control tools (Azure DevOps, GitHub), required
• Demonstrable proficiency in developing and understanding custom and ad-hoc SQL queries, required
• Experience working within a large, complex enterprise with significant regulatory and compliance requirements, preferred
• Experience using a modern scripting language such as Python, Scala, R, or Java, preferred
• Professional service firm experience, preferred

Software

• Strong proficiency in the use of Microsoft Office suite, specifically Excel, required
• Strong proficiency in the use of SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS), or similar, required
• Strong proficiency in the use of PowerBI, Tableau, Looker, Qlik, or similar, required

Other Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

• Strong analytical, organizational and problem-solving skills
• Excellent written communication skills, maintaining accurate documentation and technical authorship of complex documents
• Ability to facilitate meetings efficiently and effectively
• Ability to follow an issue through to its logical conclusion, and elevate as necessary
• Ability to work independently as well as part of a team, including providing technical leadership to less experienced colleagues
• Excellent interpersonal and custo