Lead Data Engineer

MetLife, Inc.; Cary (NC); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health plan and benefits

401(k) with employer match

Paid time off and holidays

Job summary

MetLife, Inc. is seeking a Lead Data Engineer to architect and build data pipelines and platforms for the U.S. Data & Analytics organization.

You will lead a team of data engineers, partner with IT and business stakeholders, and drive scalable data solutions using Azure Databricks and related cloud technologies. The role requires strong SQL, Spark, Python/Scala, and data governance experience, with a focus on performance, reliability, and cost efficiency in large-scale environments.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of Data Solutions, development, and delivery experience including Azure/Databricks.
• Proficiency with SQL, Spark, Python/Scala, and performance tuning.
• Experience building data warehouses and cloud-based data stores for analytics.

Responsibilities

• Design end-to-end data architecture for data hubs/products.
• Own and build reusable data pipelines using Big Data and Azure Databricks.
• Lead and mentor a team of data engineers and ensure data quality.

Skills

SQL

Spark

Python/Scala

Big Data

Azure Databricks

Data Warehouses

CI/CD

Leadership

Communication

Data Governance

Tools

Azure Databricks

Azure Data Factory

Hive/HBase

Spark

Job description

The position sits within the newly consolidated Data and Analytics (D&A) organization supporting the U.S. Business of MetLife. U.S. D&A assists all business lines of MetLife’s U.S. business (about 2/3 of MetLife Global by earnings) with everything related to data, analytics, and data science, from data infrastructure, data governance, data engineering, data modeling, data analysis to business intelligence, data science, and AI.

The Lead Data Engineer is crucial to D&A USB’s Eligibility team for creating and optimizing dataarchitecture, solutions, and operations, and for ensuring alignment with data management and governanceframework. The Lead Data Engineer serves as a big data development expert within the D&A Eligibility organization.

This position is responsible for leading, architecting, and building ETL, data warehousing, and reusable components using cutting-edge big data and cloud technologies. The resource will collaborate with the architect, business systems analyst, technical leads, project managers, and business/operations teams in building data enablement solutions across different LOBs and use cases.

Location Expectation: This is a hybrid role requiring a minimum of 3 days per week in office.

The expected salary range for this position is $120,000 - $180,000. This role may also be eligible for annual short-term incentive compensation. All incentives and benefits are subject to the applicable plan terms.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and solution end-to-end data architecture for data hubs/data products, all the way from source systems to consumption.
• Oversee the design and management of data solutions to ensure data is stored, processed, curated, and utilized effectively.
• Own and build a reusable data pipeline utilizing Big Data and Azure/Databricks for Eligibility Program data products.
• Ingesting huge volumes of data from various platforms for Analytics needs and writing high-performance, reliable, and maintainable ETL code.
• Leadership: Lead and mentor a team of data engineers, ensuring the efficient flow of data within the organization with the defined processes and tools.
• Collect, store, process, and analyze large datasets to build and implement extract, transfer, load (ETL) processes.
• Develop reusable frameworks to reduce the development effort involved, thereby ensuring cost savings for the projects.
• Utilizing CI/CD Pipelines: Utilize and enhance CI/CD practices to automate the delivery of data solutions, ensuring reliability and scalability based on the defined tools.
• Utilize Cloud technologies (Azure Databricks) to enable data product solutions.
• Develop quality code through performance optimizations in place right at the development stage.
• Appetite to learn new technologies and be ready to work on new cutting-edge cloud technologies.
• Partner with Tech, Business, BI, and Data Science teams to create reusable data products.
• Work with a team spread across the globe in driving the delivery of projects and recommend development and performance improvements.
• Track and report on KPIs for solution delivery and data quality.
• Communicate and present use cases, solutions, and impact to business stakeholders and mid/senior management.
• Optimize reusable frameworks, Spark jobs for performance and cost efficiency in large-scale environments.
• Ability to interact with business stakeholders in getting the requirements and implementing solutions.
• Analyze the data in depth, using SQLs and other exploratory tools against various platforms such as Bigdata, Oracle, SQL Server, Databricks and others.
• Work with IT, business, and architects to develop and design requirements to formulate technical design.

Essential Business Experience and Technical Skills

Required Skills

• 8+ years of Data Solutions, development, and delivery experience with 4+ years of recent experience in Azure/Databricks environments.
• Proficiency and extensive experience with SQL, Spark &/or Scala/Python and performance tuning.
• Hands-on expertise in: Big Data (ex: Hive and HBase), Azure Databricks, Azure Functions, Cosmos DB and/or Data Factory experience is a MUST.
• Strong experience in building/designing Data warehouses, data stores for analytics consumption on Cloud (real time as well as batch use cases).
• Design, build, and deploy robust data ingestion and curation pipelines utilizing cloud-based data platforms such as Azure Data Factory, Apache Spark (Scala or Python), Azure Databricks, and Delta Lake.
• Good scripting experience, primarily on shell/bash/ PowerShell.
• Strong SQL knowledge and data analysis skills for data anomaly detection and data quality assurance.
• Experience and familiarity implementing data governance and data quality using the enterprise toolset.
• Skilled in drafting functional, technical requirements, creating high-level design documents, and data-flow diagrams, etc.
• Expertise in writing validation scripts to validate the data, data integrations and ETL transformations.
• Very good problem solver and excellent communication skills - both written and verbal.

Preferred Skills

• Expertise in Python and experience writing Azure functions using Python/Node.js.
• Databricks certifications and/ or Microsoft Azure Certifications
• Experience using Event Hub for data integrations.
• Eagerness to learn new technologies on the fly and ship to production.
• Hive database management and Performance tuning - Partitioning / Bucketing.
• Ability to interact with senior leadership teams in IT and business.

Benefits We Offer

Our U.S. benefits address holistic well-being with programs for physical and mental health, financial wellness, and support for families. We offer a comprehensive health plan that includes medical/prescription drug and vision, dental insurance, and no-cost short- and long-term disability. We also provide company-paid life insurance and legal services, a retirement pension funded entirely by MetLife and 401(k) with employer matching, group discounts on voluntary insurance products including auto and home, pet, critical illness, hospital indemnity, and accident insurance, as well as Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and digital mental health programs, parental leave, paid time off, paid holidays, volunteer time off, tuition assistance and much more! For more information regarding MetLife’s U.S. benefits, please click here .

About MetLife

Recognized on Fortune magazine's list of the "World's Most Admired Companies", Fortune World's 25 Best Workplaces as well as the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For, MetLife, through its subsidiaries and affiliates, is one of the world's leading financial services companies; providing insurance, annuities, employee benefits and asset management to individual and institutionalcustomers. With operations in more than 40 markets, we hold leading positions in the United States, Latin America, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.

As part of our New Frontier strategy, MetLife is building an AI-enabled, people-centered future. We’re looking for people who bring curiosity, adaptability, and a growth mindset as we use AI to enhance how we serve customers, support communities, and evolve the way work gets done. At MetLife, AI is a responsible partner that supports human judgment, creativity, and continuous improvement while helping us build trust, inclusion, and long-term value.

Our purpose is simple - to help our colleagues, customers, communities, and the world at large create a more confident future. United by purpose and guided by our core values - Win Together, Do the Right Thing, Deliver Impact Over Activity, and Think Ahead - we’re inspired to transform the next century in financial services. At MetLife, it’s #AllTogetherPossible . Join us!

MetLife is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All employment decisions are made without regards to race, color, national origin, religion, creed, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, marital or domestic/civil partnership status, genetic information, citizenship status (although applicants and employees must be legally authorized to work in the United States), uniformed service member or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law ("protected characteristics"). If you need an accommodation due to a disability, please email us at [e-mail]. This information will be held in confidence and used only to determine an appropriate accommodation for the application process.

MetLife maintains a drug-free workplace.

This posting is for a current vacancy and is anticipated to remain open for at least 90 days from the listed posting date.