Lead Data Engineer

Tieto; Dallas (TX); On-site; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Tieto is seeking a Lead Data Engineer to design, build, and deliver scalable enterprise data and AI-ready solutions. The role requires hands-on expertise in Snowflake, Nexla, Apache Airflow, SQL, and Python, plus practical GenAI-powered tooling.

You will mentor engineers and work with cross‑functional teams to support analytics, ML, LLMs, RAG, and Agentic AI initiatives while delivering with Agile methods.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a related field is required.
• Hands-on experience with Snowflake, SQL, and Python.
• Experience with Nexla or similar ETL/ELT platforms.
• Proven ability to design AI-ready data architectures and pipelines.
• Strong knowledge of data governance, security, and compliance.

Responsibilities

• Lead design, development, optimization, and support of enterprise data platforms.
• Build scalable ETL/ELT solutions using Snowflake, Nexla, SQL, and Python.
• Develop and manage Apache Airflow DAGs, workflows, and monitoring.
• Design AI-ready data architectures for ML, GenAI, and RAG.
• Use Copilot, Claude, Cursor, GitHub Copilot to boost productivity.
• Collaborate with AI/ML teams on data ingestion, governance, and model-serving.
• Implement data quality, lineage, observability, governance, security, and compliance.
• Lead code reviews, architecture discussions, and root-cause analysis.

Skills

Snowflake

Nexla

Apache Airflow

SQL

Python

AI-assisted development tools

LLMs, RAG, vector embeddings

Agentic AI

Agile & distributed teams

Data platforms for AI/ML

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, IT, Engineering, Data Science, or related field

Tools

Nexla

Azure

LangChain

LangGraph

CrewAI

AutoGen

Semantic Kernel

Job description

We are looking for a Lead Data Engineer to design, build, and deliver scalable enterprise data and AI-ready solutions. The role requires strong hands-on expertise in Snowflake, Nexla, Apache Airflow, SQL, and Python, along with practical experience using GenAI-powered development tools.

You will collaborate with Data Engineering, Product Engineering, AI/ML, Architecture, and business teams to build data foundations supporting analytics, ML, LLMs, RAG, and Agentic AI initiatives while mentoring engineers and driving Agile delivery.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead design, development, optimization, and support of enterprise data platforms and pipelines.
• Build scalable ETL/ELT solutions using Snowflake, Nexla, SQL, and Python.
• Develop and manage Apache Airflow DAGs, workflows, schedules, and monitoring.
• Design AI-ready data architectures supporting ML, GenAI, RAG, vector databases, and Agentic AI.
• Use Microsoft Copilot, Claude, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, and similar tools to improve engineering productivity.
• Partner with AI/ML teams on data ingestion, transformation, governance, and model-serving requirements.
• Implement data quality, lineage, observability, governance, security, and compliance practices.
• Lead code reviews, architecture discussions, troubleshooting, and root‑cause analysis.
• Support Agile sprint planning, prioritization, estimation, dependency management, and delivery.
• Coordinate distributed onsite/offshore teams and mentor engineers.
• Create technical designs, data flows, architecture documentation, and operational runbooks.

Required Skills

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, IT, Engineering, Data Science, or related field.
• Strong hands‑on experience with Snowflake, including SQL, data modeling, stored procedures, and performance tuning.
• Experience with Nexla or similar ETL/ELT platforms.
• Strong experience with Apache Airflow and workflow orchestration.
• Advanced SQL and Python skills.
• Practical experience with AI-assisted development tools such as Copilot, Claude, Cursor, or similar.
• Understanding of LLMs, RAG, vector embeddings, prompt engineering, and Agentic AI.
• Experience building data platforms supporting AI/ML and analytics workloads.
• Knowledge of data governance, security, privacy, lineage, and compliance.
• Strong leadership, communication, problem‑solving, and stakeholder management skills.
• Experience working in Agile and distributed team environments.

Preferred Skills

• Snowflake on Azure and Azure data services.
• LangChain, LangGraph, CrewAI, AutoGen, Semantic Kernel, or similar AI frameworks.
• RAG, semantic search, vector databases, AI agents, or AI-enabled data products.
• Experience in insurance, insurtech, healthcare, or financial services.