Lead Data Engineer

Calfus Inc.; Fort Snelling Unorganized Territory (MN); On-site; USD 180,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health coverage

401k plan

PTO

Job summary

Calfus Inc. is seeking a Lead Data Engineer to drive hands-on delivery and to lead the Data & Analytics practice in the US market. You will write SQL and Python, build data models, dashboards, and pipelines in Snowflake and Databricks while also guiding the team and growing the practice.

The role blends leadership with active delivery, requiring a track record in consulting, data engineering, and client collaboration. You will balance architecture, mentoring, and hands-on coding weekly.

Qualifications

• Approximately 10 years in a consulting or data-focused role.
• Hands-on expertise across the data engineering lifecycle with multiple platforms (Snowflake, Databricks, Teradata, Redshift, BigQuery, Fabric).
• Strong theoretical and practical knowledge of cloud analytics tooling (AWS, Azure, GCP) including S3, IAM, networking.
• Significant hands-on experience with business-driven and self-service BI (Tableau, Power BI, Looker).
• Current production-level coding ability with SQL and PySpark; proficient in Python and staying hands-on weekly.
• Experience with modern engineering practices: Git, code review, CI/CD, dbt, Airflow.
• Passion for and proven experience with consulting business development and leading a Data & Analytics practice.

Responsibilities

• Be the face of the practice, collaborating with the India team to develop internal and external presence and to evangelize services and products.
• Participate in business development and presales activities for the practice.
• Architect, design, and build data solutions, create documentation, produce delivery estimations, and lead senior team members.
• Work with customers to translate business needs into actionable written requirements.
• Lead and advise project teams through all core phases: setup, requirements, design, development, testing, deployment.

Skills

Leadership

Client communication

Mentoring

Problem solving

Project management

Business development

Team building

Strategic thinking

Education

Bachelor's degree in engineering, information systems, computer science, business administration, or another related analytical field

Tools

Snowflake

Databricks

Teradata

Redshift

BigQuery

Fabric

Tableau

Power BI

Looker

Python

SQL

PySpark

dbt

Airflow

Git

CI/CD

Job description

At Calfus, we are known for delivering cutting-edge AI agents and products that transform businesses in ways previously unimaginable. None of that works without data, which is why our Data & Analytics practice sits at the center of what we do.

We help enterprises modernize the full data estate: lakehouse and warehouse platforms on Snowflake, Databricks, and the major clouds; pipelines and transformation frameworks that hold up in production; governed, well-modeled data that people actually trust; and self-service BI that leads to decisions rather than decks. Increasingly this is the foundation our clients build AI on, because a model is only as good as the data behind it.

We are one of the fastest-growing firms in the space, with delivery teams across the US and India and a culture that rewards people who like to build. The Data & Analytics practice is at an early, high-leverage stage. The direction is set and the demand is real, and there is significant room for the right person to shape how it grows.

About the Role

This is a player-coach role. Roughly half your time is spent as a hands-on individual contributor delivering client work directly, writing code, building data models and dashboards, and owning deliverables end to end. The balance is spent leading and growing the Data & Analytics practice.

We are looking for Lead Data Engineer who has run teams and still wants their hands in the codebase every week. You will be the face of the practice in the US market, working closely with our India team, while carrying your own delivery commitments on live engagements.

What You'll Do

• Be the face of the practice, working collaboratively with the India team to develop the practice's internal and external presence, and evangelize and champion our services and products
• Participate in business development and presales activities for the practice
• Articulate the value proposition and ROI of our services and proposed solutions to prospective customers
• Stay abreast of industry and technology changes across data and analytics, especially as they lead us into a world rapidly moving toward AI
• Architect, design, and build solutions, create documentation artifacts, and produce estimations for delivery, and lead senior members of the team to do the same
• Work with customers to understand their business needs and translate them into written requirements that both technical and non-technical audiences can follow, and lead team members to do the same
• Follow consulting methodology, and lead and advise project teams through all core project phases including project setup, requirements gathering, design, development, testing, and deployment
• Ensure client satisfaction and maintain executive-level relationships through consistent support, impactful thought leadership, and high-quality project execution
• Understand, develop, and articulate complex business challenges into actionable plans with clear and concise communication
• Facilitate workshops, provide status updates, and lead meetings across the executive levels of client organizations

Hands-On Delivery (Individual Contributor)

• Personally build and ship production work as a member of the delivery team, writing and optimizing SQL and Python, developing pipelines and transformations, and designing and implementing data models in platforms such as Snowflake and Databricks
• Build client-facing dashboards and reports directly in Tableau, Power BI, or similar, including data preparation, semantic modeling, and performance tuning
• Carry individual delivery responsibilities on at least one active engagement at a time, with your own tickets, commitments, and deliverables alongside the team
• Participate in code and design reviews as a practitioner, reviewing pull requests, enforcing engineering standards, and pairing with engineers and analysts to unblock them
• Serve as the senior technical escalation point, diving into the code, queries, or pipeline yourself to diagnose and resolve complex issues
• Build reusable accelerators, frameworks, and reference implementations the practice can deploy across engagements
• Lead project teams through hands-on development, coding in SQL and Python, creating data visualizations in Tableau, Power BI, or similar, and designing data models in platforms such as Snowflake and Databricks

Skills and Experience

• Approximately 10 years in a consulting or data-focused role
• Hands-on expertise across the data engineering lifecycle with multiple platforms such as Snowflake, Databricks, Teradata, Redshift, BigQuery, or Fabric, plus exposure to market-leading software for data quality, lineage, and governance
• Strong theoretical and practical knowledge of the tooling required for analytics on cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, or GCP, including services like S3, Athena, IAM, and networking configuration and management
• Significant hands-on experience with business-driven and self-service BI using tools such as Tableau, Power BI, Looker, or similar
• Significant experience designing and building relational databases and data warehouses, and managing and troubleshooting complex analytics solutions
• Current, production-level coding ability with expert SQL and PySpark, and proficiency in Python, with a willingness to remain hands-on in the codebase on a weekly basis
• Working experience with modern engineering practices: Git-based version control, code review, CI/CD, and transformation and orchestration tooling such as dbt, Airflow, or similar
• Passion for and proven experience with consulting business development
• Eagerness to help build and lead a best-in-class Data & Analytics practice
• 10+ years of project management, process, implementation, system integration, and SDLC experience working closely with data professionals in an Agile environment
• Experience with project planning, including tasks, budgeting, resource allocation, and balancing
• A track record of highly impactful work at prior companies, including as a manager and, recently, as a hands-on individual contributor
• Bachelor's degree in engineering, information systems, computer science, business administration, or another related analytical field

Compensation:

Salary range: Between $180,000.00 to $200,000.00 per year. Pay is based on several factors including geographical locations but not limited to education, work experience, certifications, etc.

Offered Benefits:

Calfus prioritizes the well-being and financial security of its employees & families by providing comprehensive health coverage, which includes medical (by Kaiser & Aetna), Dental & Vision (by Guardian) plans. This ensures that employees & families have access to essential healthcare services, addressing both preventive and ongoing medical needs.

Additionally, Calfus understands the importance of long-term financial planning for its employees. To support this, the company offers retirement savings plan (401k) where you can start saving as soon as you join!

We offer paid time off (PTO) to eligible U.S. employees. PTO is designed to give you flexibility for rest, personal time, and life needs. Details on accrual and usage are provided in the company PTO policy.

Calfus Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Calfus provides equal opportunity employment (EOE) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, marital status, amnesty, or status as a covered veteran in accordance with applicable federal, state and local laws. Calfus complies with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment in every location in which the company has a presence.

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.