Lead Digital Data Engineer (Databricks)

BJ's Wholesale Club; Marlborough (MA); Hybrid; USD 129,000 - 164,000; Full time

Job summary

BJ's Wholesale Club in Marlborough, MA is seeking a Lead Digital Data Engineer to own the design, build, and evolution of the Databricks Lakehouse. You will turn digital, fulfillment, and operational data into trusted, governed data products, and lead AI-powered analytics adoption.

You will design scalable lakehouse architectures, implement data pipelines with AWS services, govern data with Unity Catalog, and mentor a distributed engineering team in Agile delivery.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or equivalent.
• 7+ years of experience in data engineering.
• 3+ years of hands-on Databricks experience in production.
• Expert-level Apache Spark (PySpark and SQL) and Delta Lake experience.
• Experience building large-scale distributed data systems on AWS/Azure/GCP.

Responsibilities

• Design and maintain a scalable Lakehouse using Delta Lake and medallion architecture, serving as the single source of truth for analytics.
• Build batch and real-time pipelines integrating AWS services with Databricks (Structured Streaming, Auto Loader, Delta Live Tables).
• Ingest and integrate analytics and transactional data to enable governed, self-service data products.
• Lead data governance through Unity Catalog and monitor pipeline health, freshness, and cost.
• Design Genie Spaces and AI/BI dashboards with certified metrics for self-service analytics.
• Develop and productionize Databricks agents and GenAI solutions (Mosaic AI, MLflow).
• Establish CI/CD for data pipelines and automate testing with Terraform.

Skills

Apache Spark (PySpark/SQL)

Delta Lake

Lakehouse architecture

Unity Catalog

Databricks Workflows

SQL Warehouses

AWS services (S3, Kafka, DynamoDB)

Genie Spaces / GenAI dashboards

CI/CD / Terraform

Agile/Scrum leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science / Information Technology or equivalent

Tools

Databricks

Mosaic AI

MLflow

Kafka

DynamoDB

S3

Lambda

Job description

As Lead Digital Data Engineer, you will own the design, build, and evolution of BJ's Databricks Lakehouse, working closely with product managers, program managers, and business unit heads. You will turn digital, fulfillment, and operational data into trusted, governed, self-service data products, and lead our adoption of AI-powered analytics, including Genie and Databricks agents.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and maintain a scalable Lakehouse using Delta Lake and the medallion (Bronze/Silver/Gold) architecture, serving as the single source of truth for analytics following the migration from AWS Redshift.
• Build batch and real-time pipelines integrating Kafka, DynamoDB, S3, and other AWS services with Databricks (Structured Streaming, Auto Loader, Delta Live Tables).
• Ingest and integrate digital sources such as Adobe Analytics, AEP, and Google Analytics alongside transactional and operational data.
• Implement data quality validation frameworks with automated checks, alerting, and SLAs so data is accurate and clearly represented across business verticals.
• Lead data governance through Unity Catalog (access control, lineage, classification) and monitor pipeline health, freshness, and cost.
• Design reusable Genie Spaces and AI/BI dashboards with certified metrics for business self-service.
• Develop and productionize Databricks agents and AI use cases using Mosaic AI, MLflow, Model Serving, and Vector Search.
• Optimize performance and cost across clusters, SQL Warehouses, and Delta tables.
• Establish CI/CD for data pipelines (Databricks Asset Bundles, Git workflows, automated testing, Terraform).
• Own and prioritize the digital data and analytics roadmap with product leaders.
• Lead and mentor a distributed team of up to 10 engineers across onshore and offshore locations, driving Agile delivery and providing regular status and risk updates to senior leadership.

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or equivalent, plus 7+ years of experience in data engineering, including 3+ years of hands‑on Databricks experience in production. Experience must include:

• Expert-level Apache Spark (PySpark and SQL), Delta Lake, and Lakehouse architecture
• Unity Catalog, Databricks Workflows, and SQL Warehouses
• Integrating AWS services: S3, Kafka (MSK/Confluent), DynamoDB, Lambda, and IAM
• Building data quality and validation frameworks
• Genie Spaces, AI/BI dashboards, and building Databricks agents or GenAI solutions (Mosaic AI, MLflow)
• Building large-scale distributed data systems on AWS, Azure, or GCP
• Working in an Agile Scrum environment and leading distributed teams
• SDLC, CI/CD, version control, and test automation for data pipelines

This is a hybrid role. Tuesday through Thursday are in-office days at BJ's Club Support Center in Marlborough, MA and Monday and Friday are remote days.

In accordance with the Pay Transparency requirements, the following represents a good faith estimate of the compensation range for this position. At BJ’s Wholesale Club, we carefully consider a wide range of non‑discriminatory factors when determining salary. Actual salaries will vary depending on factors including but not limited to location, education, experience, and qualifications. The pay range for this position is $128,500.00 - $164,000.00