Lead Software Engineer

Lincoln Financial; Radnor (Delaware County); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

Lincoln Financial is seeking a Lead Software Engineer to provide technical leadership for the Data Strategy and Delivery team. You will design, build, and maintain scalable data pipelines and data platforms, partnering with business, IT, and analytics stakeholders to deliver secure, governed datasets for analytics.

You will lead a team of data engineers, own delivery, set the technical vision, and ensure high-quality data across the data lake and warehouse, with AWS-based tooling including

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in CS or related field.
• 7+ years in AWS data engineering or similar; lead level experience.
• Proven leadership with delivery of complex data projects.
• Deep expertise in Aurora PostgreSQL and Redshift; performance tuning.
• Experience with batch and streaming pipelines and AWS services.
• Hands-on Python / PySpark and SQL for ETL.
• Familiar with data governance, security, and IAM.
• Experience with orchestration tools (Step Functions, Airflow, MWAA).

Responsibilities

• Lead and prioritize work, own delivery, set standards and a clear technical vision, review code, mentor engineers, and grow future leaders.
• Design, build, and maintain robust batch and streaming data pipelines to support business intelligence and analytics.
• Integrate structured and unstructured data from internal and external sources.
• Develop ETL workflows using AWS Glue, Lambda, Python, PySpark, and SQL-based scripts.
• Analyze database workloads and optimize queries, indexing, partitioning for Aurora PostgreSQL and Redshift.
• Build S3-based data lake and warehouse layers with Parquet and fine-grained access controls.
• Own end-to-end data flows from source to consumption; trace and resolve issues.
• Apply data modeling standards and data quality practices; create technical designs from business requirements.
• Orchestrate and schedule workflows and monitor with CloudWatch and data quality checks.
• Ensure data security, governance, and compliance across pipelines.
• Collaborate with data scientists and analysts to deliver high-quality datasets and influence AWS data infrastructure strategy.

Skills

Data engineering

AWS data services

Leadership

Python / PySpark

SQL

ETL design

DevOps

CI/CD

Automation & governance

AI tooling familiarity

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

Aurora PostgreSQL

Amazon Redshift

AWS Glue

AWS Lambda

S3

Athena

EC2

IAM

Job description

Alternate Locations: Radnor, PA (Pennsylvania); Charlotte, NC (North Carolina); Fort Wayne, IN (Indiana); Greensboro, NC (North Carolina)

Work Arrangement

Hybrid : Employee will work 3 days a week in a Lincoln office

Relocation assistance

is not available for this opportunity.

Requisition #

76883

The Role at a Glance

The Lead Software Engineer provides technical leadership for Lincoln Financial Data Strategy and Delivery team. This role designs, builds, and maintains scalable data pipelines and optimizes data systems, with deep experience in Aurora PostgreSQL and Amazon Redshift and strong knowledge of AWS services including Glue, Lambda, S3, Athena, and EC2. The role leads a team of data engineers, owns delivery, sets technical vision, and partners with business, IT, and analytics stakeholders to deliver secure, governed, high-quality data that enables advanced analytics and reporting across Lincoln.

What You'll Be Doing

• Lead and prioritize work, own delivery, set standards and a clear technical vision, review code, mentor engineers, and grow future leaders.
• Design, build, and maintain robust batch and streaming data pipelines (including change data capture, for example AWS DMS) to support business intelligence and analytics.
• Integrate structured and unstructured data from internal and external sources.
• Develop ETL workflows using AWS Glue, Lambda, custom Python, PySpark, and SQL-based scripts.
• Analyze database workloads and optimize queries, indexing, partitioning, and storage in Aurora PostgreSQL and Amazon Redshift for integrity, performance, and cost.
• Build S3-based data lake and warehouse layers (Glue Data Catalog, Athena, Parquet) with fine-grained access controls.
• Own end-to-end data flows from source to consumption; trace and resolve issues across the full chain.
• Apply data modeling standards (normal form, star, snowflake) and data quality practices; create technical designs from business requirements.
• Orchestrate and schedule workflows (Stonebranch, Step Functions, Airflow / MWAA) and monitor them with CloudWatch and automated data quality checks.
• Ensure data security, governance, and compliance; monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize data workflows.
• Integrate with upstream and downstream applications and collaborate with data scientists, analysts, and business stakeholders to deliver high-quality datasets; help shape data infrastructure strategy on AWS.

What We're Looking For

Must-haves

• Bachelor's degree (or equivalent) in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or a related field.
• 7+ years in AWS data engineering or a similar role (confirm years for Lead level).
• Proven leadership: leading a team, owning delivery of complex projects, and communicating clearly with stakeholders; a strong vision and drive to develop as a leader.
• Strong expertise in Aurora PostgreSQL and Amazon Redshift, including database analysis, query optimization, advanced SQL, execution plans, indexing, distribution and sort keys, and workload tuning.
• Holistic view of end-to-end data processing, from source to consumption, including dependencies, bottlenecks, and downstream impact.
• Data and application integration with upstream source systems and downstream consumers (APIs, files, messaging, reporting).
• Hands-on AWS experience: Glue, Lambda, S3, Athena, EC2, and IAM.
• Python / PySpark and SQL development for ETL and integration in Agile, SDLC-based environments.
• DevOps and scheduling: Git, CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, CloudFormation or similar, and Stonebranch scheduling knowledge (or a similar scheduler such as Autosys).
• Hands-on use of approved AI development tools (GitHub Copilot or Claude Code), validating AI output and following Lincoln data privacy and responsible AI requirements.

Nice-to-haves

• AWS certification (Data Engineer - Associate, Solutions Architect, or specialty); EMR, Kinesis, Lake Formation, DynamoDB, or Apache Iceberg experience.
• Microsoft 365 Copilot and Claude Cowork experience; coaching teams on safe AI use.
• RAG data preparation, embeddings, vector stores, and AWS AI services (Bedrock, SageMaker, Amazon Q).
• Salesforce CRM and MuleSoft (API-led integration) as upstream or downstream systems; MicroStrategy and Tableau reporting and BI background.
• Financial data experience is a plus, especially insurance, annuities, or retirement (401k/403b).

Application Deadline

Applications for this position will be accepted through January 31, 2027, subject to earlier closure due to applicant volume.

What's it like to work here?

At Lincoln Financial, we love what we do. We make meaningful contributions each and every day to empower our customers to take charge of their lives. Working alongside dedicated and talented colleagues, we build fulfilling careers and stronger communities through a company that values our unique perspectives, insights and contributions and invests in programs that empower each of us to take charge of our own future.