Principal Data Engineer

Sunbelt Beverage Company, LLC; Linthicum (MD); Hybrid; USD 110,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Breakthru Beverage Group in the United States seeks a Principal Data Engineer to design, build, and optimize scalable data pipelines and cloud-based data products across the enterprise. You will lead architectural decisions, promote best practices, and mentor engineers within our Data & AI program.

The role supports BI, analytics, and AI workloads on AWS and Snowflake, with dbt, Python, and CI/CD in a hybrid environment combining two office days and remote work.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related technical field.
• 8+ years of experience in Data Engineering, Software Engineering, or related technical roles.
• Strong expertise in SQL and building scalable, complex data transformations.
• Proficiency in Python for data engineering, orchestration, and automation workflows.
• Hands-on experience designing and operating enterprise-grade data platforms on AWS and Snowflake.
• Experience with dbt or similar modern ELT/transformation frameworks.

Responsibilities

• Data Pipeline Engineering & Architecture: Design, build, and maintain scalable data pipelines on AWS and Snowflake.
• Develop ELT/ETL processes using dbt, SQL, and Python to support BI, analytics, and AI use cases.
• Design data models and data products for trusted enterprise consumption.
• Optimize pipelines for performance, scalability, reliability, and cost efficiency.
• Implement ingestion frameworks for batch, API, CDC, streaming, and near real-time processing.
• Collaborate with Data Governance to enforce data standards and lineage.

Skills

SQL

Python

ETL/ELT

Data modeling

CI/CD

Data pipelines

Problem solving

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

AWS

Snowflake

dbt

Git

Airflow / MWAA

Job description

Time Type: Full time Remote Type: Job Family Group: Information Technology

Job Type: Full time

Remote: Remote

Job Family: Information Technology

Title: Principal Data Engineer

Job Description Summary: The Principal Data Engineer is responsible for designing, developing, and optimizing scalable data pipelines, data products, and cloud-based solutions that support business intelligence, advanced analytics, and AI capabilities across the enterprise. This role establishes data engineering standards, promotes best practices, and drives the development of reliable, secure, and high-performing data solutions. As a senior individual contributor, this position provides technical leadership and architectural guidance, collaborates across functional teams, and mentors engineers to support the organization’s evolving Data & AI strategy.

This role follows a flexible hybrid schedule - two days per week in the office and three days working from home. This role can be performed from any Breakthru Beverage office location.

Job Responsibilities

• Data Pipeline Engineering & Architecture Design, build, and maintain scalable data pipelines on AWS and Snowflake to ingest, transform, and serve enterprise data.
• Develop ELT/ETL processes using dbt, SQL, and Python to support BI, analytics, and AI use cases.
• Design curated, scalable, and AI-ready data models and data products for trusted enterprise consumption.
• Optimize pipelines for performance, scalability, reliability, and cost efficiency.
• Cloud Data Platform Development Leverage AWS services (S3, Lambda, Glue, DynamoDB, MWAA, etc.) and Snowflake to build secure and resilient data solutions.
• Implement ingestion frameworks for batch, API, CDC, streaming, and near real-time processing.
• Design data architectures that support modern AI and machine learning workloads.
• Ensure proper orchestration, workflow management, and alignment with CI/CD and governance standards.
• Data Quality, Governance & Observability Embed data quality checks, testing frameworks, and validation controls into pipelines.
• Support data lineage, metadata management, observability, and AI data governance initiatives.
• Troubleshoot production data issues and implement sustainable root-cause solutions.
• Partner with Data Governance to enforce enterprise data standards.
• Performance, Reliability & Engineering Best Practices Implement CI/CD and Git-based development practices for data pipelines.
• Monitor, debug, and improve production workflows and platform reliability.
• Apply software engineering best practices including code reviews, automated testing, and infrastructure-as-code principles.
• Continuously improve operational excellence and platform scalability.
• Collaboration & Technical Leadership Partner with BI, Analytics, AI/ML, and business stakeholders to deliver scalable data and AI solutions.
• Collaborate with AI and Data Science teams to enable model development and AI deployment.
• Mentor engineers and contribute to architecture standards and engineering best practices.
• Influence technical direction and communicate complex concepts across technical and business audiences.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related technical field.
• 8+ years of experience in Data Engineering, Software Engineering, or related technical roles.
• Strong expertise in SQL and building scalable, complex data transformations.
• Proficiency in Python for data engineering, orchestration, and automation workflows.
• Hands‑on experience designing and operating enterprise‑grade data platforms on AWS and Snowflake.
• Experience with dbt or similar modern ELT/transformation frameworks.
• Proven experience building and optimizing production‑grade batch and near real‑time data pipelines.
• Strong understanding of dimensional modeling, curated data layers, and scalable data architecture patterns.
• Experience designing data solutions that support analytics, AI/ML, and modern AI‑driven applications.
• Expertise with CI/CD, Git-based development workflows, automated testing, and infrastructure‑as‑code deployments.
• Strong troubleshooting, problem‑solving, and performance optimization skills.
• Ability to operate effectively in fast‑paced, cross‑functional enterprise environments.
• Experience leveraging AI‑assisted engineering and developer productivity tools to improve code quality, reliability, and delivery speed.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with data observability and data quality tools.
• Knowledge of SAP data structures (S/4, BDC data products)Experience in large-scale enterprise environments.

Salary & Bonus

• Salary Range: $110,000 - 140,000
• Corporate Bonus: 20% - -

Breakthru Beverage Group is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, genetic information and other legally protected characteristics. The EEO is the Law poster is available here.

If you need a reasonable accommodation because of a disability for any part of the employment process, please call [phone] and let us know the nature of your request and your contact information.

We’re driven to be the industry leader in every way, including how we treat our associates. Which is why we’ve built a people-centric, relationship-driven culture designed to maximize career advancement, a sense of belonging, and wellness. Focused on enhancing every aspect and phase of your career, the Breakthru experience includes our commitment to your growth, belonging, and wellness.

Breakthru Beverage is a family-owned and operated company with operations across the U.S. and Canada, and more than $8 billion in annual sales driven by a team of 10,000 associates. We deliver world-renowned brands to the doorsteps of North America’s retail, bar and restaurant businesses.