Principal Data Engineer

WellSense Health Plan; United States; Remote; USD 111,000 - 161,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote work

Competitive salary

Excellent benefits

Job summary

WellSense Health Plan in the United States is seeking a Principal Data Engineer to lead cloud data initiatives and serve as a senior technical contributor. You will design scalable, secure data solutions on AWS (Redshift, DMS, Glue, Lambda) and drive data pipelines with strong mentorship across the data engineering organization.

This role emphasizes hands-on architecture, development, and implementation, plus guiding best practices in CI/CD and AI-assisted development to accelerate delivery.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or master's degree in software engineering, CS or related field
• 6+ years of data engineering/warehousing experience
• 5+ years AWS cloud data engineering experience
• Strong knowledge of Redshift, Glue, DMS, ETL/ELT development, SQL and performance optimization

Responsibilities

• Architect, design, develop, and optimize enterprise-scale AWS data warehouse and analytics solutions.
• Develop and maintain highly scalable data pipelines and data integration solutions.
• Provide deep expertise in Amazon Redshift, AWS Glue, AWS DMS, S3, Lambda, EventBridge, RDS, IAM, and CI/CD practices.
• Develop robust ETL/ELT pipelines using AWS Glue, including Glue Jobs, Data Catalog, and related services.
• Champion AI-assisted development using Claude Code and related tools.
• Mentor and coach data engineers on AWS technologies, cloud architecture, Agile, and software engineering best practices.
• Contribute to architectural decisions and technical roadmaps for the organization's data platform.
• Conduct architecture reviews, code reviews, and technical knowledge-sharing sessions.
• Partner with architects, product owners, analysts, and other technology teams to solve complex technical problems.

Skills

Redshift

AWS Glue

AWS DMS

ETL/ELT

SQL

Python

Claude Code

CI/CD

Education

Bachelor's or Master's degree in software engineering or computer science

Bachelor's degree (Education Preferred)

Tools

Git

Job description

It's an exciting time to join the WellSense Health Plan, a growing regional health insurance company with a 25-year history of providing health insurance that works for our members, no matter their circumstances.

Job Summary

The Principal Data Engineer serves as a senior technical leader for our cloud data platform initiatives. This is an individual contributor role that combines hands-on architecture, development, and implementation responsibilities with technical mentorship and leadership across the data engineering organization. The Principal Data Engineer will design and implement highly scalable, reliable, and secure data solutions using AWS cloud services with a particular focus on Amazon Redshift, AWS Database Migration Service (DMS), AWS Glue, AWS Lambda, and related AWS data services. The Principal Data Engineer will champion the use of AI tools as appropriate to create efficiencies and speed in development

Our Investment in You

• Full-time remote work
• Competitive salaries
• Excellent benefits

Key Functions/Responsibilities

• Architect, design, develop, and optimize enterprise-scale AWS data warehouse and analytics solutions.
• Develop and maintain highly scalable data pipelines and data integration solutions.
• Provide deep expertise in Amazon Redshift, AWS Glue, AWS DMS, S3, Lambda, EventBridge, RDS, IAM, and CI/CD practices.
• Develop robust ETL/ELT pipelines using AWS Glue, including Glue Jobs, Data Catalog, and related services.
• Champion AI-assisted development using Claude Code and related tools.
• Mentor and coach data engineers on AWS technologies, cloud architecture, Agile, and software engineering best practices.
• Contribute to architectural decisions and technical roadmaps for the organization's data platform.
• Conduct architecture reviews, code reviews, and technical knowledge-sharing sessions.
• Partner with architects, product owners, analysts, and other technology teams to solve complex technical problems.

Supervision Exercised

• This is an independent contributor role.

Qualifications

Education Required

• Bachelor's or master's degree, or equivalent experience, in software engineering, computer science, or a related field.
• 6+ years of experience in data engineering, data warehousing, or analytics platforms
• 5+ years of AWS cloud data engineering experience

Education Preferred

• Bachelor's degree

Experience Required

• Strong, demonstrable knowledge of Redshift, Glue, DMS, ETL/ELT development, SQL, and performance optimization
• Experience using Claude Code or similar AI-assisted development solutions
• Experience with Python and/or another modern programming language used for data engineering
• Experience with Git-based source control and modern software development practices

Experience Preferred/Desirable

• Demonstrated experience working in an Agile/Scrum development environment
• Demonstrated ability to mentor engineers and provide technical leadership without direct management responsibility
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills
• Experience in healthcare, payer, or regulated industries

Required Licensure, Certification or Conditions of Employment

• Successful completion of pre-employment background check
• AWS certifications such as Solutions Architect

Competencies, Skills, and Attributes

• Demonstrated ability to understand business objectives and relate those objectives in architecting solutions
• Understands how to break down requirements into work plans (e.g., user stories) for implementation
• Experience in creating accurate estimates for level of effort and duration of work
• Effective collaborative and proven process improvement skills.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills; ability to interact within all levels of the organization and in technical and non-technical environments.

Working Conditions and Physical Effort

• Regular and reliable attendance is an essential function of the position.
• Work is normally performed in a typical remote home office work environment.
• No or very limited physical effort required. No or very limited exposure to physical risk.
• Occasional travel to corporate office may be required

Compensation Range

$110,500 - $160,500

This range offers an estimate based on the minimum job qualifications. However, our approach to determining base pay is comprehensive, and a broad range of factors is considered when making an offer. This includes education, experience, skills, and certifications/licensure as they directly relate to position requirements; as well as business/organizational needs, internal equity, and market-competitiveness. In addition, WellSense offers generous total compensation that includes, but is not limited to, benefits (medical, dental, vision, pharmacy), merit increases, Flexible Spending Accounts, 403(b) savings matches, paid time off, career advancement opportunities, and resources to support employee and family wellbeing.

Note

: This range is based on Boston-area data, and is subject to modification based on geographic location.

About WellSense

WellSense Health Plan is a nonprofit health insurance company serving more than 740,000 members across Massachusetts and New Hampshire through Medicare, Individual and Family, and Medicaid plans. Founded in 1997, WellSense provides high-quality health plans and services that work for our members, no matter their circumstances. WellSense is committed to the diversity and inclusion of staff and their members.

Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability or protected veteran status. WellSense participates in the E-Verify program to electronically verify the employment eligibility of newly hired employees