Principal Data Engineer (1044) - Data Enablement - DataSF

Enterprise for Youth; San Francisco, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

DataSF is seeking a Principal Engineer to lead the data practice across city departments. You will own the department-facing experience and translate diverse needs into scalable data solutions. Starting as IC, you may grow into a small team as the practice expands.

You will shape the analytics engineering practice, establish data quality standards, and drive governance and onboarding to ensure reliable data for city services.

Qualifications

• Strong hands-on data platform or data engineering background: pipelines, data modeling, transformation frameworks, governance.
• Analytics engineering depth: dbt models, data quality, lineage.
• Ability to translate departmental needs into actionable, scalable solutions.

Responsibilities

• Own the full department engagement lifecycle from initial conversation through scoping and onboarding.
• Define and publish the DataSF service catalog with measurable criteria.
• Model data domains with departments and translate needs into platform services.
• Shape analytics engineering practice including dbt models and data pipelines.
• Build self-service pathways for data discovery and access requests.
• Maintain data quality standards and trust signals.

Skills

Data engineering

dbt

SQL

Governance

Stakeholder enablement

Education

Associate degree in CS/CE/IS or equivalent

Five years of system/platform experience (or 2000 hours equivalent)

Tools

Snowflake

Job description

• Full-time
• Job Code and Title: 1044-IS Engineer-Principal
• Fill Type: Permanent Exempt

Company Description

Specific informationregardingthis recruitment processare listed below:

About the Office of the City Administrator:
The Office of the City Administrator and its 25+ divisions and departments operate core internal and public-facing services in San Francisco.
Our vision is to lead the nation in public administration and to enable City departments to effectively deliver critical public services. We aim to help the city run better, to connect San Francisco residents and constituents to the vital public services they seek, and to create a meaningful and diverse work culture that is the place of choice for people who are invested in a career in public service.

We are committed to ensuring that City services are inclusive, efficient, equitable, and culturally competent for San Franciscans of all races, ethnic backgrounds, religions, and sextual orientations. This commitment requires comprehensive review and thorough analysis of existing practices and policies to remove barriers to real inclusion. We are also committed to ensuring that we have a safe, equitable, and inclusive workplace for individuals of all races. This includes creating opportunities for hiring, promotion, training, and development, for all employees, including but not limited to, Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC).

Want to build robust and scalable data infrastructure to power data-driven City services? Join the DataSF team to empower and expand the use of data in government!

DataSF’s mission is to transform the way San Francisco works with data. We believe that data, when harnessed effectively, can improve transparency, resident engagement, and government performance. We are committed to removing barriers and making it easier for all people to access services and knowledge, and we actively seek team members whose diverse life experiences reflect the residents we serve. The department has a hybrid work schedule.

Job Description

As DataSF grows to support every city department and their diverse needs, we’re formalizing the data practice that sits around the platform—clear service offerings, consistent onboarding, intuitive self‑service tools, and reliable data quality standards. This role is the principal engineer leading that effort. You’ll own the department‑facing experience: how teams learn to work with DataSF, what they can expect from our services, and how projects are defined and delivered. You’ll combine strong platform and data engineering depth with the ability to translate departmental needs into actionable, scalable solutions. Starting as an individual contributor partnering closely with two analytics engineers, the role may evolve to manage a small team as our practice grows.

Examples of Important and Essential Duties:

• Own the full department engagement lifecycle—from initial conversation through scoping, onboarding, delivery, and ongoing support.
• Define and publish the DataSF service catalog, clearly outlining what constitutes standard queue work, what requires a scoped project, and what triggers an interagency agreement, using measurable criteria.
• Partner directly with departments to understand and model their data domains, translating those needs into actionable requirements the platform can serve.
• Shape the analytics engineering practice, including dbt models, department pipelines, data quality approaches, and reusable standards the team relies on.
• Build self‑service pathways that allow departments to discover data, assess its trustworthiness, and request access without needing to know whom to contact.
• Own data quality standards and trust signals—freshness, completeness, lineage—so users understand what assumptions they can make about each dataset.
• Integrate governance and data‑readiness requirements into the onboarding process rather than treating them as afterthoughts.
• Set and maintain clear scope expectations with departments and perform related duties as assigned.

Qualifications

Education:

An associate degree in computer science, computer engineering, information systems, or a closely related field from an accredited college or university OR its equivalent in terms of total course credits/units [i.e., at least sixty (60) semester or ninety (90) quarter credits/units with a minimum of twenty (20) semester or thirty (30) quarter credits/units in one of the fields above or a closely-related field].

Experience:

Five (5) years of experience analyzing, installing, configuring, enhancing, and/or maintaining the components of a system or platform.

Substitution:

One year of additional experience as described above may be substituted for the required degree.

Completion of the 1010 Information Systems Trainee Program may be substituted for the required degree.

Note(s):

One-year full-time employment is considered equivalent to 2000 hours (2000 hours of qualifying work experience is based on a40 hourwork week). Any overtime hours that you work above forty (40) hours per week are not included in the calculation todeterminefull-time employment.

Applicants must meet minimum qualification requirements by the final filing date unless otherwise noted.

Desirable Qualifications: The stated desirable qualifications may be used toidentifyjob finalists at the end of the selection process when candidates are referred for hiring.

Technical:

Strong hands-on data platform or data engineering background: building and operating pipelines, data modeling, transformation frameworks, and platform governance.

Analytics engineering depthindbt,semantic modeling, or comparable.

Cloud data warehouse experience (Snowflake preferred) and advanced SQL.

Data governance, privacy, or security awareness, including handling of sensitive data.

Stakeholder & enablement:

Demonstrated strength working directly with non-technical stakeholderstounderstand their needs, translating them into technical work, and driving adoption.

Experience getting people toactually usea platform, not just building one: onboarding, enablement, training, or change management.

Comfort setting expectations and holding boundaries with demanding stakeholders whilemaintainingthe relationship.

Experience mentoring engineers or analysts and raising the standard of a team's work.

Mission alignment:

Genuine interest in public-sector impact and a clear-eyed understanding of what working in government is like.

Commitment to equity, transparency, and ethical data use in service of San Francisco's residents.

Verification:
Please make sure it is clear in your application exactly how you meet the minimum qualifications.Every application is reviewed to ensure that you meet the minimum qualifications as listed in the job ad. Please review our articles onEmployment Application and Minimum Qualifications andVerification of Experience and/or Education for considerations taken when reviewing applications.Applicants maybe requiredtosubmitverification of qualifying education and experience at any point in the application and/or departmental selection process.

Additional Information

Selection Procedures

The selection process will include evaluation of applications in relation tominimumrequirements. Dependingon the number of applicants, the Department mayestablishand implementadditionalscreening mechanisms to comparatively evaluation qualifications of candidates. If this becomes necessary, only those applicants whose qualifications most closely meet the needs of the Department will be invited for an interview.

Applicants who meet the minimum qualifications are not guaranteed to advance throughall ofthe steps in the selection process.

All candidates must complete a supplemental questionnaire as part of the employment application. Please see this link tosubmitthe supplemental questionnaire:

Additional Information Regarding Employment with the City and County of San Francisco:

Applicants will receive a confirmation email from [emailprotected] that their online application has been received in response to every announcement for which they file. Applicants shouldretainthis confirmation email for their records.Failure to receive this email means that the online application was notsubmittedor received.

Applicants may be contacted by email about this recruitment and, therefore, it is their responsibility to ensure that their registered email address isaccurateand keptup-to-date. Also, applicants must ensure that email from CCSF is not blocked on their computer by a spam filter. To prevent blocking, applicants should set up their email to accept CCSF mail from the following addresses (@sfgov.org, @sfdpw.org, @sfport.com, @flysfo.com, @sfwater.org, @sfdph.org, @asianart.org, @sfmta.com, @sfpl.org, @dcyf.org, @first5sf.org, @famsf.org, @ccsf.edu, @smartalerts.info, and @smartrecruiters.com).

HR Analyst Information:If you have any questionsregardingthis recruitment or application process, please contact the exam analyst at [emailprotected] .

The City and County of San Francisco encourages women, minorities and persons with disabilities to apply. Applicants will be considered regardless of their sex, race, age, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition (associated with cancer, a history of cancer, or genetic characteristics), HIV/AIDS status, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, military and veteran status, or other protected category under the law.