Principal Data Engineer: Real-Time Databricks Platform

Alaska Airlines; SeaTac (WA); On-site; USD 139,000 - 208,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Free stand-by travel privileges

Comprehensive well-being programs

Generous 401k match

Annual bonus plans

Generous holiday and paid time off

Job summary

Alaska Airlines seeks a Principal Data Engineer to design and advance its Enterprise Data platform on Databricks. You will lead high-performance pipelines, mentor engineers, and align data solutions with business goals.

Strong focus on governance, security, and cost optimization will drive scalable analytics across the enterprise. You will collaborate with data scientists, analysts, and IT teams, implementing best practices, optimizing Spark configurations, and driving innovative data

Qualifications

• 7 years of experience in data engineering and big data platforms.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience.
• Expert-level proficiency in Databricks and Apache Spark.
• Strong coding skills with Python, SQL and PySpark.
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code (ARM, Terraform) and CI/CD (Azure DevOps and/or GitHub).
• Familiarity with Unity Catalog and Lakehouse Federation.
• Experience with Kafka.

Responsibilities

• Design, optimize, implement, and advance Alaska Air Group’s Enterprise Data platform using Databricks.
• Lead data pipelines, streaming and batch, with cost and performance optimization.
• Collaborate with data scientists, analysts, and engineering teams to deliver production-grade solutions.
• Define governance, CI/CD integration, and workspace best practices.
• Mentor engineers on streaming solutions, spark internals, and delta table optimization.
• Collaborate with Enterprise Architecture and Security on architecture and security strategies.

Skills

Databricks

Apache Spark

Python

SQL

PySpark

Terraform

Azure DevOps

GitHub

CI/CD

Kafka

Unity Catalog

Data pipelines

Education

Bachelor's degree

High school diploma

Tools

Delta Live Tables

Structured Streaming

ARM

Job description

Alaska Airlines seeks a Principal Data Engineer to design and advance its Enterprise Data platform on Databricks. You will lead high-performance pipelines, mentor engineers, and align data solutions with business goals.

Strong focus on governance, security, and cost optimization will drive scalable analytics across the enterprise. You will collaborate with data scientists, analysts, and IT teams, implementing best practices, optimizing Spark configurations, and driving innovative data