Principal Data Platform Architect

Color Employer, LLC; Tennessee; Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 271,000; Full time

Job summary

Lyric is seeking a Principal Data Engineer to own the technical roadmap and architecture for the Data Platform. You will define canonical data models and build a unified, multi-tenant framework with strong data quality and observability.

You will mentor engineers, collaborate with infrastructure and application teams, and drive self-service data provisioning to enable rapid, governed data access. This role requires deep data modeling, Snowflake, dbt, Airflow, Python and SQL expertise.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Software Engineering or a related field.
• 10+ years of data engineering, including 3+ years at Principal level owning architecture and technical direction for a data platform or major data domain.
• Deep data modeling expertise, with canonical/shared data models serving multiple consumers.
• Experience architecting multi-tenant data platforms with tenant isolation and shared models.
• 3+ years with Snowflake, including Snowflake features and RBAC.
• Production experience with dbt and Airflow, including scalable project structuring.
• Strong programming in Python and extensive SQL/SnowSQL.
• Hands-on data quality and observability into pipelines with validation and lineage.
• Experience building internal data platforms/tools with declarative configuration.
• Track record of consolidating architectures without disrupting consumers.
• Excellent presentation skills translating technical concepts to business value.
• Ability to lead through influence and mentor engineers toward ownership.

Responsibilities

• Own the technical roadmap and architecture for the Data Platform and present to engineering leadership.
• Define the canonical data model for Lyric's core data domains across consumer products.
• Architect a unified data framework with sources, transformations, outputs, and validations under version control.
• Establish data quality and observability with automated validations and end-to-end visibility.
• Design and lead self-service data provisioning for tenant declarations, mappings, and validations.
• Define Snowflake governance, including schema standards, access controls, and authoritative data definitions.
• Mentor senior engineers to grow architectural judgment and data modeling depth.
• Promote data modeling expertise through documentation and lunch-and-learns.
• Contribute to data stewardship and ensure data assets are safe, usable, and compliant.

Skills

Data architecture

Data modeling

Python

SQL

Big data

Leadership

Data governance

Presentation

Education

Bachelor's degree in Software Engineering or related field

Tools

dbt

Airflow

Snowflake

Job description

Lyric is seeking a Principal Data Engineer to own the technical roadmap and architecture for the Data Platform. You will define canonical data models and build a unified, multi-tenant framework with strong data quality and observability.

You will mentor engineers, collaborate with infrastructure and application teams, and drive self-service data provisioning to enable rapid, governed data access. This role requires deep data modeling, Snowflake, dbt, Airflow, Python and SQL expertise.