Remote Principal Data Engineer — Lead Data Platform

Tecla; United States; Remote; USD 84,000 - 100,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote work

Paid vacation

Leadership ownership

Job summary

Tecla is seeking a Principal Data Engineer to own the technical direction of the partner's data platform, shaping architecture, standards, and long‑term roadmaps. You will lead senior engineers, write production code, and resolve complex production issues with a data-first mindset.

You will steer Snowflake architecture, Data Vault 2.0 patterns, CDC, secure data sharing, and cost governance, while balancing performance, reliability, and business impact.

Qualifications

• 10+ years in data engineering with 3+ years in a technical lead/architect role
• Deep production experience with Snowflake: architecture, performance tuning, cost management, secure data sharing
• Expert SQL and dbt, including project structure, testing strategy, and CI/CD for data
• Deep data modeling across Kimball dimensional modeling and Data Vault 2.0
• Designed semantic layers with governed metrics for consistent BI/AI definitions
• Designed and operated production data ingestion at scale (CDC, orchestration, monitoring, recovery)
• Track record of consequential technical decisions with written justification (design docs/records)
• Led engineers to decisions and commitments without relying on titles
• Pushed back on leadership with evidence and adjusted stance when needed
• Weighed cost, time, and customer impact alongside technical quality
• Clear writing and speaking from design docs to executive explanations
• Master data management practices: entity resolution, survivorship, governance for reference data
• Built and supported internal data products and customer-facing data products

Responsibilities

• Set and own the technical direction of the data platform (architecture, modeling standards, ingestion patterns, 12–24 month roadmap)
• Make consequential technical decisions and document tradeoffs and rejected options
• Resolve technical disagreements and drive outcomes
• Lead Snowflake architecture end-to-end including core Vault patterns, CDC, data sharing, performance, and cost
• Define engineering standards, naming conventions, testing gates, CI/CD, and release practices
• Decide reusable platform capabilities vs one-offs and guide implementation patterns
• Run design reviews and set code review bar for senior engineers
• Act as technical authority with customer data teams and partners: explain architecture and guarantees
• Develop the team: mentor engineers toward senior/principal levels and help hire
• Write production code and lead incident responses
• Lead technical roadmap refinement sessions
• Own master data management across portfolio: governed core entities
• Shape internal data products (analytics, reporting, AI foundations) with rigor

Skills

Snowflake

SQL

dbt

Data Vault 2.0

Kimball modeling

Data governance

Tools

CI/CD

Job description

Tecla is seeking a Principal Data Engineer to own the technical direction of the partner's data platform, shaping architecture, standards, and long‑term roadmaps. You will lead senior engineers, write production code, and resolve complex production issues with a data-first mindset.

You will steer Snowflake architecture, Data Vault 2.0 patterns, CDC, secure data sharing, and cost governance, while balancing performance, reliability, and business impact.