Senior Data Engineer

LaSalle Network; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 135,000 - 155,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision benefits

401(k) plan

Annual bonus eligible

Job summary

LaSalle Network is seeking a Senior Data Engineer to lead the buildout of a graph-backed enterprise data platform for a major client in Chicago. This product-minded role involves architecting the ingestion layer, graph modeling, and APIs to unify resilience data across customers and cloud environments.

You will own the platform end-to-end, from data ingestion to governance, delivering scalable pipelines and production-grade integrations.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or related field.
• 5+ years designing data engineering, backend data systems, or platform engineering.
• Experience building/expanding data platforms in production environments.
• Experience with graph, network, or highly relational data structures.
• Cloud-native experience (Azure preferred).
• Experience with integrations and connectors; knowledge of Docker/Kubernetes is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Architect and build a next-gen data platform with graph DB, relational storage, and data lake components.
• Design scalable ETL/ELT pipelines from various sources using managed connectors.
• Develop entity resolution pipelines to unify records into a graph model.
• Create graph data models capturing dependencies, recovery sequences, and org relationships.
• Develop temporal/bitemporal models for historical replay and auditing.
• Establish governance, quality, observability, lineage, and security practices.
• Build backend services and APIs for graph queries and data access.
• Support containerized deployment across cloud and on-prem environments.
• Partner with product/engineering leadership to shape platform roadmap.

Skills

SQL proficiency

Graph databases

Entity resolution

Python/Java

ETL/ELT

Airflow/Dagster/dbt

Cloud experience

Containerization

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/Engineering/IS

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Cypher/Gremlin

dbt

Job description

The Role

We’re looking for a product minded Senior Data Engineer to lead the buildout of a new, graph backed enterprise data platform at Client.

We’re looking for a product minded Senior Data Engineer to lead the buildout of a new, graph backed enterprise data platform at Client. This is not a maintenance role. You will architect and own a new data platform from the ground up, designing the ingestion layer, graph and relational storage, entity resolution pipelines, and APIs that unify resilience data across customers, systems, and cloud environments. You will define how data is ingested, resolved, modeled as a graph, governed, and exposed across Client’s ecosystem. This platform will power dependency analysis, recovery modeling, predictive intelligence, and a new generation of resilience products. This is a high-ownership opportunity for someone who wants to build something foundational, work with graph and network data structures at scale, and create a platform that becomes core to Client’s long-term strategy.

Key Responsibilities

• Architect and build Client’s next-generation data platform from the ground up, including a graph database layer, relational storage, and data lake components.
• Design and implement scalable ETL/ELT pipelines to ingest and transform data from customer environments, internal systems, and third-party platforms using managed connector frameworks.
• Build and maintain entity resolution pipelines that match, merge, and link records across disparate sources into a unified graph model.
• Design and implement graph data models that represent operational dependencies, recovery sequences, and organizational relationships—supporting traversal queries across complex, multi-hop networks.
• Develop temporal and bitemporal data models that capture how entities and relationships change over time, enabling historical replay and audit-grade versioning.
• Establish best practices for data governance, quality, observability, lineage, and security across the platform.
• Build backend services and APIs that expose graph queries, entity lookups, and data capabilities to downstream applications and ML systems.
• Support containerized deployment across both managed cloud and customer-hosted (reverse SaaS) environments.
• Partner with product and engineering leadership to shape the long-term data platform roadmap.

Knowledge, Skills, And Abilities

• Strong SQL expertise with experience designing performant data models and production-grade transformations.
• Experience with graph databases or network-oriented data problems—e.g., dependency mapping, supply chain graphs, knowledge graphs, social network analysis, or similar domains where relationships between entities are central to the data model.
• Familiarity with graph query languages or traversal patterns (e.g., Gremlin, Cypher, SPARQL, or recursive SQL) and an understanding of when graph representations outperform relational models.
• Experience with entity resolution, record linkage, or deduplication at scale—whether using probabilistic matching frameworks, deterministic rules, or ML-assisted approaches.
• Experience building data lakes, warehouses, and distributed data systems from the ground up.
• Strong understanding of ETL/ELT patterns, orchestration (e.g., Airflow, Dagster, dbt, or similar), and pipeline reliability.
• Experience with open-source or self-hosted data infrastructure components and a pragmatic sense for build-vs-buy trade-offs.
• Experience designing and implementing enterprise system integrations, connectors, and APIs.
• Strong engineering fundamentals with focus on scalability, performance, monitoring, and security.
• Familiarity with containerized deployments and orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes, Helm, or similar) (bonus).
• Experience with temporal or bitemporal data modeling patterns (bonus).
• Experience with Salesforce or ServiceNow data models and integrations (bonus).
• Strong Python or Java skills for building backend services (bonus).
• Familiarity with AI-assisted development tools (e.g., Copilot, Cursor, Claude Code, or similar) and comfort using them to accelerate engineering workflows.
• Product-oriented mindset with the ability to make pragmatic architectural decisions in ambiguous, early-stage environments.

Qualifications (Education And Experience)

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related field.
• 5+ years of experience in data engineering, backend data systems, or platform engineering roles.
• Experience building or significantly expanding a data platform or data infrastructure in a production environment.
• Experience working with graph, network, or highly relational data structures in a professional or academic setting.
• Experience working in cloud-native environments (Azure preferred).
• Experience designing enterprise-grade integrations and connectors.
• Experience with entity resolution or record-matching techniques (nice to have).
• Experience with containerized deployments (Docker, Kubernetes) (nice to have).

Milestones for the First Six Months

In One Month, You Will

• Complete onboarding and gain deep familiarity with Client’s products, data strategy, and long-term platform vision.
• Assess the current state of data infrastructure and evaluate graph database and entity resolution options against platform requirements.
• Align with product and engineering leadership on platform scope and priorities.

In Three Months, You Will

• Deliver the first foundational components of the new data platform—core graph storage layer, initial ingestion pipelines, and entity resolution workflow.
• Implement initial ETL/ELT workflows and at least one production-grade system connector.
• Establish standards for graph data modeling, governance, and observability.

In Six Months, You Will

• Own and deliver the first production-ready version of Client’s new data platform, including graph traversal APIs and entity resolution.
• Have multiple ingestion pipelines and connectors operating reliably in production.
• Serve as the architectural owner of the platform, driving roadmap and technical direction.
• Propose and lead the next phase of platform expansion—temporal modeling, advanced graph analytics, and ML feature pipelines.

Compensation & Benefits

The annual base salary range for this position is $135,000-$155,000, depending on the candidate’s experience, qualifications, and relevant skill set. The position is also eligible to earn an annual bonus. Client offers a comprehensive benefits package including medical, dental, vision, and a 401(k) plan.

LaSalle Network is an Equal Opportunity Employer m/f/d/v.