Senior Data Engineer

Unum; Columbia (SC); On-site; USD 98,000 - 202,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Award-winning culture

Inclusion and diversity as a priority

Performance Based Incentive Plans

Health, Vision, Dental, Short & Long-­

Generous PTO including paid time tovol

401(k) employer contribution up to 9.5

Mental health support

Career advancement opportunities

Student loan repayment options

Tuition reimbursement

Flexible work environments

Job summary

Unum seeks an experienced Senior Data Engineer to act as a hands-on technical lead across Value Streams, delivering scalable data pipelines, ETL/ELT processes, and data models using Snowflake, SQL, and Python. You will mentor engineers, lead design reviews, and drive best practices in a large enterprise.

You will partner with architects, product owners, and stakeholders to ensure secure, reliable data solutions while advancing modernization initiatives. This role is based in Columbia, SC.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related technical field preferred.
• 6+ years of experience in Data Engineering, Software Engineering, Data Integration, or related technical disciplines.
• Hands-on experience designing and building complex data pipelines, ETL/ELT solutions, data warehouses, data marts, and data models in large-scale enterprise environments.
• Strong hands-on expertise with Snowflake, SQL, Python, and modern ETL/ELT technologies.
• Experience with cloud data platforms and integrating data through APIs, batch, near-real-time, and real-time patterns.
• Mentor engineers, lead design/code reviews, and drive best practices across teams.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the hands-on technical lead for data engineering across assigned Value Streams, providing technical direction across at least two Value Streams.
• Lead the design and implementation of complex data engineering solutions, including data pipelines, ETL/ELT processes, data warehouses, data marts, data models, and enterprise data assets.
• Translate enterprise architecture standards, patterns, and governance guardrails into detailed, scalable, and implementable technical designs.
• Actively contribute to solution design and engineering, troubleshooting complex technical challenges and guiding solutions through implementation and production.
• Make key technical design decisions and lead design and code reviews to ensure scalable, reliable, secure, and maintainable solutions.
• Lead complex integrations across cloud, on-premises, internal, and external data sources, including batch, near-real-time, real-time, and API-based integrations.
• Partner with architects, product owners, analysts, engineers, and business stakeholders to understand requirements and determine appropriate technical solutions.
• Establish and promote engineering best practices for data modeling, integration, automation, testing, performance optimization, deployment, and operational support.
• Guide engineers through implementation and provide hands-on technical coaching and mentoring to strengthen engineering capabilities across teams.
• Support Value Stream transformation through modern data engineering patterns, technologies, and development practices.

Skills

Hands-on data engineering

ETL/ELT design

Technical leadership

Mentoring engineers

CI/CD practices

SQL expertise

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Snowflake

SQL

Python

ETL/ELT tooling

Job description

Job Posting End Date: November 16

When you join the team at Unum, you become part of an organization committed to helping you thrive.

Here, we work to provide the employee benefits and service solutions that enable employees at our client companies to thrive throughout life's moments. And this starts with ensuring that every one of our team members enjoys opportunities to succeed both professionally and personally. To enable this, we provide:

• Award-winning culture
• Inclusion and diversity as a priority
• Performance Based Incentive Plans
• Competitive benefits package that includes: Health, Vision, Dental, Short & Long-Term Disability
• Generous PTO (including paid time to volunteer!)
• Up to 9.5% 401(k) employer contribution
• Mental health support
• Career advancement opportunities
• Student loan repayment options
• Tuition reimbursement
• Flexible work environments

*All the benefits listed above are subject to the terms of their individual Plans*

And that's just the beginning...

With 10,000 employees helping more than 39 million people worldwide, every role at Unum is meaningful and impacts the lives of our customers. Whether you're directly supporting a growing family, or developing online tools to help navigate a difficult loss, customers are counting on the combined talents of our entire team. Help us help others, and join Team Unum today!

General Summary:

This position is for an experienced Senior Data Engineer who will serve as a hands-on technical lead for data engineering across assigned Value Streams, providing technical leadership across at least two Value Streams, translating enterprise architecture standards, patterns, and governance guardrails into detailed, production-ready designs that engineering teams can successfully implement.

This is a 100% hands-on technical role. The Senior Data Engineer will actively design solutions, solve complex engineering challenges, make key technical decisions, review code and implementations, and guide engineers through delivery. The role will lead by doing, not simply coordinate the work.

The Senior Data Engineer will lead the design and delivery of complex data pipelines, ETL/ELT processes, data warehouses, data marts, data models, and integration solutions using technologies including Snowflake, SQL, Python, and modern ETL/ELT tooling.

This individual will partner closely with architects, product owners, engineers, analysts, and business stakeholders to deliver scalable, reliable, secure, and maintainable data solutions. They will also play an important role in Value Stream transformation by establishing engineering best practices, leading design and code reviews, mentoring engineers, and driving consistency and technical excellence across teams.

Job Specifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related technical field preferred.
• 6+ years of experience in Data Engineering, Software Engineering, Data Integration, or related technical disciplines.
• Demonstrated hands-on experience designing and building complex data pipelines, ETL/ELT solutions, data warehouses, data marts, and data models in large-scale enterprise environments.
• Strong hands-on expertise with Snowflake, SQL, Python, and modern ETL/ELT technologies.
• Experience working with cloud data platforms and integrating data through APIs, batch, near-real-time, and real-time integration patterns.
• Deep knowledge of data modeling, data integration patterns, solution design, and modern data engineering practices.
• Demonstrated ability to translate enterprise architecture patterns, standards, and guardrails into detailed, scalable, production-ready technical designs.
• Proven experience serving as a hands-on technical lead, including making design decisions, conducting design and code reviews, solving complex engineering problems, and guiding engineers through implementation.
• Strong understanding of DevOps and CI/CD practices, Git, automated testing, automation, deployment, and operational excellence.
• Experience delivering solutions within complex enterprise data environments involving multiple systems, platforms, and data sources.
• Familiarity with legacy data platforms such as Teradata and DB2 is beneficial, particularly within modernization or transformation environments.
• Demonstrated ability to mentor engineers and influence technical direction while remaining actively involved in engineering delivery.
• Strong problem-solving, communication, and stakeholder management skills.
• Strong business acumen with the ability to balance technical quality, delivery objectives, and business outcomes.

Principal Duties and Responsibilities:

• Serve as the hands-on technical lead for data engineering across assigned Value Streams, providing technical direction across at least two Value Streams.
• Lead the design and implementation of complex data engineering solutions, including data pipelines, ETL/ELT processes, data warehouses, data marts, data models, and enterprise data assets.
• Translate enterprise architecture standards, patterns, and governance guardrails into detailed, scalable, and implementable technical designs.
• Actively contribute to solution design and engineering, troubleshooting complex technical challenges and guiding solutions through implementation and production.
• Make key technical design decisions and lead design and code reviews to ensure solutions meet scalability, reliability, security, performance, and maintainability standards.
• Lead complex integrations across cloud, on-premises, internal, and external data sources, including batch, near-real-time, real-time, and API-based integrations.
• Partner with architects, product owners, analysts, engineers, and business stakeholders to understand requirements and determine appropriate technical solutions.
• Establish and promote engineering best practices for data modeling, integration, automation, testing, performance optimization, deployment, and operational support.
• Guide engineers through implementation and provide hands-on technical coaching and mentoring to strengthen engineering capabilities across teams.
• Support Value Stream transformation through the adoption of modern data engineering patterns, technologies, and development practices.
• Apply approved AI-enabled tools where appropriate to improve engineering productivity, quality, and delivery.

#LI-TS1

~IN1

Unum and Colonial Life are part of Unum Group, a Fortune 500 company and leading provider of employee benefits to companies worldwide. Headquartered in Chattanooga, TN, with international offices in Ireland, Poland and the UK, Unum also has significant operations in Portland, ME - plus over 35 US field offices. Colonial Life is headquartered in Columbia, SC, with over 40 field offices nationwide.

Unum is an equal opportunity employer, considering all qualified applicants and employees for hiring, placement, and advancement, without regard to a person's race, color, religion, national origin, age, genetic information, military status, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, or protected veteran status.

The base salary range for applicants for this position is listed below. Unless actual salary is indicated above in the job description, actual pay will be based on skill, geographical location and experience.

$98,340.00-$201,900.00

Additionally, Unum offers a portfolio of benefits and rewards that are competitive and comprehensive including healthcare benefits (health, vision, dental), insurance benefits (short & long-term disability), performance-based incentive plans, paid time off, and a 401(k) retirement plan with an employer match up to 5% and an additional 4.5% contribution whether you contribute to the plan or not. All benefits are subject to the terms and conditions of individual Plans.

Company:

Unum