Senior Data Platform Engineer

Xcel Energy Services Inc; Denver (CO); Hybrid; USD 130,000 - 165,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Annual Incentive Program

Medical/Pharmacy Plan

Dental

Vision

Life Insurance

401(k) plan

PTO

Job summary

Xcel Energy in Denver, CO seeks a Senior Data Platform Engineer to design, administer, secure, and govern the Databricks Lakehouse Platform across AWS and GCP. This role leads platform operations, Unity Catalog, IAM, automation, monitoring, disaster recovery, and cost optimization for enterprise analytics and AI initiatives.

Collaborating with data engineering, security, BI and business teams, you will ensure scalability, reliability, and secure data access while guiding architectural decisions

Qualifications

• Ten years of related functional experience.
• Bachelor's degree or 4 years of experience equivalent.
• Excellent communication and collaboration across levels.
• Experience with ITIL, delivery methodologies (Waterfall, Agile, Scrum).

Responsibilities

• Lead and support solution lifecycle technical activities.
• Ensure solutions meet Enterprise Architecture, Security, Audit, Operations and Compliance requirements.
• Provide input to strategic roadmap and technical dependencies.
• Collaborate with data engineering, infrastructure, security and business teams to deliver Databricks solutions.

Skills

Databricks Lakehouse

AWS

GCP

SQL

Python

Apache Spark

IAM & Security

Terraform

GitLab CI/CD

Data governance

Education

Bachelor's degree in Technology, Science, Business or related field

Tools

Databricks

Unity Catalog

Terraform

Cloud IAM

CI/CD pipelines

Job description

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ: XEL) is a leading energy provider and Fortune 500 company, dedicated to serving millions of electricity and natural gas customers across eight states: Minnesota, Colorado, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Dakota, South Dakota, New Mexico and Texas. We make energy work better for our customers, helping them thrive every day. That means always raising the bar - delivering better service and providing more reliable, resilient, and sustainable energy. Xcel Energy is a place where you’ll have opportunities to grow, expand your skills, and help lead the clean energy transition. We offer meaningful rewards, recognition, and support to help you build your career and make an impact - both on the job and beyond. Most importantly, it means you’ll be joining a company that knows employees are the driving force behind its success and is committed to helping you be your best. Xcel Energy supports a hybrid work model to enable collaboration and flexibility. Many roles are expected to work onsite three days per week (Tuesday–Thursday); however, work location expectations vary based on role, team, and business needs.

Position Summary

This senior Data Platform Engineer is responsible for the design, administration, security, governance, and support of Xcel Energy's enterprise Databricks Lakehouse Platform across AWS and GCP. This role provides technical leadership for cloud-based data platform services, including platform operations, Unity Catalog, identity and access management, automation, monitoring, disaster recovery, and cost optimization. Working across data engineering, infrastructure, architecture, security, and business teams, the engineer ensures the platform is scalable, reliable, secure, and capable of supporting enterprise analytics, reporting, and AI/ML initiatives.

Essential Responsibilities

• Solution Delivery: Lead and support solution lifecycle technical activities. Ensure solutions are designed for great user experience and operational performance. Lead design, ensuring Enterprise Architecture, Security, Audit, Operations and Compliance aspects are continuously integrated into solutions. Provide input to cost and schedule estimation. Responsible for overall integrity of system design and operation.
• Relationship Management: Conduct peer reviews and approve system changes and technical solution design. Coach and mentor less experience team members. Partner cross-organizationally to drive minimal costs on optimal solutions. Provide in-depth technical information to stakeholders as needed.
• Strategy & Planning: Innovate through usage of industry emerging capabilities and evolving customer needs. Provide input to strategic roadmap and technical dependencies.
• Subject Matter Expertise: Continuously stay current on, and apply, technical industry knowledge pertaining to the respective domain Operations: Review solution performance and continually assess health of systems. Track and drive awareness to operational and technical debt risks. Provide escalated support to incident and problem management with vendors and internal teams. Utilize analytics to improve availability, reliability, efficiency, and capacity.

Minimum Requirements

• Ten years of related functional experience.
• Bachelor's degree in Technology, Science, Business or related field, or 4 years of experience equivalent to the position.
• Excellent communication skills, effective with varying organizational levels and skill set, and able to translate between technical and non-technical concepts.
• Excellent Relationship Management and collaboration skills, with a track record of working as one team cross-organizationally to drive inovation and business results.
• Expertise managing the lifecycle of technical solutions.
• Deep Subject Matter Expertise within the respective system domain products, platforms, processes and architecture.
• Broad and deep knowledge of technology architecture, infrastructure, network, security and software principles and models.
• Experience working in partnership with internal and external vendors.
• Excellent analytical, problem-solving and troubleshooting skills.
• Extensive knowledge of future technology trends within area of expertise.
• Demonstrated leadership on technical aspects of large scale projects.
• Experience coaching other developers in system deployment or operational troubleshooting.
• Experience with delivery methodologies (Waterfall, Agile, Scrum) and operational models (ITIL).
• Experience and understanding of core IT Service Management functions, such as Change Management and Incident Management.

Preferred Requirements

• Five or more years of hands‑on experience administering and supporting the Databricks Lakehouse Platform in AWS and/or GCP environments.
• Experience with AWS and GCP cloud services, including IAM roles and policies, service accounts, networking, storage, security integration, and resource governance.
• Experience administering Unity Catalog and enterprise identity, access, security, and data governance controls.
• Experience developing and supporting scalable data ingestion solutions using Databricks Lakeflow, ZeroBus, and other Databricks-native ingestion capabilities.
• Experience integrating Databricks with external applications, BI tools, databases, data warehouses, data lakes, ingestion platforms, and ETL/ELT technologies.
• Experience with Databricks Lakebase, including connectivity, security, administration, and application integration.
• Experience designing and supporting Lakehouse Federation and secure federated data access across platforms and data sources.
• Experience configuring, deploying, and maintaining Databricks workspaces, clusters, and associated cloud resources using infrastructure as code, preferably Terraform.
• Strong working knowledge of SQL, Python, Apache Spark, GitLab CI/CD pipelines, MLOps, and Databricks Asset Bundles.
• Experience monitoring and optimizing Databricks performance, reliability scalability, security compliance, and cloud costs.
• Experience managing platform releases, upgrades, backup strategies, and disaster recovery capabilities.
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate with data engineering, data science, BI, infrastructure, architecture, security, operations, and business teams to deliver enterprise Databricks solutions.
• Experience in the utility or energy industry is a plus.

Our Culture

Our culture is grounded in shared values and employee commitments that guide how we work, support one another, and grow together.

Our Values Connected, Committed, Trustworthy, Safe

Our Employee Commitments Work that makes a difference A team you can count of Opportunities to grow Rewards that help you thrive

Xcel Energy provides job applicants reasonable accommodations for disabilities throughout the application process. If you are in need of an accommodation to complete the application process, now or at any time in the future, please complete the Applicant Accommodation Request Form.

Salary

The anticipated starting base pay for this position is: $130,000.00 to $165,000.00 per year

Benefits

• Annual Incentive Program
• Medical/Pharmacy Plan
• Dental
• Vision
• Life Insurance
• Dependent Care Reimbursement Account
• Health Care Reimbursement Account
• Health Savings Account (HSA) (if enrolled in eligible health plan)
• Limited-Purpose FSA (if enrolled in eligible health plan and HSA)
• Transportation Reimbursement Account
• Short-term disability (STD)
• Long-term disability (LTD)
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
• Fitness Center Reimbursement (if enrolled in eligible health plan)
• Tuition reimbursement
• Transit programs
• Employee recognition program
• Pension
• 401(k) plan
• Paid time off (PTO)
• Holidays
• Volunteer Paid Time Off (VPTO)
• Parental Leave
• Benefit plans are subject to change and Xcel Energy has the right to end, suspend, or amend any of its plans, at any time, in whole or in part.

Deadline

Deadline to Apply: 10/20/26

Equal Opportunity Statement

EEO is the Law (PDF) | Equal Opportunity Statement (PDF) | Employee Rights (PDF)

Cybersecurity Policy

All Xcel Energy employees and contractors share responsibility for protecting the company's information and systems by adhering to cybersecurity policies, standards, and best practices, recognizing that cybersecurity is everyone's responsibility.

Accessibility Statement

Xcel Energy endeavors to make https://www.xcelenergy.com and https://jobs.xcelenergy.com accessible to any and all users. If you are in need of an accommodation to complete the application process, now or at any time in the future, please complete the Applicant Accommodation Request Form. For any other application related questions, including application follow-ups or technical issues, please use our Recruiting Assistance, Electra, for assistance. Electra can be found in the lower right-hand corner of our Xcel Energy Careers site.

Vision

You. Us. Together. At Xcel Energy, we’re more than an energy company. We’re reinventing how we power communities. Redefining how we care for customers. Reaffirming our commitment to the planet. We’re committed to leading with equity and inclusion. You’re not waiting for change – you’re creating it. You’re driven to protect the environment, support your community, and seek innovation. You want a career that grows with you and an employer who values you. You are reliable, trustworthy and bring integrity to everything you do. We are leading the way in clean energy. We’re using technology and innovation in every facet of our company. We’re providing safe, stable jobs with robust benefits. We keep our customers at the center of all we do. We’re committed to hiring a workforce that reflects the communities we serve. Together, we can provide carbon‑free electricity by 2050. Together, we can take care of the environment and our communities. Together, we can create a place where everyone belongs. Together we’re building a better tomorrow.