Staff Data & AI Platform Engineer

Ahold Delhaize USA; Chicago (IL); Hybrid; USD 136,000 - 204,000; Full time

Job summary

Ahold Delhaize USA in Chicago, IL is seeking a Staff Data & AI Platform Engineer to design reference architectures for data ingestion, transformation, storage, and delivery, embedding automation, observability, and security.

The role offers a hybrid schedule with 3 in-person days at Chicago HQ and 2 remote days; requires extensive data engineering experience and advanced Azure, Databricks, and Datadog skills. Applicants must be authorized to work in the United States.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent years of work experience.
• 10+ years in data engineering with large scale systems.
• 10+ years working with Azure
• 5+ years working with Databricks
• 5+ years working with Datadog
• Proficiency in distributed data processing, orchestration, and storage patterns.
• Strong automation/scripting skills and version control practices.
• Excellent cross team communication and influence.

Responsibilities

• Design reusable patterns for batch and streaming ingestion, transformations, and data product delivery, optimizing for performance and scale.
• Build automation for quality, lineage, and governance checks integrated into CI/CD, including deployment scripts and pipeline templates that reduce manual effort.
• Create and evolve internal tooling, developer platforms, and golden paths that improve reliability and time-to-delivery for data teams.
• Harden security and privacy controls across platforms and pipelines, integrating controls into automated delivery workflows.
• Elevate reliability with SLOs, telemetry, monitoring/logging/tracing, and automated rollback/reprocessing; contribute to observability implementations (e.g., DataDog).
• Integrate and optimize cloud services and container orchestration where relevant to improve scalability and reduce operational toil.
• Maintain infrastructure as code and repeatable environments using tools such as Terraform, Ansible, or CloudFormation.
• Guide solution decisions for complex programs; run technical reviews and threat/quality modeling to ensure robust outcomes.
• Document standards, playbooks, and reusable components to reduce rework and improve consistency across teams.
• Coach teams on data modeling, performance optimization, and design thinking for data consumer experience.
• May be called upon to support critical escalations and must be available during urgent IT incidents as needed.

Skills

Data engineering

Distributed processing

Automation scripting

Cross-team communication

Data orchestration

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent

Tools

Azure

Databricks

Datadog

Job description

Category/Area of Expertise: Data-Science & Analytics

Job Requisition: 561335

Address: USA-IL-Chicago-300 South Riverside Plaza

Store Code: Arch/Data - Business Intell & Analy (5119285)

Ahold Delhaize USA, a division of global food retailer Ahold Delhaize, is part of the U.S. family of brands, which includes five leading omnichannel grocery brands - Food Lion, Giant Food, The GIANT Company, Hannaford and Stop & Shop. Our associates support the brands with a wide range of services, including Finance, Legal, Sustainability, Commercial, Digital and E-commerce, Technology and more.

Primary Purpose

The Staff Data & AI Platform Engineer operates as a senior technical authority who designs reference architectures and reusable patterns for data ingestion, transformation, storage, and delivery-embedding automation, observability, and security into every stage.

Our flexible/hybrid work schedule includes 3 in-person days at one of our core locations (Chicago, IL | Quincy, MA | Salisbury, NC | Mauldin, SC| Scarborough, ME) and 2 remote days.

Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis.

Duties & Responsibilities

• Design reusable patterns for batch and streaming ingestion, transformations, and data product delivery, optimizing for performance and scale.
• Build automation for quality, lineage, and governance checks integrated into CI/CD, including deployment scripts and pipeline templates that reduce manual effort.
• Create and evolve internal tooling, developer platforms, and golden paths that improve reliability and time-to-delivery for data teams.
• Harden security and privacy controls (access, encryption, masking) across platforms and pipelines, integrating controls into automated delivery workflows.
• Elevate reliability with SLOs, telemetry, monitoring/logging/tracing, and automated rollback/reprocessing; contribute to observability implementations (e.g., DataDog).
• Integrate and optimize cloud services and container orchestration where relevant to improve scalability and reduce operational toil.
• Maintain infrastructure as code and repeatable environments using tools such as Terraform, Ansible, or CloudFormation.
• Guide solution decisions for complex programs; run technical reviews and threat/quality modeling to ensure robust outcomes.
• Document standards, playbooks, and reusable components to reduce rework and improve consistency across teams.
• Coach teams on data modeling, performance optimization, and design thinking for data consumer experience.
• May be called upon to support critical escalations and must be available during urgent IT incidents as needed.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent years of work experience.
• 10+ years in data engineering with large scale systems.
• 10+ years working with Azure
• 5+ years working with Databricks
• 5+ years working with Datadog
• Proficiency in distributed data processing, orchestration, and storage patterns.
• Strong automation/scripting skills and version control practices.
• Excellent cross team communication and influence.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with feature stores and ML ready data patterns.
• Knowledge of cost optimization and workload right sizing.

Salary Range

$136,160.00-$204,240.00

Actual compensation offered to a candidate may vary based on their unique qualifications and experience, internal equity, and market conditions. Final compensation decisions will be made in accordance with company policies and applicable laws.

At Ahold Delhaize USA, we provide services to one of the largest portfolios of grocery companies in the nation, and we're actively seeking top talent.

Our team shares a common motivation to drive change, take ownership and enable our brands to better care for their customers. We thrive on supporting great local grocery brands and their strategies.

Our associates are the heartbeat of our organization. We are committed to offering a welcoming work environment where all associates can succeed and thrive. Guided by our values of courage, care, teamwork, integrity (and even a little humor), we are dedicated to being a great place to work.

We believe in collaboration, curiosity, and continuous learning in all that we think, create and do. While building a culture where personal and professional growth are just as important as business growth, we invest in our people, empowering them to learn, grow and deliver at all levels of the business.