Staff Data Engineer I, NGSS Aura

Bain & Company; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 141,000 - 169,250; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401(k) with employer contribution

Comprehensive benefits

Paid time off

Job summary

Bain & Company in Chicago, IL is seeking a Staff Data Engineer I to join Aura, Bain's analytics platform. You will own the data infrastructure powering analytics, ML features, and product experiences, collaborating with Engineering, Product, Data Science, and AI teams.

This role emphasizes architecture, reliability, and scalability, with opportunities to mentor engineers, drive greenfield projects, and optimize data pipelines across the stack.

Qualifications

• 5-8+ years of experience designing scalable data architecture.
• Associate's/Bachelor's degree or equivalent.
• Strong SQL skills and Snowflake experience.
• Experience with Airflow and DBT in cloud environments.
• Familiarity with OpenSearch for log analysis.

Responsibilities

• Own the architecture, reliability, and scalability of Aura's data platform.
• Design, build, and maintain data pipelines from raw ingestion to downstream analytics layers.
• Lead the development of new data infrastructure projects from scratch and own delivery through production.
• Optimize performance and cost across data workflows (e.g., query tuning, storage optimization).

Skills

Advanced SQL

Data architecture

Mentoring engineers

Cross-functional collaboration

Testing/CI-CD

Infra as Code

Leadership

OpenSource tooling

Education

Associate's/Bachelor's degree

Tools

Snowflake

Airflow

DBT

OpenSearch

AWS

Job description

We are proud to be consistently recognized as one of the world's best places to work. We are currently the top ranked consulting firm on Glassdoor's Best Places to Work list and have earned the #1 overall spot a record seven times. Extraordinary teams are at the heart of our business strategy, but these don't happen by chance. They require intentional focus on bringing together a broad set of backgrounds, cultures, experiences, perspectives, and skills in a supportive and inclusive work environment. We hire people with exceptional talent and create an environment in which every individual can thrive professionally and personally.

WHO YOU'LL WORK WITH

Bain's Next Generation Software Solutions (NGSS) team is responsible for discovering, building, scaling, supporting, and maintaining software products that enable Bain's intellectual property and consulting solutions.

Within this broader team, you'll be embedded in Aura, Bain's proprietary global workforce data and analytics platform. Aura processes billions of data points across more than 20 million companies worldwide, delivering the kind of workforce intelligence that once took teams of analysts weeks to produce in a matter of minutes.

WHERE YOU'LL FIT WITHIN THE TEAM

As a Staff Data Engineer I, you'll be at the core of an autonomous AI system that powers high-stakes decisions for the world's top consulting firms, private equity funds, and Fortune 500 companies. You'll build the data infrastructure behind a category-defining product and play a key role in shaping Aura's data platform and engineering practices, own critical components of our data infrastructure, partner across Engineering, Product, and AI teams, and build a scalable foundation that powers analytics, machine learning, and product experiences. You'll contribute not only through implementation but also through architecture, operational excellence, and technical leadership.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

• Own the architecture, reliability, and scalability of Aura's data platform.
• Design, build, and maintain reliable and scalable data pipelines from raw ingestion to downstream analytics layers (including dashboards and ML features).
• Lead the development of new data infrastructure projects from scratch and own delivery through production.
• Optimize performance and cost across data workflows (e.g., query tuning, storage optimization).

Engineering Excellence & Operational Support

• Establish and maintain data engineering best practices, including testing, documentation, and observability.
• Participate in operational support and continuous improvement of production data systems.
• Establish pipeline alerting and data quality monitors in DBT across the data stack.
• Triage and resolve inbound data questions from business and technical stakeholders, including data discrepancies, pipeline issues, and ad-hoc data requests.

Cross-functional Collaboration & Technical Leadership

• Partner closely with Engineering, Product, Data Science, and AI teams to deliver scalable data solutions.
• Mentor engineers through code reviews and technical guidance.

ABOUT YOU

Experience

• 5-8+ years of experience designing scalable data architecture.

Education

• Associate's/Bachelor's degree or an equivalent combination of education, training and experience.

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

• Strong understanding of software engineering best practices (testing, CI/CD, code reviews).
• Demonstrated ability to lead technical initiatives and collaborate across cross-functional teams.
• Advanced SQL skills and deep experience with modern data warehouses, especially Snowflake.
• Proficient in orchestration tools such as Airflow.
• Experience with DBT for data modeling, transformation, and data quality monitoring.
• Experience working in cloud environments, particularly AWS (e.g., S3, Lambda, ECS, RDS, MWAA).
• Familiarity with version control, CI/CD workflows, and Infrastructure-as-Code.

Additional Qualifications

• Experience owning and delivering greenfield projects independently.
• Deep expertise in Snowflake performance tuning and cost optimization.
• Background in analytics or ML data preparation.
• Prior experience embedded in a startup or small data team.
• Familiarity with OpenSearch for log analysis or search-backed data products.

U.S. COMPENSATION INFORMATION

Compensation for this role includes base salary, annual discretionary performance bonus, 401(k) plan with an annual employer contribution based on years of service and Bain's best in class benefits package (details listed below).

Some local governments in the United States require a good-faith, reasonable salary range to be included in job postings for open roles.

The estimated annualized compensation for this role is as follows:

• In Illinois, the good-faith, reasonable annualized full-time salary range for this role is between $141,000 - $169,250.
• Annual discretionary performance bonus.
• This role may also be eligible for other elements of discretionary compensation.
• 4.5% 401(k) company contribution, which increases after 3 years of service and is 100% vested upon start date.
• Bain & Company's comprehensive benefits and wellness program is designed to help employees achieve personal independence, protection and stability in the areas most important to you and your family.
• Bain pays 100% individual employee premiums for medical, dental and vision programs, offering one of the most comprehensive medical plans for employees without impacting your paycheck.
• Generous paid time off, including parental leave, sick leave and paid holidays.
• Fully vested 401(k) company contribution.
• Paid Life and Long-Term Disability insurance.