VP, Principal Data Engineer

LPL Financial; Fort Mill (SC); On-site; USD 160,000 - 267,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401K matching

Health benefits

Employee stock options

Paid time off

Volunteer time off

Job summary

LPL Financial is seeking a VP, Principal Data Engineer to modernize the investor experience across its reporting, statements, and letters platforms. The role combines strategic leadership with hands-on execution to design enterprise-scale data platforms, including cloud-native pipelines and real-time streaming solutions.

You will mentor engineers, define technical roadmaps, and partner with business and technology leaders to deliver modern data products while ensuring platform reliability,

Qualifications

• 10+ years designing and building large-scale ETL/ELT pipelines and data platforms using AWS, Glue, S3, RDS/Aurora, Snowflake, DBT, and Airflow.
• 8+ years hands-on experience developing data solutions with Python.
• 6+ years building event-driven and streaming architectures using Kafka, EventBridge, SQS, and related technologies.
• 6+ years experience with relational and NoSQL databases, including performance tuning and optimization.
• 6+ years experience with source control, CI/CD, and DevOps practices using GitHub, TeamCity, Jenkins, Octopus, or similar tools.

Responsibilities

• Lead scalable data solutions aligned to business priorities.
• Own end-to-end execution across engineering pods, balancing resources to optimize delivery and reduce risk.
• Partner with leaders to prioritize initiatives, accelerate delivery, and improve engineering productivity.
• Mentor engineers and promote engineering excellence, innovation, accountability, and continuous improvement.
• Architect and build cloud-native data platforms for large-scale ingestion, transformation, validation, and distribution.
• Develop ETL/ELT pipelines using Python and AWS tools including Snowflake, DBT, and Airflow.
• Develop event-driven and real-time data processing solutions leveraging Kafka, EventBridge, SQS, SNS, and related technologies.
• Modernize legacy platforms using secure, resilient, reusable cloud-native architectures and patterns.
• Define technical roadmaps, engineering standards, and best practices to advance enterprise data capabilities.
• Ensure platform reliability, scalability, performance, and compliance with service-level objectives.
• Implement data quality, observability, auditing, reconciliation, and monitoring capabilities.
• Drive CI/CD adoption, DevOps automation, and operational best practices that improve resiliency and efficiency.
• Lead root-cause analysis and resolution of complex production issues while optimizing cloud performance and cost management.
• Partner with architects, product teams, and business stakeholders to deliver modern data products and platform capabilities.
• Influence technical strategy, architecture decisions, automation initiatives, and continuous innovation across the data ecosystem.

Skills

ETL/ELT pipelines

Python

Kafka/Streaming

Databases (SQL/NoSQL)

CI/CD/DevOps

GitHub

Tools

AWS

Snowflake

DBT

Airflow

Kafka

EventBridge

SQS

SNS

GitHub

Jenkins

TeamCity

Octopus

Job description

LPL Financial is seeking a VP, Principal Data Engineer to modernize the investor experience across its Reporting, Statements and Letters platforms. The role combines strategic leadership with hands‑on execution to design and deliver enterprise‑scale data platforms, including cloud‑native pipelines and real‑time streaming solutions.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the delivery of scalable, high-quality, and cost-effective data solutions aligned to business priorities.
• Own end‑to‑end execution across engineering pods, balancing employee and vendor resources to optimize delivery and mitigate operational risk.
• Partner with business and technology leaders to prioritize initiatives, accelerate delivery, and improve engineering productivity.
• Mentor engineers and promote engineering excellence, innovation, accountability, and continuous improvement.
• Architect and build cloud‑native data platforms for large‑scale ingestion, transformation, validation, and distribution.
• Design, develop, and optimize ETL/ELT pipelines using Python and AWS tools including Snowflake, DBT, and Airflow.
• Develop event‑driven and real‑time data processing solutions leveraging Kafka, EventBridge, SQS, SNS, and related technologies.
• Modernize legacy platforms using secure, resilient, reusable cloud‑native architectures and patterns.
• Define technical roadmaps, engineering standards, and best practices to advance enterprise data capabilities.
• Ensure platform reliability, scalability, performance, and compliance with service‑level objectives.
• Implement data quality, observability, auditing, reconciliation, and monitoring capabilities.
• Drive CI/CD adoption, DevOps automation, and operational best practices that improve resiliency and efficiency.
• Lead root‑cause analysis and resolution of complex production issues while optimizing cloud performance and cost management.
• Partner with architects, product teams, and business stakeholders to deliver modern data products and platform capabilities.
• Influence technical strategy, architecture decisions, automation initiatives, and continuous innovation across the data ecosystem.

Required Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience designing and developing large-scale ETL/ELT pipelines and data platforms using AWS, Glue, S3, RDS/Aurora, Snowflake, DBT, and Airflow.
• 8+ years of hands‑on experience developing data solutions with Python.
• 6+ years building event‑driven and streaming architectures using Kafka, EventBridge, SQS, and related technologies.
• 6+ years experience with relational and NoSQL databases, including performance tuning and optimization.
• 6+ years experience with source control, CI/CD, and DevOps practices using GitHub, TeamCity, Jenkins, Octopus, or similar tools.

Technology Stack

• Python
• AWS (including Glue, S3, RDS/Aurora, EventBridge)
• Snowflake, DBT, Airflow
• Kafka, SQS, SNS
• ETL/ELT
• GitHub, TeamCity, Jenkins, Octopus
• CI/CD, DevOps
• NoSQL, Relational databases
• AWS Associate‑level certifications: AWS Certified Developer – Associate, AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate

Benefits

• 401K matching
• Health benefits
• Employee stock options
• Paid time off
• Volunteer time off

Core Competencies

• Technical leadership and architectural decision-making.
• Deep expertise in data engineering, ETL/ELT, and cloud‑native platforms.
• Strong analytical, problem‑solving, and strategic planning skills.
• Ability to translate complex business requirements into scalable technical solutions.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.
• Proven ability to lead high‑performing teams in fast‑paced, agile environments.

Preferred Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience within financial services, wealth management, or brokerage organizations.
• Experience with AI‑assisted development tools such as GitHub Copilot, Copilot Chat, Cursor, or similar technologies.
• Experience with Terraform, infrastructure automation, and data lake implementations.
• AWS Associate‑level certifications, such as AWS Certified Developer – Associate or AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate.
• Experience leading enterprise cloud modernization and data transformation programs.
• Experience developing APIs and microservices using .NET technologies.
• Familiarity with GitHub Copilot and other AI‑assisted development tools.

Compensation and Location

Location: Fort Mill, SC (onsite)

Salary: USD 159,959 to 266,564 per yearly

Pay Range Details: $159,959.00 - $266,564.00. Actual base salary varies based on factors including relevant skill, prior experience, education, internal peer base salary, demonstrated performance, and geographic location.

Interview and Application Process Information

• LPL will only communicate with a job applicant directly from an @lplfinancial.com email address.
• LPL will never conduct an interview online or in a chatroom forum.
• During an interview, LPL will not request any form of payment from the applicant, or information regarding an applicant’s bank or credit card.
• For questions about the application process, contact LPL’s Human Resources Solutions Center at [phone].