Databricks Engineer

CGI • Houston, TX

1d • Hybrid

About The Position

This is a Senior Consultant opportunity on a modern data platform, with a structured and supported path toward becoming a Databricks Architect. The role is hands-on with Databricks and the Lakehouse ecosystem from the start, with mentorship through design reviews, solution patterns, stakeholder discussions, and technical decision-making. It offers consulting exposure across industries and problem types, collaboration with engineers, architects, analysts, and data scientists, and support for Databricks and cloud certifications, training, and conference or community opportunities. The position is located in Houston, Texas, and can be performed in a hybrid model.

The engineer will build and optimize production data pipelines and lakehouse solutions, apply governance and security practices, improve performance and manage costs, and develop CI/CD and DevOps practices for data workloads. The role progressively takes on solution design and architecture ownership, communicates technical trade-offs to stakeholders, documents solutions, mentors junior engineers, and contributes reusable frameworks and standards. The employee will work with the team on a personal development plan toward an architect role, including stretch assignments such as presales support, technical assessments, and platform roadmaps.

Requirements

• At least 4 years of experience in data engineering, including at least 2–3 years of hands-on Databricks experience.
• Strong proficiency in Python (PySpark) and SQL.
• Solid understanding of Apache Spark internals and performance tuning.
• Hands-on experience with Delta Lake and lakehouse design patterns.
• Experience with at least one major cloud platform: Azure, AWS, or GCP.
• Experience building production-grade ETL/ELT pipelines, including batch and streaming.
• Working knowledge of data modeling, including dimensional and lakehouse modeling, and data warehousing concepts.
• Experience with Git and CI/CD practices.
• Strong communication skills and ability to work directly with clients and stakeholders.
• Demonstrated interest and aptitude for growing into an architecture role, including curiosity about design trade-offs, the rationale behind decisions, and big-picture thinking.

Nice To Haves

• Databricks certifications, such as Data Engineer Associate/Professional or Solutions Architect.
• Cloud certifications, such as Azure Data Engineer, AWS Data Analytics, or Google Professional Data Engineer.
• Experience with Unity Catalog, Delta Live Tables, and Databricks Asset Bundles.
• Infrastructure as code experience with Terraform, Bicep, or similar tools.
• Exposure to data governance, security, and compliance frameworks.
• Experience with ML/MLOps workflows, including MLflow and feature stores.
• Prior consulting or client-facing delivery experience.
• Experience leading or mentoring junior team members.
• Familiarity with data migration or modernization projects, such as legacy warehouse to lakehouse.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and optimize scalable batch and streaming data pipelines on Databricks using PySpark, Spark SQL, and Delta Lake.
• Implement medallion architecture patterns (bronze, silver, and gold) and apply data modeling best practices.
• Develop and maintain orchestration using Databricks Workflows and/or tools such as Azure Data Factory or Airflow.
• Apply data governance, security, and access control practices, including Unity Catalog, role-based access, lineage, and data quality.
• Tune performance and manage costs across clusters, jobs, and storage.
• Build CI/CD and DevOps practices for data workloads, including Git, automated testing, infrastructure as code, and deployment pipelines.
• Participate in solution design sessions and architecture reviews, progressively leading design for components and then full solutions.
• Translate business requirements into technical designs and communicate trade-offs clearly to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Produce technical documentation, including design documents and architecture diagrams.
• Mentor junior engineers through code reviews and knowledge sharing.
• Contribute reusable frameworks, accelerators, and best-practice standards for the wider practice.
• Work with the team on a personal development plan toward an architect role, taking on stretch assignments such as presales support, technical assessments, and platform roadmaps.

Benefits

• Competitive compensation.
• Comprehensive insurance options.
• Matching contributions through the 401(k) plan and share purchase plan.
• Paid time off for vacation, holidays, and sick time.
• Paid parental leave.
• Learning opportunities and tuition assistance.
• Wellness and well-being programs.
• Access to Databricks and cloud certifications, training time, and conference or community opportunities.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed