Forward Deployed Engineer

Spaulding Ridge • Minneapolis, MN

42d • $116,000 - $223,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

Spaulding Ridge is an advisory and IT implementation firm that helps global organizations gain financial clarity into complex daily sales and operational decisions impacting profitable revenue generation, efficient operational performance, and reliable financial management. The firm emphasizes strong relationships with clients, business partners, its team, and the global community, dedicating its employees' time to client business transformation from strategy through implementation. Spaulding Ridge offers executive-level, practical advice to scale businesses, delivering best-in-cloud advisory and IT services. The company is committed to helping clients transform their businesses through AIM, ELEVATE, and EVOLVE methodologies. As a Forward Deployed Engineer, you will be responsible for scoping, designing, implementing, and testing modern data, analytics, and application solutions, operating at the intersection of software engineering, Snowflake architecture, data engineering, BI/reporting, and client advisory. You will build relationships with key stakeholders, deliver tangible business value through scalable data platforms, intuitive reporting, and data-driven applications, and help clients transition from manual reporting and fragmented data to trusted, governed, and actionable analytics. The firm seeks passionate problem-solvers who can engage clients from proposal to support, contributing to the growth of the Data Solutions practice.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree or higher, or a combination of relevant education and experience.
• Minimum 7+ years of professional consulting or relevant industry experience, which may include software engineering, data engineering, analytics engineering, solution architecture, enterprise data platform implementations, business transformation, and client-facing delivery.
• Strong hands-on experience with Snowflake architecture, SQL development, data modeling, data platform design, performance tuning, role-based access controls, and production implementation.
• Experience designing and implementing modern reporting and analytics solutions using tools such as Power BI, Sigma, Tableau, Looker, Omni, or comparable BI platforms.
• Experience building semantic layers, governed metrics, certified datasets, KPI frameworks, and reusable reporting models.
• Strong full stack development background, including front-end development, back-end/API development, application architecture, authentication/authorization, logging, error handling, and deployment practices.
• Experience developing APIs and integrations using REST, JSON, OAuth, service authentication, and secure data access patterns.
• Experience with dbt or comparable transformation and analytics engineering frameworks.
• Experience with Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, SQL, and at least one modern back-end application framework.
• Experience with Git, CI/CD, code review practices, testing, environment management, and modern software delivery workflows.
• Experience designing and implementing data pipelines using ELT, ETL, iPaaS, orchestration, or cloud-native tooling.
• Strong understanding of data quality, reconciliation, lineage, observability, governance, privacy, and security practices.
• Strong understanding of IT standards and compliance topics such as COBIT, ITIL, SOX, GDPR, data privacy, access controls, and auditability.
• Outstanding analytical, communication, and interpersonal skills required.
• Ability to manage projects and teams against planned work.
• Travel as needed for client engagements, workshops, key stakeholder meetings, and internal team events.

Nice To Haves

• Project management experience is a plus, including maintaining a prioritized worklist, managing delivery risks, estimating effort, and understanding financial views of projects.
• Experience with ERP, CRM, finance, operations, supply chain, healthcare, private equity, or enterprise reporting use cases is a plus.
• Experience with cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, or GCP is a plus.
• Snowflake certification, including SnowPro Core, SnowPro Advanced Architect, or SnowPro Advanced Data Engineer, is strongly preferred.
• Good to have experience with Snowpark, Cortex, Streamlit, Native Apps, data sharing, Apache Iceberg, Microsoft Fabric interoperability, or AI/ML use cases on Snowflake.
• Good to have experience with application deployment, containerization, serverless patterns, DevOps, infrastructure as code, or cloud-native application hosting.
• Good to have experience with AI-assisted development, LLM-enabled analytics, RAG patterns, automated report narratives, or data application use cases.

Responsibilities

• Scoping, designing, implementing, and testing modern data, analytics, and application solutions for clients.
• Developing relationships with key business and technical stakeholders while building tangible business value through scalable data platforms, intuitive reporting experiences, and data-driven applications.
• Helping clients move away from manual reporting, fragmented data sources, and disconnected systems toward trusted, governed, and actionable analytics.
• Engaging clients from the proposal phase through architecture, delivery, enablement, and support.
• Building and mentoring a team of experts within the Data Solutions practice.
• Collaborating with client stakeholders and internal team members to design and implement technology that aligns with client business objectives.
• Leading end-to-end solution architecture across source systems, integration layers, Snowflake, transformation logic, semantic/reporting layers, APIs, and user-facing applications.
• Building mock Proofs of Concept for Snowflake-backed reporting, analytics applications, data products, and integrations across cloud-based and on-premise business systems.
• Identifying issues and structural problems across data architecture, reporting processes, integration patterns, and application design, then generating actionable recommendations.
• Developing solutions by designing system specifications, architectural standards, data models, API patterns, reporting frameworks, and functional requirements.
• Leading Snowflake architecture decisions including database design, warehouse strategy, RBAC/security, ingestion patterns, performance tuning, cost optimization, data sharing, and environment management.
• Designing and building scalable data pipelines, transformation layers, dimensional models, semantic layers, certified datasets, KPI frameworks, and analytics-ready reporting structures.
• Advising clients on when to use dashboards, semantic layers, data products, custom applications, embedded analytics, workflow tools, or operational reporting solutions.
• Managing and developing talent of assigned junior resources through architecture reviews, code reviews, SQL/modeling reviews, technical coaching, and delivery mentorship.
• Supporting sales cycles by leading discovery workshops, scoping sessions, solution design discussions, oral presentations, and proof-of-concept builds for potential clients.
• Balancing hands-on development with solution architecture, delivery leadership, client advisory, and business value creation.
• Managing day-to-day client relationships on projects, including expectations, risks, escalations, executive communication, and delivery outcomes.
• Supporting sales cycles by leading orals sessions, scoping workshops, architecture discussions, and POC solutions for potential clients.
• Leading a team of developers, data engineers, analysts, and subject matter experts across design, build, test, deployment, and enablement phases.

Benefits

• Generous time off
• Paid holidays
• Paid parental leave
• 401(k) with company match
• Highly subsidized health, dental, and vision plans
• Company-paid life and disability insurance
• Monthly allowance for well-being and technology expenses
• Reimbursement for approved learning and development initiatives within defined limits

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior