Lead Data Engineer

Guardian Life Insurance • Holmdel Township, NJ

5d • Hybrid

About The Position

Guardian is seeking a highly skilled and motivated Lead Data Engineer to join the FPRS&CSWM Data Engineering team. In this role, you will play a crucial part in designing, building, and maintaining the data pipelines that power our Operational ,reporting, ML & AI use cases. Your expertise will help us transform raw data into actionable insights via data products, ensuring that our data solutions are robust, scalable and efficient. The ideal candidate will have a passion for data engineering, thrive in a collaborative environment and are excited about leveraging cutting-edge technologies to drive business success. Your contributions will go beyond hands-on engineering, as you help bring life to innovative ideas and mentor other engineers. You’ll thrive in a fast-paced, collaborative environment, balancing technical execution with a deep understanding of business needs. We value curiosity, creativity, and continuous learning. If you’re passionate about solving meaningful problems and creating value through data-driven innovation, we look forward to welcoming you to our team. You will Lead technical design and implementation of data engineering solutions, ensuring best practices and high-quality deliverables. Mentor and guide junior engineers, conducting code reviews and technical sessions to foster team growth. Perform detailed analysis of raw data sources by applying business context and collaborate with cross-functional teams to transform raw data into data products Create scalable and trusted data pipelines which generate curated data assets in centralized data lake/data warehouse ecosystems. Monitor and troubleshoot data pipeline performance, identifying and resolving bottlenecks and issues. Construct meaningful data assets sourced from structured, semi structured, and unstructured data. Develop real-time data solutions by creating new API endpoints or streaming frameworks. Develop, test, and maintain robust tools, frameworks, and libraries that standardize and streamline the data lifecycle. Collaborate with cross-functional teams of Data Science, Data Engineering, business units, and other IT teams. Create and maintain effective documentation for projects and practices, ensuring transparency and effective team communication. Provide technical leadership and mentorship on continuous improvement in building reusable and scalable solutions. Contribute to enhancing strategy for advanced data engineering practices and lead execution of key initiatives. Stay up-to-date with the latest trends in modern data engineering, machine learning & AI.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree with 8+ years of experience in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.
• 5+ years of experience working with Python, SQL, PySpark, and bash scripts.
• Proficient in software development lifecycle and software engineering practices.
• 4+ years of experience developing and maintaining robust data pipelines for both structured and unstructured data for advanced analytical and reporting use cases.
• 3+ years of experience working with Cloud Data Warehousing (Redshift, Snowflake, Databricks SQL or equivalent) platforms and distributed frameworks like Spark.
• 2+ years of experience leading a team of engineers and a track record of delivering robust and scalable data solutions with highest quality.
• Solid understanding of data modeling and warehousing techniques.
• Proficiency in understanding REST APIs, experience using different types of APIs to extract data or perform functionalities.
• Hands-on experience building and maintaining tools and libraries used by multiple teams across the organization (e.g., Data Engineering utility libraries, DQ Libraries).
• Proficient in understanding and incorporating software engineering principles in design & development process.
• Hands-on experience with CI/CD tools (e.g., Jenkins or equivalent), version control (Github, Bitbucket), orchestration (Airflow, Prefect or equivalent).
• Excellent communication skills and ability to work and collaborate with cross-functional teams across technology and business.

Nice To Haves

• Experience working in a data warehouse is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Lead technical design and implementation of data engineering solutions, ensuring best practices and high-quality deliverables.
• Mentor and guide junior engineers, conducting code reviews and technical sessions to foster team growth.
• Perform detailed analysis of raw data sources by applying business context and collaborate with cross-functional teams to transform raw data into data products
• Create scalable and trusted data pipelines which generate curated data assets in centralized data lake/data warehouse ecosystems.
• Monitor and troubleshoot data pipeline performance, identifying and resolving bottlenecks and issues.
• Construct meaningful data assets sourced from structured, semi structured, and unstructured data.
• Develop real-time data solutions by creating new API endpoints or streaming frameworks.
• Develop, test, and maintain robust tools, frameworks, and libraries that standardize and streamline the data lifecycle.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams of Data Science, Data Engineering, business units, and other IT teams.
• Create and maintain effective documentation for projects and practices, ensuring transparency and effective team communication.
• Provide technical leadership and mentorship on continuous improvement in building reusable and scalable solutions.
• Contribute to enhancing strategy for advanced data engineering practices and lead execution of key initiatives.
• Stay up-to-date with the latest trends in modern data engineering, machine learning & AI.

Benefits

• At Guardian, you’ll have the support and flexibility to achieve your professional and personal goals. Through skill-building, leadership development and philanthropic opportunities, we provide opportunities to build communities and grow your career, surrounded by diverse colleagues with high ethical standards.
• As part of Guardian’s Purpose – to inspire well-being – we are committed to offering contemporary, supportive, flexible, and inclusive benefits and resources to our colleagues.
• Explore our company benefits at www.guardianlife.com/careers/corporate/benefits.
• Guardian is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will be considered for employment without regard to age, race, color, creed, religion, sex, affectional or sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, marital status, disability, military or veteran status, or any other classification protected by applicable law.
• Guardian is committed to providing access, equal opportunity and reasonable accommodation for individuals with disabilities in employment, its services, programs, and activities. Guardian also provides reasonable accommodations to qualified job applicants (and employees) to accommodate the individual's known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions, unless doing so would create an undue hardship.

What This Job Offers

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