Lead Data Engineer

3M•Remote - Minnesota, MN

6d•$188,251 - $230,084•Remote

About The Position

We are seeking a Lead Data Engineer with strong experience in AI/ML data pipelines, feature engineering, and scalable data architectures. This role will lead the design, development, and optimization of data platforms that power advanced analytics and machine learning applications across the organization. This position provides an opportunity to transition from other private, public, government or military experience to a 3M career.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree or higher in computer science (completed and verified prior to start) from an accredited institution.
Seven (7) or more years of data engineering experience, including leading technical initiatives.
Strong expertise in Python, SQL, and distributed data systems (e.g., Spark, Databricks, Synapse).
Experience building AI/ML ready data pipelines, including feature stores and model training data flows.
Hands on experience with cloud platforms (Azure preferred — Data Lake, Data Factory, Databricks, Cosmos DB).
Strong understanding of ML concepts, lifecycle, and MLOps practices.
Proven experience with workflow orchestration (Airflow, Data Factory, Synapse Pipelines, etc.).
Strong communication and ability to translate business needs into technical solutions.
Must be legally authorized to work in country of employment without sponsorship for employment visa status (e.g., H1B status).
All US-based 3M full time employees will need to sign an employee agreement as a condition of employment with 3M. This agreement lays out key terms on using 3M Confidential Information and Trade Secrets. It also has provisions discussing conflicts of interest and how inventions are assigned.
Employees that are Job Grade 7 or equivalent and above may also have obligations to not compete against 3M or solicit its employees or customers, both during their employment, and for a period after they leave 3M.

Nice To Haves

Experience with streaming platforms (Kafka, Event Hub).
Familiarity with vector databases, embeddings, or LLM oriented data pipelines.
Background in DevOps, CI/CD, or infrastructure as code.
Experience designing data solutions for AI applications or intelligent platforms.

Responsibilities

Lead the architecture and development of scalable, secure data pipelines supporting AI/ML workloads.
Own end to end data engineering processes: ingestion, transformation, storage, quality, and monitoring.
Collaborate with data scientists and ML engineers on model features, training pipelines, and deployment.
Drive best practices in data modeling, orchestration, versioning, and performance optimization.
Mentor and guide junior engineers; contribute to technical roadmaps and solution patterns.
Ensure data governance, lineage, and compliance standards are met across platforms.
Support real time and batch processing frameworks in production environments.
Responsibilities of this position include that corporate policies, procedures and security standards are complied with while performing assigned duties.
Safety is a core value at 3M. All employees are expected to contribute to a strong Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) culture by following safety policies, identifying hazards, and engaging in continuous improvement.