Lead Data Platform Engineer

Atlantic Health System•Morristown, NJ

1d•$59 - $103

About The Position

The Lead Data Platform Engineer is the highest individual contributor engineering role on the EDAP (Enterprise Data Analytics Platform) team. You will serve as the primary technical authority for the platform, owning the end-to-end architecture and driving the largest, most complex engineering initiatives across the organization. This is not a management role — you will not carry a headcount budget or run performance reviews — but your technical leadership will shape how an entire team of engineers do their work. You will set the architectural vision for the platform, define engineering standards, and hold functional oversight over technical decisions made across the team. You will lead multi-quarter, cross-functional programs from inception to production, partner directly with engineering leadership and senior stakeholders, and represent the platform function in organizational-level planning. Engineers at every level will look to you for guidance, direction, and mentorship. This role requires technical depth and leadership qualities. You are the person the team turns to when the problem is hard, ambiguous, or high stakes.

Requirements

Technical depth and leadership qualities
Ability to serve as the primary technical authority for the platform
Experience owning end-to-end architecture
Experience driving large, complex engineering initiatives
Ability to set architectural vision and define engineering standards
Experience leading multi-quarter, cross-functional programs
Ability to partner directly with engineering leadership and senior stakeholders
Experience representing platform function in organizational-level planning
Ability to provide guidance, direction, and mentorship to engineers
Experience leading when problems are hard, ambiguous, or high stakes
Experience with data platform architecture (ingestion, storage, transformation, orchestration, serving, observability)
Experience authoring and maintaining architectural vision documents
Experience leading architecture reviews
Experience defining and evolving target-state architecture
Experience establishing multi-year technology roadmaps
Experience evaluating emerging technologies and making adoption recommendations
Experience serving as a technical escalation point for design questions, conflicts, and build-vs-buy decisions
Experience in planning, execution, and delivery of large-scale platform initiatives
Experience breaking down ambiguous programs into workstreams
Experience assigning technical leads, defining milestones, and managing dependencies/risk
Experience driving initiative kick-offs with clear problem framing, success criteria, and phasing
Experience maintaining stakeholder alignment and communicating status
Experience leading post-mortems and retrospectives
Experience exercising functional oversight (reviewing designs, setting quality gates, approving decisions)
Experience defining and documenting engineering standards (coding, testing, CI/CD, schema design, SLAs)
Experience establishing and owning technical review processes
Experience identifying and resolving technical debt, redundancy, and architectural drift
Experience partnering with security, compliance, and infrastructure teams
Experience providing technical mentorship and coaching
Experience conducting design reviews and architecture critiques
Experience defining technical excellence at different engineer levels
Experience representing the data platform in engineering-wide forums
Experience building a culture of documentation, reliability, and platform-as-a-product thinking
Experience participating in goal planning cycles as a technical voice

Responsibilities

Own the technical architecture of the data platform end-to-end: ingestion, storage, transformation, orchestration, serving, and observability layers.
Author and maintain the platform architectural vision document; lead quarterly architecture reviews to assess alignment with organizational goals and technology trends.
Define and evolve the target-state architecture for the platform, establishing a multi-year technology roadmap in partnership with engineering leadership.
Evaluate emerging technologies, frameworks, and make evidence-based adoption recommendations.
Serve as the final technical escalation point for complex design questions, cross-team conflicts, and build-vs-buy decisions affecting the platform.
Lead the planning, execution, and delivery of multi-quarter platform initiatives involving multiple engineers, cross-functional dependencies, and significant organizational impact.
Break down large, ambiguous programs into scoped workstreams; assign technical leads per workstream, define milestones, and manage cross-team dependencies and risk.
Drive initiative kick-offs with clear problem framing, success criteria, architectural constraints, and delivery phasing — from 0-to-1 exploration through production hardening.
Maintain stakeholder alignment throughout delivery: proactively communicate status, surface trade-offs, and escalate blockers to leadership before they become risks.
Lead post-mortems and retrospectives for large initiatives; document and socialize lessons learned to raise the organizational bar on delivery excellence.
Exercise functional oversight across the EDAP team: review technical designs, set quality gates, approve architectural decisions, and ensure consistency of implementation patterns.
Define, document, and socialize platform engineering standards including coding conventions, testing requirements, CI/CD practices, schema design guidelines, and SLA frameworks.
Establish and own the platform's technical review process (design review): triage incoming projects, chair review sessions, and ensure decisions are documented and traceable.
Identify and drive resolution of technical debt, redundancy, and architectural drift that impede platform reliability, developer productivity, or scalability.
Partner with security, compliance, and infrastructure teams to ensure platform systems meet governance, data privacy, and regulatory requirements by design.
Serve as a primary technical mentor for junior and senior data platform engineers across the platform; provide structured coaching on system design, technical communication, and engineering judgment.
Conduct and lead design reviews, architecture critiques, and technical deep-dives that strengthen the overall capability of the engineering team.
Define what technical excellence looks like at each level of engineers and participate in calibration discussions.
Represent the data platform in engineering-wide forums, all-hands, and external venues (conferences, open-source communities, recruiting events).
Build a culture of documentation, reliability, and platform-as-a-product thinking across all data platform engineering functions.
Participate in goal planning cycles as a technical voice; define engineering-led goals that improve platform reliability, developer experience, and data quality.

Benefits

Medical, Dental, Vision, Prescription Coverage (22.5 hours per week or above for full-time and part-time team members)
Life & AD&D Insurance.
Short-Term and Long-Term Disability (with options to supplement)
403(b) Retirement Plan: Employer match, additional non-elective contribution
PTO & Paid Sick Leave
Tuition Assistance, Advancement & Academic Advising
Parental, Adoption, Surrogacy Leave
Backup and On-Site Childcare
Well-Being Rewards
Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
Fertility Benefits, Healthy Pregnancy Program
Flexible Spending & Commuter Accounts
Pet, Home & Auto, Identity Theft and Legal Insurance