Principal Data Engineer

Idexx•Westbrook, ID

8d•Hybrid

About The Position

IDEXX is seeking a Principal Data Engineer to build and maintain the data pipelines that power AI model training and algorithm development for IDEXX inVue Dx and other AI-powered diagnostic products. The role is part of the Data & AI Center of Excellence (AI Enablement & Model Operations), which manages the data foundation behind IDEXX's AI-powered diagnostics. The engineer will join the Data Engineering team, work hands-on with Databricks, dbt, and Snowflake, and serve as a technical anchor for other engineers. This is a senior, hands-on role with ownership of significant pipeline work from start to finish and responsibility for setting standards for code quality and data modeling. The pipelines support AI models used in veterinary diagnostics. The position is hybrid and based in Westbrook, Maine, with a minimum expectation of two onsite days per week.

Requirements

At least 7 years of experience in data engineering or a closely related field, including production experience.
Strong SQL and Python skills and hands-on experience with dbt.
Experience with a modern cloud data platform; Databricks and/or Snowflake experience is strongly preferred.
Comfort with CI/CD, version control using GitHub, and automated testing for data pipelines.
Experience mentoring or reviewing the work of junior and mid-level engineers.
Experience working directly with Data Science, MLE, or other technical partners to understand their data needs.
Good judgment about when to escalate, make decisions independently, or ask for help.

Nice To Haves

Experience in healthcare, life sciences, or another regulated data environment.
Experience with AI/ML training pipelines or close collaboration with Data Science or MLE teams.
Familiarity with medallion architecture, SCD2 patterns, or similar data modeling conventions.
A track record of proposing and driving improvements to engineering practices or tooling.

Responsibilities

Design, build, and maintain fault-tolerant production data pipelines in Databricks and dbt Core, following the team's medallion architecture and SCD2 patterns.
Own delivery of a portion of the team's roadmap and partner with Data Science and MLE colleagues to understand their data needs.
Write and review code, tests, and documentation to a standard other engineers can build on.
Troubleshoot pipeline failures and data quality issues, and build monitoring and alerting to catch problems early.
Contribute to Snowflake integration work, including federated connections and history tracking for source systems.
Mentor junior and mid-level data engineers on code quality, data modeling, and platform best practices.
Review pull requests and pair with teammates on complex problems.
Help scope and triage incoming Jira tickets and identify issues that need escalation.
Participate in interviews for future team hires.
Partner with the manager on team standards for testing, deployment, and documentation.