Principal Data Engineer (Remote)

8th Light

20h • $151,535 - $220,881 • Remote

About The Position

At 8th Light, we bring life to the best ideas. Founded in 2006 and headquartered in Chicago, we are a technology solutions consultancy that partners with organizations from early-stage startups to the world's largest companies. We take on hard software challenges and turn them into durable results. We build agentic products, the platforms they run on, and the engineering and design at every layer. Our commitment to quality means we deliver solutions we’re truly proud of, while our curiosity sparks innovation and breakthrough thinking. 8th Lights thrive in an environment that champions continuous education, fueling our growth through mentorship and hands-on work. We foster an open, collaborative culture grounded in honesty that builds trust, and believe true success is measured by the outcomes we create for our clients. If this kind of work and our kind of people energizes you, you’ve found the right place.

Requirements

• Shown long-term repeated success delivering data platforms, typically over the course of 10+ years in software and 7+ years in data engineering, with a clear progression into technical leadership and architectural ownership.
• Owned the architecture and delivery of modern data platforms end-to-end
• Built deep expertise in Databricks and modern lakehouse architecture, including Delta Lake and Spark-based processing
• Worked at an advanced level in SQL and Python, building and optimizing large-scale data pipelines
• Worked hands-on with cloud platforms, including their data services and infrastructure design
• Applied strong data modeling, ETL/ELT patterns, and distributed data processing to real client problems
• Used orchestration tools and transformation frameworks in production
• Led technical delivery while staying hands-on when the work called for it
• Partnered directly with clients on requirements gathering, solution design, and executive communication
• Worked through ambiguity, prioritized effectively, and drove clarity in complex environments
• Worked with healthcare data such as Epic, HL7, FHIR, and claims
• Used CI/CD, DevOps practices, and infrastructure-as-code tools
• Mentored internal team members and shared what you know
• Actively sought out and given feedback

Nice To Haves

• Platform engineering: building reusable data foundations and infrastructure other teams build on
• Real-time and streaming data tools such as Kafka, Kinesis, or Pub/Sub
• Delivering production agentic systems, including RAG pipelines and vector search
• MLOps
• Infrastructure as Code

Responsibilities

• Owning architecture and delivery for modern data platforms end-to-end
• Shaping client data strategy and designing scalable solutions
• Leading implementation efforts from design through production
• Partnering directly with client stakeholders, from requirements through executive updates
• Mentoring internal team members and ensuring high-quality delivery
• Working pragmatically to balance technology choices while delivering high-quality work within deadlines
• Advising clients on architecture, scalability, and platform evolution, connecting technical decisions to business outcomes
• Leading or initiating retrospectives and feedback conversations with teams and clients
• Clearly articulating and documenting outcomes and driving action items forward
• Contributing to the health of your team and 8th Light's culture by modeling our Values
• Identifying, mitigating, and resolving blockers to team progress
• Contributing to 8th Light by mentoring, leading workshops, representing us in the tech community, or supporting our hiring process

Benefits

• A robust L&D program featuring unlimited access to thousands of books, courses, and expert-led training on the O'Reilly learning platform.
• Annual financial stipend and time allotment for learning & development
• Coworking support for our global team
• Flexible PTO
• 12 weeks of new parent leave available for eligible employees

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal
• Education Level: No Education Listed