Principal Data Engineering

Harman • Novi, MI

23h • $125,250 - $183,700 • Hybrid

About The Position

The Principal Data Engineer is a highly experienced individual contributor responsible for designing and delivering complex, production-scale data products on HARMAN Automotive’s enterprise data and AI platform. The role provides technical leadership across data engineering initiatives, solves cross-domain problems, and establishes reusable engineering patterns across the organization. It combines deep Azure Databricks and data engineering expertise with hands-on engineering, mentoring, and close collaboration with business and technology teams.

The position is based in Novi, Michigan, with a hybrid schedule and regular in-office collaboration. It involves collaboration with global teams, which may require occasional early morning or evening meetings, as well as occasional domestic and international travel. Successful completion of a background investigation and drug screen is required after an offer.

Requirements

• At least 8 years of experience in data engineering, software engineering, data architecture, data platforms, or related technical roles.
• Deep experience designing and delivering production data solutions using Python, SQL, Spark/PySpark, and distributed data processing technologies.
• Strong experience with Azure Databricks or a comparable enterprise lakehouse platform.
• Strong understanding of lakehouse architecture, Delta Lake, data modeling, batch and streaming architectures, orchestration, and enterprise integration patterns.
• Demonstrated experience leading technical delivery of complex data engineering initiatives across multiple systems or teams.
• Strong experience with CI/CD, Git-based development, automated testing, deployment automation, and software engineering practices applied to data.
• Strong understanding of performance optimization, production support, observability, resiliency, and data pipeline reliability.
• Working knowledge of data governance, security, access management, metadata, lineage, and data quality.
• Ability to influence technical decisions, mentor engineers, and communicate complex concepts clearly to technical and business stakeholders.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Ability to complete a background investigation and drug screen as a condition of employment after an offer.

Nice To Haves

• Databricks professional-level certification or substantial enterprise Databricks experience.
• Deep experience with Unity Catalog, Databricks Workflows, Delta Lake optimization, Lakeflow, MLflow, or Databricks Asset Bundles.
• Experience designing reusable engineering frameworks or standards used by multiple development teams.
• Experience with Kafka, CDC, Azure Data Factory, dbt, APIs, event-driven architectures, or high-volume streaming data.
• Experience with data mesh, data products, or federated hub-and-spoke operating models.
• Experience integrating data for analytics, AI/ML, and enterprise data-sharing use cases.
• Experience with SAP, manufacturing, supply chain, finance, HR, or other complex enterprise data environments.
• Experience mentoring engineers and providing technical leadership across globally distributed teams.

Responsibilities

• Lead the technical design and delivery of complex, cross-domain data products using Azure Databricks and the enterprise data platform.
• Design scalable data pipelines, transformation architectures, data models, and integration patterns for high-value business use cases.
• Make technical decisions and resolve complex engineering, performance, data quality, and integration challenges.
• Lead engineers in applying software and data engineering practices, including CI/CD, automated testing, observability, code review, and deployment automation.
• Define and improve reusable data engineering patterns, templates, and golden paths in partnership with Platform Engineering.
• Provide technical guidance and mentoring to Data Engineers while remaining hands-on with critical engineering work.
• Partner with architects, Platform Engineering, security, MDM/Data Quality, Analytics, and domain teams to ensure data products meet enterprise standards.
• Guide implementation of data contracts, quality controls, lineage, metadata, security, and operational requirements in data products.
• Lead technical discussions with source-system teams and business domains to resolve complex data dependencies and interoperability issues.
• Evaluate new Databricks and data engineering capabilities and recommend ways to improve delivery, scalability, reliability, or cost.
• Support less mature domain teams while helping mature teams work independently within enterprise guardrails.
• Contribute to technical planning and estimation for major data-product initiatives and identify engineering risks and dependencies early.

Benefits

• Employee discounts on HARMAN and Samsung products, including JBL, Harman/Kardon, and AKG.
• Learning and development opportunities through HARMAN University programs.
• Wellness benefits.
• Tuition reimbursement.
• Access to the HARMAN campus fitness center and cafeteria, where available.
• Paid vacation and holidays.
• Paid sick leave.
• Volunteer leave.
• Paid bonding and caregiver leave.
• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision plans.
• Fertility support and adoption assistance.
• Health Savings and Flexible Spending Accounts.
• Retirement savings plan with employer match.
• Short- and long-term disability coverage.
• Life insurance.
• Inclusive and diverse work environment supporting professional and personal development.

What This Job Offers

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