Principal Data Engineer

Virgin Voyages • Plantation, FL

1d • Hybrid

About The Position

Virgin Voyages is seeking a Principal Data Engineer to provide technical leadership across the data engineering landscape, with primary responsibility for data platform architecture, pipeline design, platform modernization, reliability, and data quality. This is a principal-level individual contributor role with no formal people management responsibilities. The successful candidate will operate with a high degree of autonomy and will play a key role in shaping and advancing technical direction across Data Engineering, MLOps, and DataOps. This individual will partner closely with Data Engineering, Analytics Engineering, machine learning partners, and other cross-functional stakeholders to deliver scalable, reliable, and modern data solutions that support both analytics and AI enablement. This gig is based at VVHQ - our swanky Virgin Voyages Head Office in Plantation, FL where we follow a hybrid work environment. We can't wait to 'sea' you in person during our Collaboration Days, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, while you enjoy Mondays and Fridays' as remote days.

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience in data engineering or related data platform roles.
• Demonstrated experience designing and evolving modern data platforms, pipelines, and architecture.
• Strong SQL and Python skills.
• Experience working across a modern data technology stack.
• Experience with cloud-based data platforms and managed services.
• Proven ability to operate independently and lead technical direction with a high degree of autonomy.
• Strong experience improving reliability, observability, testing, and data quality within production data environments.
• Experience establishing engineering standards, architecture patterns, and reusable technical frameworks.
• Experience enabling AI use cases through strong data engineering foundations.
• Familiarity with AI-assisted engineering workflows and tools.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with GCP, including BigQuery.
• Experience with dbt or other modern data transformation frameworks.
• Exposure to MLOps concepts and collaboration with machine learning engineers.
• Experience with DataOps practices and modern platform operating models.
• Ops or DevOps knowledge.
• Experience supporting adoption of AI tools for code generation and day-to-day engineering productivity.
• Experience in travel, hospitality, consumer platforms, or recommendations and personalization use cases.
• Strong stakeholder communication and cross-functional collaboration skills.

Responsibilities

• Own and evolve technical direction for the data engineering platform, including architecture, standards, and long-term platform evolution.
• Design and guide the development of scalable, reliable data pipelines and platform capabilities that support analytics and AI use cases.
• Contribute to the modernization and evolution of the data platform toward more scalable and managed solutions.
• Define and enhance engineering standards, architecture patterns, reusable frameworks, and best practices across the data engineering function.
• Improve platform reliability, observability, testing practices, and data quality across production data environments.
• Partner with machine learning and related technical teams to support AI platform enablement and help shape MLOps practices where appropriate.
• Support broader adoption of AI tools in engineering workflows and day-to-day productivity, including familiarity with tools such as Claude Code and Codex.
• Collaborate with Data Engineering, Analytics Engineering, and stakeholders outside the core data organization to align technical solutions with business and platform needs.
• Provide selective hands-on technical contribution, particularly in the establishment of foundational services, frameworks, and platform capabilities.

What This Job Offers

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