Senior Data Engineer

Ellis Porter•Ann Arbor, MI

1d•$140,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Ellis Porter (EP) is investing in data to build a more resilient firm and make our collective knowledge more useful to our people, clients, and business. We want trusted, connected data to become a lasting advantage: improving service, informing decisions, and enabling responsible use of AI, new technologies, and partnerships. As a Senior Data Engineer, you’ll be our first in-house data engineer and own our Databricks platform end to end, from building reliable pipelines and trusted data products to managing platform operations and shaping its future. This is a builder role for someone who enjoys hands-on development, problem-solving, and the opportunity to shape a growing data function. Reporting to the Manager of Data Services and Products, you'll inherit a working platform from our external vendor, with support during the transition. You'll evaluate what's in place, identify opportunities for improvement, and work directly with business stakeholders to turn their needs into practical, reliable data solutions. Since you'll be the sole engineer in a small data function, code review runs on design records, CI checks, and self-review. You'll partner with your manager on architecture and build-versus-buy decisions alongside business, application, IT, and security partners. You'll also work together to establish practices for code quality, additional technical review, and operational coverage. This is a full-time position offering flexible work arrangements including remote, hybrid, or on-site options at our Troy, MI or Ann Arbor, MI offices. Please note – although this role can be remote, all work must be performed within the United States.

Requirements

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field, or equivalent practical experience.
4+ years of experience in data engineering.
2+ years of hands-on experience building and operating Databricks solutions in production, including multi-task Lakeflow Jobs over Delta tables governed by Unity Catalog.
Ability to explain a production pipeline you’ve built, the reasoning behind your design decisions, and how you addressed failures or operational challenges.
Communicate clearly with nontechnical partners and connect engineering decisions to business impact.
Proficiency in Python, including testing (pytest) and packaging.
Strong SQL and dimensional modeling expertise, including serving governed datasets to BI tools.
Experience building REST API and SaaS ingestion pipelines, including handling pagination, rate limits, schema drift, and credential rotation.
Experience with Git-based CI/CD workflows.
Experience using AI-assisted development tools, with sound judgment in reviewing, testing, and validating generated code before deployment.

Nice To Haves

Experience deploying through Declarative Automation Bundles (formerly Databricks Asset Bundles) or equivalent infrastructure-as-code is strongly preferred.
PySpark experience preferred.
Azure DevOps is a plus.
Experience building Lakeflow pipelines, managed connectors, entity resolution, or record linkage is a plus.
Experience managing the Azure resources that support a data platform (Databricks workspace administration, storage, Key Vault and secrets, service principals, networking), ideally as infrastructure-as-code, is a plus.

Responsibilities

Build and maintain ingestion pipelines that bring data from EP’s business systems into Databricks, with automated quality checks and source reconciliation to identify missing, inaccurate, or duplicate data.
Design and develop silver and gold data layers, delivering governed data products that support reporting, cross-system matching, and identity resolution.
Own day-to-day platform operations, including job scheduling, monitoring, alerting, data freshness, access control, and cost optimization; maintain runbooks, test recovery procedures, and document knowledge so the platform can be supported by others.
Manage CI/CD pipelines and deployments across development, testing, and production environments using Azure DevOps.
Coordinate with EP’s IT vendor on Azure infrastructure needs outside the data platform; preserve systems of record, enforce user-appropriate access, and validate licensing and platform constraints before deployment.
Partner directly with business stakeholders to understand their needs and translate them into practical, reliable data solutions.
Design and implement approved confidentiality, retention, least-privilege access, and audit controls for sensitive client and matter data.
Support bounded AI and partner pilots with appropriate masking, evaluation data, and human approval before expanding access or enabling changes to operational records.
Perform other duties as assigned by management.