Principal Data Engineer, People Data
Job Description
Okta is seeking a Principal Data Engineer, People Data to architect and operate scalable data solutions that power candidate and employee lifecycle insights across the HR and People organization.
Responsibilities
- Design, build, and evolve high-scale data solutions that act as the organization’s reference architecture and make data access simpler
- Create data quality frameworks including monitoring, anomaly detection, and alerting, with governance, lineage tracking, and change management rigor for externally reported metrics
- Standardize data modeling patterns, naming conventions, documentation practices, and metric governance across the data organization
- Lead cross-functional technical initiatives across data verticals to accelerate delivery and harden data systems
- Make sound technical decisions in ambiguous environments by balancing short-term delivery with long-term infrastructure investment
- Champion Data Contracts by implementing data contracts and schema evolution practices to improve reliability across global product teams
- Mentor and scale engineering capability by mentoring senior engineers, leading cross-functional task forces, and fostering a data-driven engineering culture
- Stay current on the data landscape and advocate for emerging technologies and practices to shape long-term technical direction
Requirements
- 10+ years in data engineering with senior or lead experience
- Federal government compliance and security requirements experience is highly desirable
- Expert-level experience with SQL and ETL/ELT tooling including Airflow and dbt
- Proven hands-on experience with MPP databases including Snowflake and Redshift
- Extensive hands-on experience with AWS services including S3, Lambda, EMR, ECR, and EKS
- People Data expertise focused on HR data: candidate lifecycle, employee records, compensation, and organizational data
- Experience designing data models for recruiting analytics, engagement signals, and workforce planning metrics
- Familiarity with Workday data structures is a plus
- Experience building and maintaining batch and real-time pipelines using technologies such as Spark and Kafka
- Deep experience with modern lakehouse and warehouse architectures such as Databricks and Snowflake, plus modern file formats like Iceberg and Delta
- Demonstrated ability to integrate AI tools to optimize or redesign workflows and drive measurable impact (efficiency gains, quality improvements)
- Track record of hands-on collaboration with Data Science, Business, and Product teams
Skills & Technologies
- SQL, Airflow, dbt
- Snowflake, Redshift
- AWS: S3, Lambda, EMR, ECR, EKS
- Spark, Kafka
- Databricks, Iceberg, Delta
Location & Compensation
- Location: Washington, DC (hybrid)
- Salary: USD 197,000 - 270,600 per year
The Okta Experience
- Supporting Your Well-Being
- Driving Social Impact
- Developing Talent and Fostering Connection + Community