Principal Data Engineer, People Data

The Principal Data Engineer will join Okta’s People Data and Data & Insights team, shaping scalable enterprise data solutions for candidate and employee lifecycle information. This role combines technical architecture, data governance, and cross-functional leadership to improve data availability, integrity, and adoption across the organization.

Role Overview

As a Principal Data Engineer, you will architect, build, and maintain critical systems that support externally reported people-related numbers. You will lead complex technical initiatives spanning multiple data domains, with a focus on data modeling standards, governance rigor, and reliable data contracts that support global product teams.

Core Responsibilities

• Design, build, and evolve high scale data solutions that establish reference architecture and simplify access to data across the organization
• Create data quality frameworks including monitoring, anomaly detection, and alerting, with governance, lineage tracking, and change management practices appropriate for externally reported metrics
• Drive adoption of consistent data modeling patterns, naming conventions, documentation norms, and metric governance standards across the data organization
• Lead cross-functional technical initiatives across data verticals to accelerate delivery and improve the resilience of data systems
• Make sound technical decisions in ambiguous environments, balancing near-term delivery with long-term infrastructure investment
• Champion Data Contracts by implementing data contracts and schema evolution practices to support reliability across global product teams
• Mentor and scale engineering execution by mentoring senior engineers, leading cross-functional task forces, and fostering a culture of engineering excellence and data-driven decision making
• Stay current with emerging data technologies and practices to guide the team’s long-term technical direction

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience in data engineering, with proven experience in a senior or lead capacity; experience with Federal government compliance and security requirements is highly desirable
• Expert-level experience with SQL, ETL/ELT tools (Airflow, dbt), and MPP databases (Snowflake, Redshift), plus extensive hands-on experience with AWS services (S3, Lambda, EMR, ECR, EKS)
• HR data expertise, including candidate lifecycle, employee records, compensation, and organizational data, with experience designing data models for recruiting analytics, engagement signals, and workforce planning metrics
• Familiarity with Workday data structures is a bonus
• Experience building and maintaining both batch and realtime pipelines using technologies such as Spark and Kafka
• Deep experience designing and working with modern lakehouse and warehouse architectures (Databricks, Snowflake) and modern file formats (Iceberg, Delta)
• Demonstrated ability to integrate AI tools to optimize or redesign workflows and drive measurable impact such as efficiency and quality improvements
• Track record of hands-on collaboration with Data Science, Business, and Product teams

Technologies

• SQL, Airflow, dbt, Snowflake, Redshift
• AWS: S3, Lambda, EMR, ECR, EKS
• Spark, Kafka, Databricks
• Iceberg, Delta

Location and Salary

• Location: Bellevue, WA (hybrid)
• Compensation: USD 197,000 - 270,600 per year
• Experience Level: 10+ years

The Okta Experience

• Supporting Your Well-Being
• Driving Social Impact
• Developing Talent and Fostering Connection + Community