Principal Data Engineer, People Data
Apache Airflow
Big Data
Bigdata
Cloud Data Warehouse
Cloud Platform
Data Architecture
Data Build Tool
Data Engineer
Data Engineering
Data Governance
Data Integration
Data Lake
Data Lakehouse
Data Management
Data Modeling
Data Pipeline
Data Pipelines
Data Platform
Data Processing
Data Warehouse
Data Warehousing
Databricks
Dataops
Engineer
ETL
Snowflake
SQL
Job Description
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
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