Principal Data Engineer

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead the database schema assessment early in the engagement to map the legacy data model and identify structural problems.
• Design the clean target schema in collaboration with the Backend Lead and Principal Engineer, establishing naming conventions and tenancy patterns.
• Build and own the translation layer between the legacy and new backend, ensuring new code works with clean data models while the old schema remains untouched.

Project Execution:

• Own the data contract ensuring consistency between old and new systems and plan the per-tenant data cutover with verification gates and rollback safety.
• Manage database performance tuning during migration, handling read replica strategies and elevated load during the dual-system period.
• Instrument data quality, lineage, and audit capabilities suitable for a healthcare context and mentor engineers on data fundamentals.

Qualifications & Attributes:

• 7+ years of data engineering experience with strong Python and SQL skills and deep PostgreSQL expertise in production environments.
• Hands-on experience with large migrations where two systems ran in parallel and data had to stay consistent across both.
• Production AWS experience, particularly with Aurora, and a track record of shipping meaningful work in the last 2 years.
• Preferred experience includes healthcare data handling (HIPAA, PHI), additive-only migration strategies, Kafka, SQLAlchemy, and AI-assisted development workflows.