Contract Databricks Data Engineer Jobs in Princeton, NJ

Grade Level (for internal use):

The Team:

This team is essential to the division's data strategy, playing a key role in data transformation and leading efforts to replace legacy technical debt. The team embodies a strong commitment to delivering on business needs and demonstrates exceptional collaboration with both product and business partners. They are known for their collaborative approach, strong technical expertise, and the high energy and dedication they bring to their work.

Responsibilities and Impact:

• Lead and scale a world-class engineering organization of 100+ data engineers, ML engineers, and platform developers, including managing managers and Staff/Principal-level engineers while driving hiring, retention, and talent development strategies
• Provide strategic technical direction for enterprise-scale lakehouse architecture using Databricks Data Intelligence Platform (Unity Catalog, Delta Lake, Delta Live Tables, Mosaic AI) and AWS cloud services, ensuring highly performant, cost-effective, and interoperable data foundations
• Drive the organization's transition to production-grade autonomous AI systems, leveraging Databricks AI stack including MLflow, Feature Store, Vector Search, and Model Serving to deliver measurable business value beyond proof-of-concept implementations
• Establish rigorous engineering standards and operational excellence practices including SLOs, error budgets, incident management, and infrastructure-as-code using tools such as Terraform and Databricks Asset Bundles for reliable platform delivery
• Oversee enterprise semantic modeling and RAG architecture strategies, ensuring AI systems are grounded in Unity Catalog-governed data assets with proper access controls, lineage tracking, and auditability to prevent hallucinations
• Foster a high-performance engineering culture rooted in psychological safety, continuous learning, and rapid experimentation while partnering with Product, FinOps, and executive leadership to translate business goals into actionable technical roadmaps

Compensation/Benefits Information:

(This section is only applicable to US candidates) S&P Globalstatesthat theanticipatedbase salary range for this position is $185,000 to $265,000.Finalbase salary for this role will be based on the individual's geographic location, as well as experience level, skill set, training,licensesand certifications.

In addition to base compensation, this role is eligible for an annual incentive plan. This role is not eligible foradditionalcompensation such as an annual incentive bonus or sales commission plan. This role is eligible to receiveadditionalS&P Global benefits. For more information on the benefits we provide to our employees, please clickhere.

What We're Looking For:

Basic Required Qualifications:

• 15+ years of engineering experience with 5+ years directly managing and scaling large engineering teams at Director or Head of Engineering level, including experience managing managers and guiding Staff/Principal-level individual contributors through organizational transformation
• Deep expertise in Databricks Data Intelligence Platform including Unity Catalog, Delta Lake internals, Delta Live Tables, Databricks Workflows, MLflow, and Mosaic AI, with ability to engage in technical discussions and provide strategic guidance on complex platform trade-offs
• Extensive experience architecting enterprise-scale data platforms on AWS including services such as Amazon S3, AWS Glue, Amazon EMR, AWS Lake Formation, with strong understanding of multi-region deployment strategies and security patterns (IAM, VPC, KMS)
• Proven technical depth in Apache Iceberg internals, schema evolution, and cross-platform table strategies, combined with hands-on experience in autonomous AI agent deployment and RAG pipeline architecture for production environments
• Demonstrated ability to build and scale engineering organizations from 20+ to 100+ engineers while establishing rigorous engineering standards, agile delivery practices, and operational SLAs for complex data and AI products
• Strong leadership and communication skills with experience translating complex technical trade-offs to non-technical stakeholders and influencing executive decision-making through data-driven recommendations and ROI analysis

Additional Preferred Qualifications:

• AWS and/or Databricks certifications with experience partnering with FinOps and cloud platform teams to optimize cloud consumption, performance, and platform ROI across multi-cloud data platform strategies
• Experience with semantic modeling, knowledge graphs, and enterprise data governance frameworks including metadata management and secure data sharing patterns at enterprise scale
• Background in LLMOps, model evaluation, and prompt orchestration with familiarity integrating AWS AI/ML services such as Amazon SageMaker and Amazon Bedrock into broader enterprise AI platform strategies
• Experience with infrastructure-as-code tools such as Terraform, CI/CD pipelines, and deployment automation including Databricks Asset Bundles for repeatable, auditable platform delivery across distributed cloud environments

What's In It For You?

Our Mission:

Advancing Essential Intelligence.

Our People:

We're more than 35,000 strong worldwide-so we're able to understand nuances while having a broad perspective. Our team is driven by curiosity and a shared belief that Essential Intelligence can help build a more prosperous future for us all.From finding new ways to measure sustainability to analyzing energy transition across the supply chain to building workflow solutions that make it easy to tap into insight and apply it. We are changing the way people see things and empowering them to make an impact on the world we live in. We're committed to a more equitable future and to helping our customers find new, sustainable ways of doing business. Join us and help create the critical insights that truly make a difference.

Our Values:

Integrity, Discovery, Partnership

Throughout our history, the world's leading organizations have relied on us for the Essential Intelligence they need to make confident decisions about the road ahead. We start with a foundation of integrity in all we do, bring a spirit of discovery to our work, and collaborate in close partnership with each other and our customers to achieve shared goals.
Benefits:

We take care of you, so you cantake care of business. We care about our people. That's why we provide everything you-and your career-need to thrive at S&P Global.
Our benefits include:

• Health & Wellness: Health care coverage designed for the mind and body.

• Flexible Downtime: Generous time off helps keep you energized for your time on.

• Continuous Learning: Access a wealth of resources to grow your career and learn valuable new skills.

• Invest in Your Future: Secure your financial future through competitive pay, retirement planning, a continuing education program with a company-matched student loan contribution, and financial wellness programs.

• Family Friendly Perks: It's not just about you. S&P Global has perks for your partners and little ones, too, with some best-in class benefits for families.

• Beyond the Basics: From retail discounts to referral incentive awards-small perks can make a big difference.

For more information on benefits by country visit: https://spgbenefits.com/benefit-summaries

Global Hiring and Opportunity at S&P Global:

At S&P Global, we are committed to fostering a connected andengaged workplace where all individuals have access to opportunities based on their skills, experience, and contributions. Our hiring practices emphasize fairness, transparency, and merit, ensuring that we attract and retain top talent. By valuing different perspectives and promoting a culture of respect and collaboration, we drive innovation and power global markets.

Recruitment Fraud Alert:

If you receive an email from a spglobalind.com domain or any other regionally based domains, it is a scam and should be reported toreportfraud@spglobal.com. S&P Global never requires any candidate to pay money for job applications, interviews, offer letters, "pre-employment training" or for equipment/delivery of equipment. Stay informed and protect yourself from recruitment fraud by reviewing our guidelines, fraudulent domains, and how to report suspicious activityhere.