New Grad Data Engineer Jobs in Illinois (NOW HIRING)

Valorem Reply is an award-winning digital transformation firm focused on delivering solutions around data-driven enterprise, IT modernization, customer experience, product transformation and digital workplace by leveraging the power of Microsoft technologies. We provide hyper-scale and agile delivery of unique digital business services, strategic business models and design-led user experiences. Our innovative strategies and solutions securely and rapidly transform the way our clients do business.
We are seeking a Data Engineer to design, build, and optimize modern data platforms for our clients using Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Fabric, Power BI, and Databricks. This role is ideal for someone who combines deep technical expertise with strong consulting skills - someone who can engage directly with clients, understand business needs, translate requirements into scalable technical solutions, and communicate clearly with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
As a member of the team, you will contribute to solution architecture and help deliver high-quality modern data solutions that drive measurable business value. The ideal candidate is equally comfortable discussing lakehouse architecture with engineers, facilitating design sessions with client stakeholders, and presenting recommendations to leadership teams.
Responsibilities
• Work directly with clients to understand business goals, data challenges, and technical requirements
• Lead or support discovery sessions, requirements workshops, architecture discussions, and solution reviews
• Develop and optimize batch and streaming data ingestion pipelines from enterprise applications, databases, APIs, and file-based sources.
• Implement medallion/lakehouse architectures, dimensional models, and data transformation workflows to support analytics and reporting use cases
• Engineer solutions using technologies such as PySpark, Spark SQL, SQL, Python, Delta Lake, and orchestration tools within Azure and Databricks
• Recommend best practices for data modeling, governance, lineage, monitoring, DevOps, and security
Minimum Requirements
• Bachelor's degree in computer science or related field
• 6+ years of experience in data engineering, data platform development, or cloud data solutions
• 3+ years of hands-on experience with Azure Databricks, Apache Spark, or similar distributed data processing technologies
• Expertise with Microsoft Azure infrastructure and data resources, including Fabric, Azure Data Factory, Synapse Data Analytics, Power BI, Azure SQL, Azure Cosmos DB, and Azure Database for PostgreSQL
• Expertise with Databricks, specifically the ability to design enterprise-level strategy and architecture including Unity Catalog, data warehousing, data sharing, and Mosaic AI
• DevOps for data, GitHub, automated testing, and working with containers (AKS, Docker, registries, etc.)
• Excellent communication skills, ability to clearly explain concepts to teammates and customers, and quickly learn new concepts and technologies
Preferred Qualifications
• Experience working directly with clients, business stakeholders, or cross-functional teams in a consulting or professional services environment.
• Experience building data agents, including NLQ, Databricks Genie, and Fabric Data Agents
• Experience with data management, including data governance, data security, master data management, and familiarity with different industry security requirements
• Broad experience with data/reporting tools, architectures, cloud vendors, and data/AI concepts other than Microsoft
About Reply
Reply specializes in the design and implementation of solutions based on new communication channels and digital media. Reply is a network of highly specialized companies supporting global industrial groups operating in the telecom and media, industry and services, banking, insurance and public administration sectors in the definition and development of business models enabled for the new paradigms of AI, cloud computing, digital media and the Internet of Things. Reply services include Consulting, System Integration and Digital Services.
The base compensation range for this full-time position is between $130,000 - $150,000 plus benefits. Compensation decisions are supported through market data, where regional variances may exist based on cost of labor. We also take into consideration prior experience, relevant skills, education and/or training, certifications and, as applicable, other required qualifications. If you have questions regarding compensation, the talent acquisition team can provide relevant details during the interview process.
Reply is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to provide equal opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. If you need assistance and reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the recruiting process, email us at [email protected]. Visit our website at www.reply.com to learn more about our open roles.
We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses and identifying potential inconsistencies or verification signals in application materials based on available information. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.