Senior Performance Engineer Jobs in Mount Prospect, IL

• Health/Rx
• Dental
• Vision
• Flexible and health spending accounts (FSA/HSA)
• Supplemental life insurance
• 401(k)
• Paid time off
• Paid sick time
• Short term & long term disability coverage (STD/LTD)
• Employee stock ownership (ESOP)
• Holiday pay for company designated holidays

At KeHE, we’re obsessed with creating solutions, unboxing potential, and serving others – and it all starts with you. As an employee-owned distributor of natural and organic, specialty, and fresh products, we’re committed to making a positive impact and scaling our success together. With a culture that fosters development and opportunity, you’ll be embarking on a career that’s moving forward. When you join KeHE, you’re becoming part of a team that is a force for good.

The Senior DEA Engineer is a highly capable individual contributor who operates with a high degree of autonomy, owns complex technical problems end-to-end, and elevates the quality and effectiveness of the entire team without formal people management. 

This role represents the transition from task-based execution to system-level thinking, ownership, and leadership through influence. Senior Engineers are expected to solve ambiguous problems, mentor others, and shape how solutions are designed — not just how they are implemented. The Senior Engineer is expected to have strong proficiency in the team's primary tech stack, solid understanding of system design principle, comfort with APIs, integrations and distributed systems and strong testing, debugging and performance optimization skills. 

 The Senior Engineer role is at the top of the individual contributor core track, before branching into people leadership (Lead) or deep technical leadership (Principal)As with all positions at KeHE Distributors, we expect that all actions will be consistent with KeHE's Mission, Vision, and Values. 

DUTIES, TASKS AND RESPONSIBILITIES: 

• Design and implement complex software features and systems, ensuring solutions are scalable, maintainable, well-tested, and aligned with architectural and security standards. 

• Own technical solutions end-to-end, from design through implementation, testing, deployment, and operational support, ensuring the long-term health and reliability of the system. 

• Lead technical design discussions and solution planning, evaluating trade-offs and guiding the team toward sound engineering decisions. 

• Collaborate closely with product managers, designers, and other stakeholders to translate business requirements into effective technical solutions that deliver customer value.

• Use logs, metrics, and analytics to inform engineering decisions, designing systems with observability in mind and continuously improving performance and reliability. 

• Mentor and support other engineers, sharing knowledge, helping onboard new team members, and contributing to the growth of engineering capability across the team. 

• Continuously improve engineering practices and technical capabilities, staying current with emerging technologies, introducing improvements in development patterns, tools, and workflows. 

SKILLS, KNOWLEDGE AND ABILITIES: 

• Deep proficiency in programming languages, frameworks, and software design patterns, with the ability to architect and implement complex systems. 

• Ability to design scalable, resilient systems and evaluate architectural trade-offs while ensuring adherence to engineering and security standards. 

• Ability to partner effectively with product, design, QA, and engineering teams, clearly communicate technical concepts, and resolve ambiguity in complex initiatives. 

• Ability to leverage metrics, logs, and analytics to evaluate system performance, inform decisions, and design systems with strong observability practices. 

• Ability to guide technical decisions, mentor engineers, support onboarding, and contribute to the development of engineering best practices within the team. 

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE: 

• 5+ years of experience with data engineering technologies (SQL, Python, Spark) and cloud platforms (AWS/Azure/GCP). 

• Deep knowledge of data architecture, modeling, governance, and integration best practices. 

• Strong experience with MLOps, analytics platforms, and BI tools (Power BI, Tableau). 

• Proven ability to set technical vision, influence architecture strategy, and mentor senior engineers. 

• Product mindset with ability to connect technical decisions to business outcomes. 

• Excellent leadership, communication, and stakeholder management skills. 

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, software engineering, or a related field preferred or similar coding education alternatives to traditional four-year degrees.  

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS: 

• These physical demands are representative of the physical requirements necessary for an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of the job. 

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE: 

• 5+ years of experience with data engineering technologies (SQL, Python, Spark) and cloud platforms (AWS/Azure/GCP). 

• Deep knowledge of data architecture, modeling, governance, and integration best practices. 

• Strong experience with MLOps, analytics platforms, and BI tools (Power BI, Tableau). 

• Proven ability to set technical vision, influence architecture strategy, and mentor senior engineers. 

• Product mindset with ability to connect technical decisions to business outcomes. 

• Excellent leadership, communication, and stakeholder management skills. 

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, software engineering, or a related field preferred or similar coding education alternatives to traditional four-year degrees.  

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS: 

• These physical demands are representative of the physical requirements necessary for an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of the job.