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Senior Principal Data Engineer Jobs (NOW HIRING)

The Job Sauce

IAA - Principal Data Engineer

Chicago, IL · On-site

$171K - $256K/yr

About the Role IAA is seeking a Principal Data Engineer to serve as the most senior individual contributor and technical authority across our data engineering function. This is a hands-on, deeply ...

GDIT

Data Engineer Senior Principal (Hybrid)

Fort Liberty, NC · Hybrid

$122K - $168K/yr

Iron EagleX is looking for a Data Engineer Sr. Principal to support the USASOC OTA Program who knows how hardware and software components fit together and integrate with cloud-based resources, to ...

NAVA Software Solutions

Principal Data Engineer

Houston, TX · On-site

$106K - $127K/yr

Principal Data Engineer Location: Houston, TX - 4 days/week onsite Duration: Full time / Direct Hire The Principal Data Engineer within the Data Science and Analytics team, plays a crucial role in ...

IVID TEK INC

$120 - $160/hr

Principal Data Engineer Principal Data Engineer Job Type: Contract W2 Location: Johnston, RI or Charlotte, NC or Boston, MA Role Overview Principal-level Java engineer to design and build enterprise ...

Amgen

Principal Data Engineer

Tampa, FL · On-site +1

Principal Data Engineer What you will do Let's do this. Let's change the world. In this vital role you will lead the design, development, and implementation of our data strategy. The ideal ...

Vistra Corp.

Principal Data Engineer

Irving, TX · On-site

As a Principal Data Engineer, you will be responsible for architecting, designing, and implementing ... This is a senior-level position that requires exceptional technical expertise, strong leadership ...

Vistra Corp

Principal Data Engineer

Irving, TX · On-site

As a Principal Data Engineer, you will be responsible for architecting, designing, and implementing ... This is a senior-level position that requires exceptional technical expertise, strong leadership ...

Vistra Energy

Principal Data Engineer

Irving, TX · Hybrid

As a Principal Data Engineer, you will be responsible for architecting, designing, and implementing ... This is a senior-level position that requires exceptional technical expertise, strong leadership ...

TXU Energy

Principal Data Engineer

Irving, TX · Hybrid

As a Principal Data Engineer, you will be responsible for architecting, designing, and implementing ... This is a senior-level position that requires exceptional technical expertise, strong leadership ...

IVID TEK INC

Principal Data Engineer

Charlotte, NC · On-site

$100K - $110K/hr

Principal Data Engineer - Principal Data Engineer Job Type: Contract W2 Location: Johnston, RI or Charlotte, NC or Boston,MA Role Overview: Principal-level Java engineer to design and build ...

Luminant

Principal Data Engineer

Irving, TX · Hybrid

As a Principal Data Engineer, you will be responsible for architecting, designing, and implementing ... This is a senior-level position that requires exceptional technical expertise, strong leadership ...

Vst

Principal Data Engineer

Irving, TX · Hybrid

As a Principal Data Engineer, you will be responsible for architecting, designing, and implementing ... This is a senior-level position that requires exceptional technical expertise, strong leadership ...

Amgen

Principal Data Engineer

Thousand Oaks, CA · On-site +1

Principal Data Engineer What you will do Let's do this. Let's change the world. In this vital role you will lead the design, development, and implementation of our data strategy. The ideal ...

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Senior Principal Data Engineer information

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$82K

$155.4K

$214.5K

How much do senior principal data engineer jobs pay per year?

As of Sep 7, 2026, the average yearly pay for senior principal data engineer in the United States is $155,430.00, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $125,500.00 and $173,000.00 per year, depending on experience, location, and employer.

What is a senior principal data engineer?

Senior Principal Data Engineers are experienced professionals who design, develop, and oversee large-scale data systems and architectures for organizations. They lead teams in building robust data pipelines, ensure data quality, and implement best practices for data storage, processing, and security. Their role often involves collaborating with data scientists, analysts, and other stakeholders to support data-driven decision-making. They also mentor junior engineers and help set the technical vision for data engineering projects.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive as a senior principal data engineer?

To thrive as a Senior Principal Data Engineer, you need deep expertise in data architecture, data modeling, distributed systems, and strong proficiency in programming languages like Python, Java, or Scala, often supported by a degree in computer science or a related field. Familiarity with big data technologies (e.g., Hadoop, Spark, Kafka), cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP), and relevant certifications such as AWS Certified Data Analytics or Google Professional Data Engineer is highly valuable. Leadership, strategic thinking, and excellent communication skills help you guide teams and align data solutions with business goals. These capabilities are crucial for designing scalable, robust data infrastructure and driving data-driven decision-making at an organizational level.

How does a senior principal data engineer typically collaborate with cross-functional teams on large-scale projects?

Senior Principal Data Engineers often serve as technical leaders, working closely with data scientists, software engineers, product managers, and business stakeholders to design and implement robust data architectures. They facilitate communication across teams to ensure data solutions align with both technical requirements and business goals. Collaboration may involve leading design discussions, reviewing code, mentoring junior engineers, and establishing best practices for data quality and scalability. Their role is crucial in bridging gaps between technical and non-technical teams, ensuring successful project delivery.

What is the difference between Senior Principal Data Engineer vs Lead Data Engineer?

AspectSenior Principal Data EngineerLead Data Engineer
CredentialsAdvanced degrees (MSc/PhD), extensive experienceBachelor's or Master's, significant data engineering experience
Work EnvironmentStrategic, architecture design, cross-team collaborationProject execution, team coordination, technical leadership
Industry UsageUsed in large organizations for high-level technical rolesCommon in tech companies and data-driven industries

The Senior Principal Data Engineer focuses on strategic architecture and high-level technical decisions, often working across teams. In contrast, the Lead Data Engineer manages project execution and team coordination. Both roles require strong technical skills, but the Senior Principal typically has more experience and a broader scope of responsibilities.

How much does a senior principal data engineer make?

A senior principal data engineer typically earns between $130,000 and $180,000 annually, depending on experience, location, and industry. They often have advanced skills in data architecture, cloud platforms, and programming languages like Python or Scala, which can influence compensation levels.
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Senior Principal Data Engineer jobs near you
Infographic showing various Senior Principal Data Engineer job openings in the United States as of August 2026, with employment types broken down into 1% As Needed, 85% Full Time, 11% Part Time, and 3% Contract. Highlights an 86% Physical, 3% Hybrid, and 11% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $155,430 per year, or $74.7 per hour.

IAA - Principal Data Engineer

The Job Sauce

Chicago, IL • On-site

$171K - $256K/yr

Full-time

Posted 9 days ago

Key responsibilities

  • Set and evolve the technical architecture for IAA's data platform, including ingestion, transformation, storage, semantic modeling, and data delivery.

  • Design and build complex, high-impact data pipelines, frameworks, and reusable components.

  • Lead the design and implementation of robust pipelines, semantic models, and data products to support analytics, forecasting, and machine learning systems.

Job description

About the Role
IAA is seeking a Principal Data Engineer to serve as the most senior individual contributor and technical authority across our data engineering function. This is a hands-on, deeply technical leadership role for an engineer who sets architectural direction, raises the engineering bar, and personally builds the most complex and business-critical components of IAA's data platform.
Where the Director leads through people and strategy, the Principal Data Engineer leads through technical depth, influence, and execution. This person defines patterns and standards, solves the hardest data engineering problems, and acts as a force multiplier for engineers across the organization. They ensure IAA's data platform is scalable, reliable, secure, and ready to power advanced analytics, BI, forecasting, and the data needs of AI solutions.
This is a high-visibility role that partners closely with engineering leadership, data scientists, BI developers, platform/infrastructure teams, and business stakeholders across Operations, Sales, Marketing, and Product.
What You'll Do
  • Set and evolve the technical architecture for IAA's data platform - ingestion, transformation, storage, semantic modeling, and data delivery - on the Azure data and analytics stack.
  • Personally design and build the most complex, high-impact data pipelines, frameworks, and reusable components that other engineers build upon.
  • Define engineering standards and patterns across architecture, code quality, performance, scalability, observability, and governance - and drive their adoption through example and mentorship.
  • Lead the design and implementation of robust pipelines, semantic models, and data products that power dashboards, self-service analytics, forecasting, and downstream machine learning systems.
  • Build the production-grade data pipelines and feature/data infrastructure that data scientists rely on to train, serve, and operationalize models.
  • Diagnose and resolve the toughest performance, reliability, and scalability challenges across BI and data workloads (e.g., Power BI, Synapse, Fabric).
  • Drive technical strategy and execution across Microsoft Fabric, Synapse, Power BI, and broader Azure BI technologies, evaluating new tools and making build/buy recommendations.
  • Mentor and grow data engineers and analytics engineers, conducting design reviews and elevating the technical capability of the team.
  • Act as a senior technical thought partner to engineering and business leadership on data architecture, technical tradeoffs, and platform investment priorities.
  • Translate complex business problems into practical, scalable, and well-architected data solutions.
What We're Looking For
  • Extensive hands-on experience as a senior or principal-level data engineer, with a track record of designing and building production data platforms at scale.
  • Deep expertise across the Azure BI / data technology stack, including:
    • Microsoft Fabric
    • Azure Synapse Analytics
    • Power BI and semantic modeling
    • Broader Azure data and analytics services
  • Strong command of data engineering architecture, modern analytics platforms, dimensional and semantic modeling, and scalable, fault-tolerant pipelines.
  • Expert-level proficiency in Python and SQL, with strong software engineering fundamentals (testing, version control, CI/CD, modular design).
  • Working understanding of how data scientists consume data, enough to build the pipelines and feature/data infrastructure that support model training and serving.
  • Demonstrated ability to solve ambiguous, complex business problems through robust technical design and pragmatic execution.
  • Strong mentoring and influence skills - able to elevate engineering practices and lead technically without formal authority.
  • Excellent communication skills; able to explain complex technical concepts and tradeoffs to both technical and non-technical partners across Ops, Business, Sales, Marketing, Product, and Engineering.
  • Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, high-visibility environment with multiple priorities and stakeholders.
Preferred Experience
  • 12+ years experience building data platforms supporting enterprise use cases across operations, commercial functions, and product-driven organizations.
  • Experience spanning both BI modernization and data platform enablement for analytics and ML within the same platform.
  • Familiarity with cloud-native engineering practices, infrastructure-as-code, and secure, scalable data environments.
  • Experience defining platform-wide standards and reference architectures adopted across multiple teams.
  • Experience building data pipelines that support RAG, LLM, or modern AI workloads on enterprise data.

Why This Role Matters
The Principal Data Engineer is the technical anchor of IAA's data and AI capability. This person shapes how the company builds and scales its data platform - enabling better decisions, improved business performance, operational efficiencies, and a durable competitive advantage. Through architecture, hands-on engineering, and influence, this leader directly impacts both technical direction and business outcomes across the organization.
The Base Compensation for this role is $171,290 - $256,990.
This role is hybrid in Chicago with an onsite expectation of 2 days per week.

Apply