What are the responsibilities and job description for the Principal Platform Data Engineer, SAP position at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals?
Overview
Alnylam’s 2030 transformation — serving 10x patients with 30x manufacturing capacity — depends on SAP as the backbone for finance, supply chain, manufacturing, and procurement. As Principal Platform Data Engineer, SAP, you will own the end-to-end architecture from SAP S/4HANA and BW/4HANA source systems through Fivetran-based extraction, Snowflake lakehouse storage, dbt transformation, and downstream consumption by analytics, AI/ML, and Snowflake Cortex AI workloads. This is a highly autonomous, technically senior individual contributor role with direct influence on how SAP data powers the entire enterprise. Reports to the Sr. Director/Director of Data, AI & Enterprise Architecture. Hybrid role based in Cambridge, MA with 2 days/week onsite.
Responsibilities
Required
$174,800.00 - $236,600.00
The pay range reflects the full-time base salary range we expect to pay for this role at the time of posting. Base pay will be determined based on a number of factors including, but not limited to, relevant experience, skills, and education. This role is eligible for an annual short-term incentive award (e.g., bonus or sales incentive) and an annual long-term incentive award (e.g., equity).
Alnylam’s robust Total Rewards package is designed to support your overall health and well-being. We offer comprehensive benefits including medical, dental, and vision coverage, life and disability insurance, a lifestyle reimbursement program, flexible spending and health savings accounts and a 401(k)with a generous company match. Eligible employees enjoy paid time off, wellness days, holidays, and two company-wide recharge breaks. We also offer generous family resources and leave. Our commitment to your well-being reflects our belief that caring for our people fuels the impact we create together.
Learn more about these and additional benefits offered by Alnylam by visiting the Benefits section of the Careers website: https://www.alnylam.com/careers
About Alnylam
We are the leader in RNAi therapeutics – a revolutionary approach with the potential to transform the lives of people with rare and common diseases. Built on Nobel Prize-winning science, Alnylam has delivered the breakthroughs that made RNAi therapeutics possible and are just at the beginning of what’s possible. Our deep pipeline, late-stage programs, and bold vision reflect our core values: fierce innovation, passion for excellence, purposeful urgency, open culture and commitment to people. We're proud to be a globally recognized top employer, where an authentic, inclusive culture and breakthrough thinking fuel one another.
At Alnylam, we commit to an inclusive recruitment process and equal employment opportunity. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to their sex, gender or gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, religion, creed, physical or mental disability, pregnancy status or related conditions, genetic information, veteran or military status, marital or familial status, political affiliation, age, or any other factor protected by federal, state, or local law. Alnylam is an E-Verify Employer.
Alnylam’s 2030 transformation — serving 10x patients with 30x manufacturing capacity — depends on SAP as the backbone for finance, supply chain, manufacturing, and procurement. As Principal Platform Data Engineer, SAP, you will own the end-to-end architecture from SAP S/4HANA and BW/4HANA source systems through Fivetran-based extraction, Snowflake lakehouse storage, dbt transformation, and downstream consumption by analytics, AI/ML, and Snowflake Cortex AI workloads. This is a highly autonomous, technically senior individual contributor role with direct influence on how SAP data powers the entire enterprise. Reports to the Sr. Director/Director of Data, AI & Enterprise Architecture. Hybrid role based in Cambridge, MA with 2 days/week onsite.
Responsibilities
- Own the SAP-to-Snowflake integration architecture using Alnylam’s common integration pattern — Fivetran for extraction, Snowflake as the enterprise lakehouse, and dbt for transformation and semantic modeling — ensuring reliable, governed, AI-ready data pipelines across all SAP domains.
- Design and optimize change data capture strategies across SLT replication, ODP extraction, ABAP CDS views, and Fivetran delta modes, balancing extraction latency, SAP system performance, and data completeness.
- Build canonical SAP data models in dbt that translate complex ERP table structures into intuitive, well-governed datasets in the Snowflake medallion architecture, including reusable macros for currency conversion, UOM handling, hierarchy flattening, and SAP-specific semantic layer definitions.
- Implement data quality monitoring, security architecture (RBAC, column masking, row-level security), and CI/CD pipelines for SAP data infrastructure, ensuring compliance with GxP, 21 CFR Part 11, and SOX requirements.
- Serve as the enterprise SAP data SME — leading architecture reviews, mentoring domain engineers, partnering with SAP Basis and functional teams, and representing Alnylam in vendor discussions with Fivetran, Snowflake, and SAP.
- Define the SAP data product roadmap and future-state integration architecture strategy, evaluating emerging capabilities including SAP Datasphere, SAP BTP, and Snowflake Native Apps as the ERP landscape evolves.
Required
- 10 years in data engineering with 5 years focused on SAP data extraction, integration, and analytics.
- Deep SAP module knowledge across at least three of FI/CO, MM, SD, PP, QM, or WM/EWM — able to navigate table structures, transaction codes, and data relationships without documentation.
- Expert understanding of SAP extraction methods: SLT, ODP, ABAP CDS views, OData services, BAPIs/RFCs, and IDocs; strong SAP BW/4HANA and S/4HANA Universal Journal (ACDOCA) experience.
- Expert-level Snowflake including Snowpark, Streams/Tasks, and Snowflake Cortex AI (LLM functions, Cortex Search, Document AI).
- Hands-on Fivetran experience: SAP connector configuration, sync strategies, schema drift handling, and API automation.
- Deep dbt expertise (3 years): advanced Jinja, custom macro/package development, Semantic Layer/MetricFlow, and CI/CD integration.
- Expert SQL and Python with production-quality standards; strong Terraform, GitHub Actions, and AWS skills.
- Experience with data observability platforms (Monte Carlo preferred) and regulated environments (GxP, SOX, HIPAA).
- 5 years in biotech, pharma, healthcare, or life sciences.
- Experience with SAP Datasphere, SAP BTP, and Snowflake Native App capabilities.
- History of building reusable SAP data frameworks and dbt packages adopted across engineering teams.
- Occasional travel required (10–15%) for vendor conferences including Snowflake Summit, SAP TechEd, and Coalesce.
$174,800.00 - $236,600.00
The pay range reflects the full-time base salary range we expect to pay for this role at the time of posting. Base pay will be determined based on a number of factors including, but not limited to, relevant experience, skills, and education. This role is eligible for an annual short-term incentive award (e.g., bonus or sales incentive) and an annual long-term incentive award (e.g., equity).
Alnylam’s robust Total Rewards package is designed to support your overall health and well-being. We offer comprehensive benefits including medical, dental, and vision coverage, life and disability insurance, a lifestyle reimbursement program, flexible spending and health savings accounts and a 401(k)with a generous company match. Eligible employees enjoy paid time off, wellness days, holidays, and two company-wide recharge breaks. We also offer generous family resources and leave. Our commitment to your well-being reflects our belief that caring for our people fuels the impact we create together.
Learn more about these and additional benefits offered by Alnylam by visiting the Benefits section of the Careers website: https://www.alnylam.com/careers
About Alnylam
We are the leader in RNAi therapeutics – a revolutionary approach with the potential to transform the lives of people with rare and common diseases. Built on Nobel Prize-winning science, Alnylam has delivered the breakthroughs that made RNAi therapeutics possible and are just at the beginning of what’s possible. Our deep pipeline, late-stage programs, and bold vision reflect our core values: fierce innovation, passion for excellence, purposeful urgency, open culture and commitment to people. We're proud to be a globally recognized top employer, where an authentic, inclusive culture and breakthrough thinking fuel one another.
At Alnylam, we commit to an inclusive recruitment process and equal employment opportunity. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to their sex, gender or gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, religion, creed, physical or mental disability, pregnancy status or related conditions, genetic information, veteran or military status, marital or familial status, political affiliation, age, or any other factor protected by federal, state, or local law. Alnylam is an E-Verify Employer.
Salary : $174,800 - $236,600