What are the responsibilities and job description for the Lead Data Engineer (Snowflake) position at Prairie Consulting Services?
Senior / Lead Snowflake Data Engineer (Greenfield Build, Streaming, Multi-Cloud)
Location: Downtown Chicago, Hybrid, 3dys/week to work
Overview
We are seeking a Senior Snowflake Data Engineer with proven greenfield experience—someone who has designed and built data platforms from scratch, not just enhanced existing systems.
You will play a critical role in foundational architecture, building scalable data pipelines, and establishing best practices across a modern Snowflake-based ecosystem spanning AWS and Azure.
What You’ll Do
- Architect and implement a new Snowflake data warehouse environment from scratch
- Build end-to-end ingestion frameworks supporting:
Batch/file-based ingestion (S3, Blob Storage)
Real-time streaming (Snowpipe, Kafka, Event Hubs)
- Develop scalable transformations using Snowflake SQL, stored procedures, and Python
- Define and implement data models (dimensional/star schema) aligned with business needs
- Establish data quality, monitoring, and observability frameworks
- Optimize Snowflake performance and cost efficiency
- Integrate with AWS (S3, Lambda, CloudWatch) and Azure (ADF, Event Hubs, Functions)
- Implement CI/CD pipelines and Infrastructure as Code (Terraform/CloudFormation)
- Collaborate with stakeholders to translate undefined requirements into scalable solutions
- Mentor team members and help define data engineering standards
Required Expertise
- 5–8 years in Data Engineering with 3 years strong Snowflake experience
- Proven track record of greenfield data platform implementations
Deep expertise in:
Advanced SQL & Snowflake optimization
Batch streaming data pipelines
Data modeling and warehouse design
- Hands-on experience with both AWS and Azure ecosystems
- Strong Python programming skills
- Experience delivering production-grade, scalable data systems
Preferred (What Sets You Apart)
- Snowflake Certifications (SnowPro Core / Advanced)
- Experience building real-time streaming architectures using Kafka or similar technologies
- Strong experience with Terraform or Infrastructure as Code
- Familiarity with Docker, Kubernetes, and modern DevOps practices
- Experience with data observability / quality tools (Monte Carlo, Great Expectations, etc.)
- Exposure to BI tools (Tableau, Power BI, Looker)
- Prior experience in high-scale enterprise data environments
What We’re Looking For
- Engineers who own problems end-to-end, not just write code
- Strong systems thinking and architectural mindset
- Ability to work across multi-cloud ecosystems
- Someone who can optimize, scale, and modernize data platforms, not just maintain them
Salary : $70 - $85