Demo

Principal Data Engineer

Prestige Staffing
Durham, NC Full Time
POSTED ON 7/9/2026
AVAILABLE BEFORE 8/7/2026

We're partnering with a well-established enterprise organization that is investing heavily in its modern data platform and AI capabilities. As part of that investment, they're looking for a Lead / Principal Data Engineer to become the technical owner of their Microsoft Fabric environment and lead the evolution of an enterprise-scale data platform.


This is a highly visible, hands-on leadership role where you'll own platform architecture, establish engineering standards, mentor a small team, and help build the data foundation that will support analytics, machine learning, and Generative AI initiatives across the business.


What You'll Do

  • Own the architecture and technical direction of an enterprise Microsoft Fabric platform
  • Design and optimize OneLake, Lakehouse, and Warehouse architectures
  • Build and maintain scalable ELT/ETL pipelines using Microsoft Fabric Data Factory, Dataflows Gen2, and Spark
  • Establish engineering best practices including Git, CI/CD, code reviews, testing, and deployment standards
  • Drive platform performance, reliability, governance, monitoring, and cost optimization
  • Partner with AI leaders to develop an AI-ready data platform supporting Azure AI, Azure OpenAI, and RAG-based solutions
  • Lead a small engineering team while remaining heavily involved in hands-on development
  • Provide technical leadership to external consulting partners and influence long-term platform strategy


Required Experience

  • 8 years of Data Engineering or Data Architecture experience
  • Recent, hands-on experience with Microsoft Fabric in a production environment
  • Strong experience with OneLake, Lakehouse architecture, and modern data platform design
  • Expertise with SQL, Python, Spark, and PySpark
  • Experience with Azure Data Services including Synapse, Azure Data Lake, Azure SQL, and Data Factory
  • Strong understanding of CI/CD, Git, and modern engineering practices
  • Experience leading technical initiatives, mentoring engineers, or directing consulting/vendor partners
  • Exposure to Azure AI, Azure OpenAI, Azure AI Foundry, or Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) is highly preferred


What Makes This Opportunity Unique

  • Own and shape an enterprise Microsoft Fabric platform
  • Significant technical influence with executive visibility
  • Blend of architecture, hands-on engineering, and leadership
  • Opportunity to help build the company's AI and data strategy
  • Small, collaborative engineering team with substantial growth plans
  • Competitive compensation package


If you have deep Microsoft Fabric expertise and are looking for an opportunity to own a modern enterprise data platform from both a technical and strategic perspective, we'd love to hear from you!

Salary : $160,000 - $200,000

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