8th Light Principal Data Engineer at 8th Light responsible for owning architecture and delivery of modern data platforms end-to-end. The role involves shaping client data strategy and leading implementation efforts.
Responsibilities
As a go-to data platform technologist within 8th Light, you'll take on highly visible, client-facing engagements and set the technical direction for how data gets architected and delivered. You'll be responsible for:
Owning architecture and delivery for modern data platforms end-to-end
Shaping client data strategy and designing scalable solutions
Leading implementation efforts from design through production
Partnering directly with client stakeholders, from requirements through executive updates
Mentoring internal team members and ensuring high-quality delivery
Working pragmatically to balance technology choices while delivering high-quality work within deadlines
Advising clients on architecture, scalability, and platform evolution, connecting technical decisions to business outcomes
Leading or initiating retrospectives and feedback conversations with teams and clients
Clearly articulating and documenting outcomes and driving action items forward
Contributing to the health of your team and 8th Light's culture by modeling our Values
Identifying, mitigating, and resolving blockers to team progress
Qualification
Worked hands-on with cloud platformsApplied strong data modelingWorked through ambiguityUsed CI/CD
Required
You've shown long-term repeated success delivering data platforms, typically over the course of 10+ years in software and 7+ years in data engineering, with a clear progression into technical leadership and architectural ownership. You're the person a team leans on to shape data strategy, design scalable solutions, and stay hands-on when the hard part needs solving. In your previous experience, you have:
Owned the architecture and delivery of modern data platforms end-to-end
Built deep expertise in Databricks and modern lakehouse architecture, including Delta Lake and Spark-based processing
Worked at an advanced level in SQL and Python, building and optimizing large-scale data pipelines
Worked hands-on with cloud platforms, including their data services and infrastructure design
Applied strong data modeling, ETL/ELT patterns, and distributed data processing to real client problems
Used orchestration tools and transformation frameworks in production
Led technical delivery while staying hands-on when the work called for it
Partnered directly with clients on requirements gathering, solution design, and executive communication
Worked through ambiguity, prioritized effectively, and drove clarity in complex environments
Worked with healthcare data such as Epic, HL7, FHIR, and claims
Used CI/CD, DevOps practices, and infrastructure-as-code tools
