Principal, Data Engineer
About the role
The Principal Data Engineer will join American Tower's Information Technology organization's Data & Analytics team, which architects, builds, and optimizes cloud-native data foundations enabling analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), and enterprise-scale data products.
In this role, you will design and evolve the enterprise data platform, lead complex solution design, and embed governance enforcement through technical controls. You will set engineering standards, mentor engineers, and collaborate with decentralized analytics teams across Global Operations, Finance, and Sales departments to accelerate value delivery.
Responsibilities
- Architect and evolve the enterprise data platform, including ingestion, transformation, storage, orchestration, and serving layers for batch and streaming use cases.
- Design and implement end-to-end data pipelines, reusable frameworks, and enterprise data models (dimensional, data vault, domain-oriented) to power analytics, AI, and operational use cases.
- Define and operationalize the semantic data layer and embed governance enforcement through technical controls (data quality, validation, lineage, metadata, access).
- Establish engineering standards for coding, testing, version control, documentation, and CI/CD; optimize cost, performance, and scalability using FinOps principles.
- Lead design reviews, root cause analyses, and incident responses; partner with the Data Science team to productionize models and enable real-time/batch inference.
- Collaborate with Data Products, IT, security, and architecture teams to deliver secure, resilient, and compliant data products with strong service level agreements.
- Evaluate emerging technologies, guide build-versus-buy decisions, and mentor engineers through code reviews, technical talks, and best practices.
- Engage decentralized analytics teams to share standards and reusable components while avoiding duplication of efforts.
- Other duties as assigned.
Requirements
- Bachelor's degree required, with a concentration in Computer Science, Statistics, Applied Mathematics, or a related quantitative field preferred.
- Master's degree in a related field preferred.
- Minimum of 8 years of data engineering or data platform development experience, with at least 5 years as a senior or principal-level technical leader.
- Expert-level proficiency in SQL, Python, and large-scale processing with Apache Spark or PySpark.
- Deep experience with major cloud platforms such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud Platform, and modern data platforms like Databricks or Snowflake.
- Strong understanding of streaming technologies (Apache Kafka, Amazon Kinesis), orchestration tools (Apache Airflow), and transformation frameworks (Data Build Tool).
- Mastery of data modeling, semantic modeling, and performance tuning across data warehouse, lakehouse, and streaming architectures.
- Ability to implement technical governance (data quality, lineage, metadata, access management, and privacy controls) and establish engineering standards (CI/CD, infrastructure as code, automated testing).
- Ability to lead complex technical design, influence without authority, and mentor engineers to raise the technical bar.
- Strong written and oral communication skills, including the ability to present ideas clearly and effectively.
- Ability to work with different functional groups and levels of employees to achieve results professionally.
- Strong organizational skills; ability to accomplish multiple tasks within agreed-upon timeframes in a fast-paced environment.
Pay
For U.S.-based candidates, the base salary range is provided. This position is also eligible for annual bonus, annual equity award, and participation in the Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP). For candidates outside of the U.S., salary and benefits are based on local market practice.
Benefits
- Comprehensive healthcare coverage.
- 401(k) savings plan.
- Paid time off, company holidays, sick leave, and parental leave.
- Access to an Employee Assistance Program focused on mental and financial wellness.