Principal Engineer I - Microsoft Fabric Performance Engineer

Location: Block 23

About the role

As a Principal Engineer I embedded in the Enterprise Data & Analytics function, you will be responsible for the performance optimization, reliability, and governance of Microsoft Fabric and related analytics platforms. This role will focus on enabling scalable, secure, and high-performing end-to-end analytics solutions across Fabric Data Factory, data pipelines, notebooks, lakehouses, warehouses, semantic models, Power BI reports, and related platform services.

You’ll provide subject matter expertise across Microsoft Fabric platform and performance engineering, partnering with data engineers, analytics developers, business analysts, report developers, enterprise architects, product owners, and business stakeholders to ensure Fabric workloads are designed, deployed, monitored, and optimized using enterprise standards and best practices.

Responsibilities

• Take assignments that can be worked on individually without supervision and manage work effort from concept to completion.
• Optimize, automate, and maintain the Microsoft Fabric analytics platform, ensuring scalability, security, governance, reliability, and performance.
• Identify bottlenecks across the Fabric analytics value chain and recommend better design patterns.
• Tune workloads, improve capacity utilization, support governance, automate operational processes, and enable teams to build reliable and performant solutions on Fabric.
• Provide end-to-end performance engineering support across Fabric Data Factory, pipelines, notebooks, lakehouses, warehouses, semantic models, Power BI reports, and related data consumption patterns.
• Troubleshoot production platform issues, performance degradation, refresh failures, query latency, pipeline failures, gateway/connectivity issues, and capacity-related incidents.
• Design, build, optimize, automate, and maintain the Power BI analytics platform, ensuring scalability, security, and performance.
• Establish and support observability practices using available Fabric, Power BI, Azure Monitor, audit logs, capacity metrics, activity logs, REST APIs, and other operational telemetry.
• Stay current on Microsoft Fabric, Power BI, Azure data services, and emerging analytics technologies; recommend improvements that increase platform reliability, governance, performance, and efficiency.
• Partner with data engineering teams to improve pipeline design, optimize data processing logic, improve incremental loading patterns, and reduce unnecessary compute consumption.
• Partner with Power BI developers and analytics teams to optimize semantic models, DAX, Direct Lake / Import / DirectQuery usage, report design, refresh strategies, and data consumption patterns.
• Work with enterprise architects and platform teams to define reusable patterns for workspace architecture, workload isolation, performance optimization, monitoring, and cost management.
• Ensure compliance with IT policies, procedures, and industry standards, including reviewing and refining IT control enhancements.

Requirements

• 8+ years of related experience in data analytics platform operations and administration.
• 1+ years of Microsoft Fabric related experience.
• 3+ years of Microsoft Power BI related experience.
• Bachelor's degree in related field required. Masters in related field preferred.

Skills

• Advanced to expert experience with Microsoft Fabric and/or Power BI environments, including tenant settings, capacity management, workspaces, RBAC, gateways, deployment pipelines, REST APIs, activity/audit logs, monitoring, and operational support.
• Strong understanding of end-to-end Microsoft Fabric architecture, including Data Factory, pipelines, notebooks, lakehouses, warehouses, OneLake, semantic models, Power BI reports, deployment pipelines, and workspace/capacity design.
• Strong understanding of Fabric workload design patterns, including separation of ingestion, transformation, storage, semantic modeling, and reporting responsibilities.
• Hands-on experience with Power BI performance tuning, including semantic model design, DAX optimization, storage mode selection, incremental refresh, report performance analysis, and governed data consumption patterns.
• Deep understanding of Microsoft Azure data services, including Azure Data Lake, Azure Data Factory, Azure SQL, Azure Synapse Analytics, Azure Key Vault, Azure Monitor.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to explain complex technical issues to engineers, leaders, business stakeholders, and end users.
• Advanced to expert knowledge in general Financial Services or Banking preferred.
• Advanced proven experience in leading cross-functional teams and managing multiple projects simultaneously.
• Advanced ability to see the big picture and align projects with organizational goals. Capable of leading and motivating cross-functional teams.
• Expertise in resolving conflicts and addressing challenges as well as skilled at identifying and mitigating risks at the project level.

Benefits

• Competitive salaries and an ownership stake in the company.
• Medical and dental insurance.
• Time off and a great 401k matching program.
• Tuition assistance program.
• Employee volunteer program and a wellness program.
• Opportunity to bolster your business knowledge, learning the ins and outs of how successful companies operate and manage their finances.

About The Company

Western Alliance Bank, Member FDIC, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Western Alliance Bancorporation. Serving clients nationwide, Western Alliance Bank includes six legacy bank brands — Alliance Association Bank, Alliance Bank of Arizona, Bank of Nevada, Bridge Bank, First Independent Bank, and Torrey Pines Bank — that remain part of the company’s heritage, as well as AmeriHome Mortgage, a Western Alliance Bank Company.