Principal Data Engineer
Job Summary
Ever wondered what it feels like to be a Principal Data Engineer in Netcompany
Joining us as a Principal Data Engineer you will lead and grow multiple delivery teams in our Data Intelligence & AI practice owning a portfolio of cloud data lake and lakehouse engagements across Azure AWS and Databricks. This is a strategic technical leadership role: you will set technical direction shape how AI coding assistants and agentic workflows reshape data engineering delivery lead pre-sales and bids and grow the Leads who run individual engagements while staying technically credible enough to go deep when it matters.
As a Principal Data Engineer you will:
- Lead and grow multiple delivery teams of Cloud Data Management and Data Lake Engineers managing Leads and Engineering Principals setting technical direction and coaching at scale.
- Own a portfolio of client engagements end-to-end delivery quality commercial health risk and strategic alignment across the portfolio.
- Shape technical strategy and architecture standards for cloud-native data lakes and lakehouses (Delta Lake Apache Iceberg) using medallion architecture on Azure AWS and/or Databricks.
- Drive AI-powered transformation across the practice defining how AI coding assistants agentic workflows and LLM-based accelerators reshape data engineering delivery and rolling these patterns out at scale.
- Lead pre-sales and commercial activities: solution design technical estimations bid leadership and client conversations at Director / VP level.
- Partner with the Head of Data Management and BI Engineering on practice growth hiring capability building the capability roadmap and positioning the practice in the market.
- Build cross-practice partnerships with AI/ML BI and application leadership so that what your teams deliver serves analytics AI and operational use cases end-to-end.
- Champion engineering excellence and DataOps maturity CI/CD for data IaC security observability and governance across all teams under your remit.
Qualifications :
What would make you a fit for the role:
- 9 years of experience in data engineering / cloud data management including 3 years managing Principals or leads in a consulting or services context.
- Proven track record building and growing data engineering teams or sub-practices owning a portfolio of concurrent engagements.
- Deep hands-on architecture experience across at least one major cloud data platform Azure AWS or Databricks including data lake / lakehouse design and medallion architecture.
- Strong commercial acumen leading pre-sales technical estimations bid responses and shaping deals with senior client stakeholders.
- Strong technical credibility with SQL Python Spark orchestration tools (Apache Airflow Prefect Dagster or Databricks Workflows) and open table formats you can still go deep in design reviews and architecture decisions when needed.
- Experience setting standards for performance cost security and data quality at scale across multiple engagements.
- Excellent communication and client relationship skills at senior stakeholder level (Director / VP and above) with a coaching mindset for the Leads you grow.
- Bachelors or Masters degree in Computer Science Data Engineering Data Science or a related field.
It would also be a plus if you match some of the following:
- Track record of defining and executing AI-powered transformation strategies inside an engineering organisation not just adopting tools but reshaping ways of working.
- Hands-on familiarity with AI coding assistants and agentic AI tools (e.g. Claude Code Copilot-class tools LLM-based agents) and experience rolling them out across teams.
- Experience with GenAI / ML enablement patterns on top of data lakes and lakehouses feature stores vector stores (e.g. pgvector Pinecone Weaviate Databricks Vector Search) and RAG architectures.
- Ownership of data governance and responsible-AI programs using platforms such as Unity Catalog Microsoft Purview Collibra or Atlan.
- Experience with dbt for in-warehouse / in-lakehouse transformations and exposure to Microsoft Fabric or other emerging unified data platforms.
- Experience with BI tooling (Power BI Tableau Qlik) and shaping integrated analytics strategy on top of data platforms.
- Streaming technologies (Kafka Spark Structured Streaming Auto Loader CDC patterns) Kubernetes microservices IBM Cloud Pak for Data.
- DevOps / DataOps tooling and Infrastructure-as-Code (Terraform Bicep).
- Relevant certifications (e.g. Azure Data Engineer Associate AWS Data Analytics / Data Engineer Databricks Certified Data Engineer / Professional).
Additional Information :
Being a part of the Netcompany team you will be provided with:
- The opportunity to work in a modern environment & in a hybrid working model
- A seamless onboarding experience and a buddy to support you on your first steps
- A competitive compensation & benefits package
- Health and life insurance program
- Meal and commuting allowance
- Well-being activities (on premises)
- Continuous learning opportunities using the most modern methods (unlimited access to Udemy for Business ad-hoc trainings)
- A personalized development plan for targeted career growth
If you are looking forward to be part of a diverse environment and have the opportunity to work alongside well-experienced professionals on challenging large-scale projects that directly impact millions of citizens around the globe then this is the place to be!
By joining Netcompany in Athens you will be part of a vivid team of 2300 tech professionals. When at the office youll have the flexibility to work from our three modern sustainable and state-of-the-art offices!
Please upload your CV in English via the Apply button. All applications will be treated as strictly confidential.
We ensure equal opportunities treatment and consideration to all candidates. Discrimination based on sex racial or ethnic origin religion or belief disability age sexual orientation or marital status physical or mental disability or any other factor protected by applicable laws and regulations is prohibited. As part of the Netcompany culture we respect human rights and focus on creating a positive workplace where all employees are valued and where diversity and inclusion are a vital part of our everyday working experience.
In the following link you may find our CV Submission privacy notice: Work :
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Employment Type :
Full-time
About Company
MUST BE BASED IN THE UK AND FULL RIGHT TO WORKJoin Netcompany in leveraging technological innovations to foster societal transformation.Netcompany was awarded 5th position on the esteemed UK Top 50 Best Places to Work in the Glassdoor Employees’ Choice Awards for 2024. As one of the f ... View more