Senior Data Engineer

Kforce has a client that is seeking a Senior Data Engineer in Naperville, IL. Key Responsibilities:

• Design and implement complex data solutions that are scalable, maintainable, secure, and well-tested
• Own technical solutions end-to-end, including architecture, development, testing, deployment, monitoring, and ongoing operational support
• Lead technical design discussions and evaluate architectural trade-offs to determine effective solutions
• Translate business and technical requirements into scalable data architectures and solutions
• Partner with product, analytics, QA, engineering, and other stakeholders to deliver high-quality solutions
• Develop and maintain data pipelines, integrations, and distributed data systems
• Leverage logs, metrics, and analytics to monitor system health, identify performance issues, and drive continuous improvement
• Apply strong testing, debugging, and performance optimization practices throughout the development lifecycle
• Build solutions with observability, reliability, scalability, and security in mind
• Mentor and support other engineers through technical guidance, knowledge sharing, and onboarding
• Contribute to the evolution of engineering standards, development practices, tools, and workflows
• Stay current with emerging data engineering and cloud technologies and identify opportunities to improve the organization's technical capabilities

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Data Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience
• 5+ years of experience in data engineering or software engineering
• Strong programming experience with Python and SQL
• Hands-on experience with Apache Spark or comparable distributed data processing technologies
• Experience working with at least one major cloud platform, such as AWS, Azure, or GCP
• Experience designing and implementing scalable, resilient data systems
• Experience with MLOps, analytics platforms, and/or business intelligence technologies
• Experience with BI tools such as Power BI, Tableau, or similar platforms
• Strong understanding of data architecture, data modeling, data integration, and data governance
• Strong understanding of APIs, integrations, distributed systems, and modern data architectures
• Strong troubleshooting, debugging, testing, and performance optimization skills
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills
• Ability to independently navigate ambiguous technical problems and drive solutions through completion

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience influencing technical strategy and architecture across multiple teams
• Experience mentoring engineers and contributing to engineering best practices
• Experience working in large-scale enterprise data environments
• Strong product mindset with the ability to connect technical decisions to business outcomes

Ideal Candidate: The ideal candidate is a hands-on senior engineer who thinks beyond individual tasks. They can take ownership of complex problems, design solutions from the ground up, and work effectively across technical and business teams. This person should be comfortable making technical decisions, challenging existing approaches when appropriate, mentoring other engineers, and balancing technical excellence with practical business outcomes.