Seeking a Principal Microsoft Data & AI Engineer who combines advanced SQL and Microsoft Fabric expertise with hands-on data engineering, data wrangling, analytical modeling, and practical experience using generative AI tools to accelerate data analysis and solution development.
Location: Minneapolis strongly preferred (2 engineers at that location); additional choices: Chandler, AZ , Irving, TX and Charlotte. Hybrid: 3 days onsite/ 2 days remote
Position Summary
Seeking a senior, hands-on data engineer to design and deliver trusted data products for workforce
analytics, operational reporting, executive decision-making, and AI-assisted analysis. The role requires
deep Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Fabric expertise, advanced data modeling skills to create
reusable analytical models for hypothesis testing and analysis, strong data integration capabilities,
practical experience using AI tools for data work, and advanced Excel proficiency.
This is a senior, hands-on engineering role. The resource will be expected to take ownership of complex
data problems from initial source assessment through ingestion, transformation, data quality validation,
modeling, documentation, and delivery of analysis-ready data products. The ideal candidate can work
effectively with both established enterprise data sources and less-structured, authorized inputs such as
Excel workbooks, email-delivered files, exported reports, APIs, and approved web-based data sources.
The environment is primarily within the Microsoft ecosystem. Microsoft SQL Server is the core database
platform, Microsoft Fabric is heavily used for data engineering and analytics, and Azure will support the
team s Operational Data Store. Power BI and Excel are key consumption tools. The team expects to gain
access to Databricks in the first quarter of 2027, so prior Databricks or lakehouse experience is beneficial
but not required.
A successful candidate must be comfortable building robust technical solutions while also understanding
how analysts and senior executives consume information. Although this is an engineering position,
advanced Excel proficiency is required because many executive deliverables and analytical workflows will
continue to be consumed through Excel.
Core platforms
Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Fabric,
Azure, Power BI, Excel
Experience
7+ years in data engineering or a closely
related discipline
Future platform
Databricks access expected in Q1 2027
Work style
Senior individual contributor; hands-on
delivery and technical leadership
Primary Responsibilities
" Design, build, test, deploy, and support scalable data ingestion, transformation, and integration
solutions using Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Fabric.
" Develop reusable ETL and ELT processes that move data from authorized enterprise systems into
governed analytical data stores and semantic models.
" Write and optimize advanced SQL, including complex queries, stored procedures, views,
transformations, and performance-tuned processing routines.
" Design relational, dimensional, semantic, and analytical data models that support Power BI, Excel,
human analysis, and approved AI-assisted analysis
Design enterprise data models using repository-driven standards and Medallion methodology to deliver
governed, high-quality, analytics-ready data assets.
" Integrate structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data from databases, Excel, CSV files,
email-delivered files, APIs, exported reports, and authorized web-based sources.
" Create controlled, repeatable processes for nonstandard data sources with validation, reconciliation,
traceability, and error handling.
" Profile data, identify quality issues, determine root causes, and implement remediation or monitoring
controls.
" Build curated, analysis-ready datasets and semantic models for Power BI, Excel, analysts, and approved
AI tools.
" Use approved generative AI tools to assist with data analysis, SQL and code development,
documentation, testing, troubleshooting, and prompt-based workflows.
" Validate AI-generated SQL, code, calculations, summaries, and analytical conclusions before use.
" Translate business and analytical needs into clear data requirements, technical designs, and usable
data products.
" Follow applicable data governance, privacy, information security, risk, and compliance requirements.
Skills Priority
1 Microsoft SQL Server and advanced SQL data engineering
2 Microsoft Fabric and modern data engineering patterns
3
Enterprise data modeling: repository-driven standards and Medallion methodology to
create governed, high-quality, analytics-ready Fabric data assets and reusable models
for hypothesis testing and analysis
4
ETL/ELT, data integration, data quality, metadata, and governed data product
development
5 AI-assisted development and prompt engineering for data analysis
6 Advanced Microsoft Excel
7 Power BI
8 Azure data services
9 Power Apps / Power Automate
10 Databricks
Required Qualifications
" 7+ years of progressively responsible experience in data engineering, database engineering, analytics
engineering, data integration, or a related discipline.
" Advanced hands-on Microsoft SQL Server and complex SQL development experience.
" Experience designing and delivering reusable ETL or ELT pipelines.
" Hands-on Microsoft Fabric experience or strong experience with a comparable modern cloud data
platform.
" Strong knowledge of relational, dimensional, semantic, and analytical data modeling.
" Experience designing enterprise data models using repository-driven standards and Medallion
methodology to create governed, high-quality, analytics-ready data assets.
" Experience integrating enterprise data with nonstandard sources such as Excel, files, APIs,
email-delivered data, exported reports, or authorized website data.
" Demonstrated data profiling, validation, reconciliation, and data quality problem-solving experience.
" Advanced Excel skills, including Power Query, data models, PivotTables, advanced formulas, and
external data connections.
" Experience preparing data for Power BI, Excel, human analysts, or AI-assisted analytical workflows.
" Working knowledge of source control, code review, testing, release management, and production
support.
" Strong communication skills and the ability to explain technical designs, assumptions, limitations, and
findings to nontechnical stakeholders.
" Ability to work independently and manage ambiguity in a complex, regulated enterprise environment.
AI Experience
Candidates should have practical, work-related experience with one or more AI-assisted engineering or
productivity tools, such as Microsoft 365 Copilot, GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, Microsoft Cowork, Devin,
Visual Studio Code with approved AI extensions, or other enterprise-approved LLM tools.
" Developing and refining prompts for data discovery, analysis, SQL generation, testing, documentation,
and interpretation of results.
" Providing schema context, definitions, examples, constraints, and expected output formats within
prompts.
" Validating AI-generated SQL, calculations, code, summaries, and analytical conclusions.
" Recognizing hallucinations, unsupported conclusions, incorrect assumptions, and data leakage risk.
" Creating repeatable prompt templates or AI-assisted workflows that improve analyst productivity.
Preferred Qualifications
Third-Party Recruiting Vendor Brief Page 4
" Microsoft Fabric Lakehouse, Warehouse, Data Factory, Dataflows Gen2, notebooks, or semantic model
experience.
" Azure SQL, Azure Data Lake Storage, Azure Data Factory, or related Azure data services.
" Python, PySpark, PowerShell, or another data transformation and automation language.
" Power BI experience, including semantic models, DAX, Power Query, performance optimization, and
executive reporting.
" Power Apps or Power Automate experience.
" Databricks, Delta Lake, Spark, medallion architecture, or comparable lakehouse experience.
" Experience supporting both traditional business intelligence and AI-based analysis.
" Experience with APIs, JSON, XML, HTML parsing, browser automation, or approved web data extraction.
" Experience working with confidential or sensitive data in a regulated environment.
" GitHub, Azure DevOps, ServiceNow, CI/CD, or automated testing experience.
| Category | Name | Required | Importance | Experience |
|---|
| Areas of Expertise | Business Intelligence & Reporting | No | 1 | | |
| xms-USIT | Advanced MS Excel | No | 1 | | |
| xms-USIT | Artificial Intelligence (AI) | No | 1 | | |
| xms-USIT | Azure Databricks | No | 2 | | |
| xms-USIT | Data Modeling | No | 1 | | |
| xms-USIT | Microsoft Fabric Components | No | 1 | | |
| xms-USIT | Power bi fabric | No | 1 | | |
| xms-USIT | SQL | No | 1 |
EEO:
Mindlance is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate in employment on the basis of Minority/Gender/Disability/Religion/LGBTQI/Age/Veterans.