UKG · 12 hours ago
Senior Principal Data Engineer
United States
Full-time
Remote
Senior Level, Lead/Staff
$184K/yr - $230K/yr
15+ years expUKG is a leading Workforce Operating Platform that focuses on enhancing workforce understanding. The Senior Principal Data Engineer will lead the design and operational excellence of UKG's GCP-based data platform, driving innovations in analytics and enterprise decision-making.
Bookkeeping and PayrollHuman ResourcesSoftware
Responsibilities
Drive the implementation of standardized medallion architecture (Bronze–Silver–Gold) across all domains
Establish and enforce engineering patterns for batch, streaming, CDC, and event-driven pipelines
Drive design patterns for Fact and Dimension modeling, data mesh, and change data capture (CDC)
Design and evolve scalable data pipelines using GCP-native services (BigQuery, GCS, Composer, Pub/Sub, Dataflow) and Databricks (Delta Lake, DLT)
Ensure platform reliability, performance, and scalability for petabyte-scale analytics workloads
Lead engineering decisions around partitioning, clustering, query optimization, and cost controls (FinOps)
Own observability standards (freshness, SLAs, error handling, monitoring)
Define and enforce engineering standards for data quality, testing, CI/CD, and production readiness
Implement automated data quality frameworks, lineage, and metadata integration in partnership with Data Governance and Architecture teams
Ensure all pipelines meet SOX, security, and auditability requirements
Partner with Architects to ensure engineering implementations align to enterprise reference architectures
Partner with Product Managers, Product Owners, Architects, and Analytics leaders to deliver high-impact data capabilities
Act as the technical escalation point for complex production issues and platform risks
Influence roadmap decisions by balancing technical feasibility, delivery velocity, and long-term sustainability
Support ESE Agile delivery by enabling architecture runway and reducing technical blockers
Mentor Principal, Senior, and Mid-level Data Engineers, raising the overall engineering maturity of the organization
Lead by example through design reviews, code reviews, and engineering forums
Build reusable frameworks, libraries, and accelerators that scale engineering productivity
Foster a culture of ownership, quality, and continuous improvement
Qualification
Required
15+ years of experience in data engineering, data platforms, or large-scale analytics systems
Proven leadership delivering enterprise-scale data platforms and migrations
Deep hands-on experience large (Petabyte) scale operating data platforms
GCP (required): BigQuery, GCS, Cloud Composer, Pub/Sub, Dataflow, Dataform, Dataproc, Dataplex
Databricks: Delta Lake, Delta Live Tables, Spark, Unity Catalog
Strong proficiency in Python, SQL, Spark, and distributed systems
Expertise in data modeling, ELT patterns, CDC, and streaming architectures
Experience supporting AI/ML pipelines, feature stores, and analytics consumption
Strong understanding of Dimensional Modeling, ELT and modern data lakehouse patterns
Proven ability to influence without authority across engineering, product, and architecture teams
Strong communication skills with both technical and executive audiences
Track record of mentoring senior engineers and leading complex initiatives
Preferred
Experience modernizing legacy warehouses and ETL platforms
Familiarity with Data Mesh execution and domain-aligned data products
Experience implementing FinOps practices for analytics platforms
Exposure to AI/ML enablement, feature engineering, or agent-driven analytics
Google Cloud certifications (Data Engineer, Architect) preferred
Benefits
Short-term incentive
Long-term incentive
Comprehensive benefits
Company
UKG
UKG™delivers HCM, payroll, HR service delivery, and workforce management solutions. It is a sub-organization of Hellman & Friedman.
10001+ employees
H1B Sponsorship
UKG has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not
guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your
reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship
Represents job field similar to this job
Trends of Total Sponsorships
2025 (37)
2024 (25)
2023 (33)
2022 (48)
2021 (36)
Funding
Current Stage
Late StageTotal Funding
unknown2007-03-23Acquired
Leadership Team
Jennifer Morgan
Chief Executive Officer
Jim Joudrey
EVP and CTO
Recent News
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