Senior Databricks Engineering Lead

** Overview*
* At PNNL, our core capabilities are divided among major departments that we refer to as Directorates within the Lab, focused on a specific area of scientific research or other function, with its own leadership team and dedicated budget.

Our directorates related to Mission Support & Operations include Office of General Counsel, Business Services, Communications and External Engagement, Operational Systems, Communications and Information Technology, and Performance Management.

At PNNL, our Computing and Information Technology organization is redefining how we work and innovate by reimagining the digital workplace. We empower research and streamline operations-making both faster, smarter, and more efficient-so our professionals can tackle some of the world's toughest challenges in science, energy, and national security. Our experts in AI, cybersecurity, design, and engineering work side by side, using real-time insights and human-centered design to break down barriers.

Ready to make your mark on tomorrow? Come work with us.

In support of PNNL's mission, Digital Platforms collaborates closely with our business and technology partners to build and maintain innovative software solutions and robust data and analytics capabilities. We aim to be a strategic partner in delivering cutting-edge enterprise solutions that drive innovation and improve the way our staff work across the PNNL digital workplace. Our forward-thinking, agile teams leverage cloud technologies, Dev Sec Ops , and AI to modernize existing platforms and assist in the creation of novel solutions.

By integrating commercial products, custom-developed and low-code solutions, we ensure our digital platforms are ready for the challenges and opportunities of tomorrow.

** Responsibilities*
* We are seeking a forward-thinking Senior Azure Databricks Engineer to lead the design, build, and operation of our data lakehouse that powers analytics and reporting across PNNL Enterprise Systems. This role is central to delivering governed, performant, and reliable data products-especially for ERP and other enterprise
-and enabling self-service analytics with Power BI and AI/ML.

You will be the technical heartbeat of our lakehouse as part of a data transformation initiative
-designing and evolving a Databricks‑based architecture that moves data with confidence from source systems to curated gold tables. Using the medallion pattern (Bronze/Silver/Gold) with Delta Lake and Unity Catalog, you'll build robust pipelines that transform raw data into analytics‑ready assets for Power BI and AI/ML, balancing pragmatic MVP delivery with a future‑focused architecture.

You'll lead modernization from legacy data warehouses and ETL tools into Azure Databricks-refactoring brittle jobs into scalable patterns. Your platform engineering mindset will shape CI/CD for Databricks (e.g., DAB, Azure Dev Ops, Git Hub Actions) and standardize deployment practices across environments. You will configure and operate work spaces, clusters, jobs, and workflows; tune for performance and reliability; and embed data quality, monitoring, and observability to keep critical pipelines healthy.

Security and governance will be integral to your work. You'll implement role‑based access controls, data masking, and fine‑grained models with Unity Catalog to enable secure, compliant data sharing and ensure proper classification, lineage, and auditability.

As a collaborator and mentor, you'll guide engineers and analysts in adopting lakehouse best practices and modern data engineering standards-coding, testing, version control, and documentation. You'll stay current with Azure and Databricks capabilities, recommending and piloting features like Delta Live Tables and Unity Catalog enhancements to build a secure, reliable, and future‑ready data platform that accelerates science and mission delivery.

** Qualifications*
* Minimum Qualifications:

+ PhD and 3 years of Software Engineering experience
-OR
- + MS/MA and 5 years of Software Engineering experience
-OR
- + BS/BA and 7 years of Software Engineering experience
-OR
- + AA and 16 years of Software Engineering experience in designing,…