Senior Principal Data Engineer

Why UKG

At UKG, the work you do matters. The code you ship, the decisions you make, and the care you show a customer all add up to real impact. Today, tens of millions of workers start and end their days with our workforce operating platform. Helping people get paid, grow in their careers, and shape the future of their industries. That’s what we do.

We never stop learning. We never stop challenging the norm. We push for better, and we celebrate the wins along the way. Here, you’ll get flexibility that’s real, benefits you can count on, and a team that succeeds together. Because at UKG, your work matters—and so do you.

As a Senior Principal Data Engineer within the Enterprise Data & Analytics Office, you will lead the design, evolution, and operational excellence of Nexus, UKG’s unified, GCP-based data platform, enabling analytics, AI, and enterprise decision-making at scale.

You will translate architectural vision into reliable, scalable, cost-efficient data systems, lead platform modernization efforts, and set the engineering bar for data ingestion, transformation, and operational analytics across UKG.

• 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 (Big Query, 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 (Fin Ops).
• 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.

• 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):
  Big Query, 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…