External Advertising Title Principal Data Engineer

Job Description

Applied Systems is looking for a Principal Data Engineer to shape the architectural foundation of our Data and Analytics capabilities as we scale to enable better insights andlay the groundwork for AI across the enterprise. The ideal candidate brings deep data architecture expertise with a commitment to embracing AI and enabling the success of engineering teams across Applied.

At Applied, Principal architects are force-multipliers — technical leaders and practitioners who are passionate about designing, guiding, and teaching by doing
. You will live our Leadership Principles: owning outcomes, insisting on the highest standards, and inventing and simplifying solutions for our customers and teams.

You will have an AI-First approach to architecture with a view of AI and automation as leverage to scale your impact beyond individual throughput. You will define the long-term vision for AI-enabled data architecture, design and govern agentic workflows with appropriate guardrails, and surface system-level insights that raise quality and velocity across the domain.

What You’ll Do

• Define large-scale data architecture decisions — batch/streaming platforms,warehouses, and lake houses — and evaluate tradeoffs for quality, scalability, andlong-term sustainability
• Architect observability, alerting, and incident-response frameworks to monitor the health and SLAs of data pipelines across the organization; serve asthe technical escalation point for complex data architecture problems
• Partner across Applied teams to define standards for data quality, lineage tracking, access control, cataloging, and governance; establish SLAs/SLOs for critical data assets
• Design data modeling standards across OLAP/warehouse (dimensional modeling), OLTP/transactional, streaming/real-time, and AI/vector/feature-storeuse cases
• Define patterns for embedding AI and agent-supported workflows acrossthe data engineering lifecycle, and enable teams to adopt them at scale
• Define and enforce data engineering standards, best practices, and design patterns across the organization
• Mentor and grow engineers through code reviews, design discussions, and technical guidance
• Influence cross-functional roadmaps by translating business requirements into sound data architecture strategies

What You'll need to succeed

• 15+ years in software/data engineering or architecture with outstanding impact
• Degree in Computer Science, a related field, or equivalent combination of education and experience
• Expert knowledge of data architecture principles and best practices
• Hands-on builder experience (actively coding, testing, and validating architecture at scale)
• Proven ability to influence without authority
• Pragmatic approach and obsessed with eliminating waste
• Player-coach mindset with a commitment to teaching through action
• Adaptability, resilience, and the ability to thrive in ambiguity with iteration
• Excellent communication skills, able to meet your audience where they areand explain complex problems clearly
• Expertise across data and software technologies — GCP Big Query and dbt aplus
• Proven experience architecting large-scale data warehouses or lake houses
• Solid understanding of data modeling concepts including dimensional modeling and streaming architectures; experience with vector stores is a plus
• Strong understanding of data governance; experience implementing data catalogs a plus

Why You’ll Like Working on Team Applied

The best work happens when smart people move fast, together. For over 40+ years, Applied has built technology that solves real problems for insurance professionals - and we’re still pushing what’s possible.

You’ll be part of our people-first culture built on trust, inclusion, and growth - where you’re supported to deliver, collaborate with teammates who care, and…