Lead Databricks Data Engineer

Perficient currently has a career opportunity for a Lead Databricks Data Engineer to join our team located in the United States. This role is primarily office-based at a local Perficient location, with travel and on-site client engagements expected as needed.

Job Overview

As a Lead Databricks Data Engineer, you are expected to lead the development team and have strong development and programming skills in Python, SQL, PySpark, Databricks, Notebook Repositories, Medallion Architecture, CI/CD, and ETL platforms associated with Data Lakehouse solutions. You are expected to be experienced and fluent in agile development and agile tools.

You will work with architects and infrastructure teams to develop, test, deploy, and troubleshoot your code as well as provide input into solutions and design of the system. You will collaborate with some of the best talent in the industry to create and implement innovative, high-quality solutions focused on our clients' business needs.

Perficient is always looking for the best and brightest talent, and we need you! We're a quickly growing, global digital consulting leader, and we're transforming the world's largest enterprises and biggest brands.

You'll work with the latest technologies, expand your skills, and become a part of our global community of talented, diverse, and knowledgeable colleagues.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Lead the technical planning and requirements gathering.
• Serve as a technical lead and mentor. Provide technical support and leadership in the development and continual improvement of service.
• Develop and maintain effective working relationships with team members.
• Demonstrate the ability to adapt and work with team members of various experience levels.
• Work with the data engineering team to define and develop data ingestion, validation, transformation, and data engineering code.
• Lead the design, development, testing and deployment of scalable batch/streaming data pipelines using Databricks. Data jobs include data ingestion, cleansing, transformation, aggregation, governance, and sharing.
• Define and enforce best practices for Databricks usage, including notebook development, job orchestration, metadata-driven frameworks, data quality checks, and optimization of spark job performance.
• Develop Databricks platform components using Python, SQL, Pyspark, Notebook Repositories (medallion architecture L2, L3, L4), and CI/CD.
• Integrate Databricks solutions with cloud platforms like Azure (ADF, ADLS, Event Hub, Azure Dev Ops) or AWS (S3, Lambda, Glue).
• Design and implement analytical data models and star schemas for BI and AI usage.
• Collaborate with data scientists and analysts to meet data requirements.
• Implement logging, monitoring and exception handling for data workflows.
• Participate in code reviews and CI/CD pipeline development.
• Document code artifacts and participate in developing user documentation and run books
• Troubleshoot deployment to various environments and provide test support.
• Participate in design sessions, demos, and prototype sessions, testing and training workshops with business users and IT associates.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Passionate developer with 8+ years of data engineering experience, with at least 3 years in a lead or senior data engineer role.
• Minimum 5 years of hands-on Databricks experience using Python, SQL, Pyspark, Notebook Repositories (medallion architecture L2, L3, L4), CI/CD.
• Minimum 5 years of Databricks experience in developing large-scale data processing/data storage/data distribution systems.
• Experience with AWS and/or Azure cloud environment.
• Experience with various Notebook Repositories (medallion architecture L2, L3, L4) as well as unit testing frameworks.
• Dev Ops experience with Databricks CI/CD (Databricks Asset Bundles) and Git
• Minimum 5 years of experience working in a large multi-vendor environment with multiple teams as a part of a project
• Minimum 5 years of working with a complex Big Data/Lakehouse environment
• Minimum of 5 years of experience with JIRA/Git Hub/Git and other code management toolsets
• Experience with ELT/ETL development, patterns, and tooling is recommended
• Experience with SQL, including Postgres, RDBMS platforms
• Experience with various IDE and code repositories as well as unit testing frameworks.
• Demonstrated ability to leverage AI tools to enhance productivity, streamline workflows, and support data-informed task execution.
• Familiarity with AI-enhanced platforms is a plus.
• A solid understanding of AI capabilities and limitations, including ethical considerations, is expected.
• Flexible and adaptable attitude, disciplined to manage multiple responsibilities and adjust to varied environments.
• Ability to produce high-quality products within deadlines
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related field.

Preferred Skills &

Education:

• Certification in Databricks, Spark, AWS, Azure, or other cloud platforms.
• Experience with ETL/ELT data platforms, including Informatica, Data Stage, Fivetran, Matillion, and dbt.
• Familiarity with…