Principal Data Engineer

Engineers and Constructors International Inc.•Houston, TX

4d•Onsite

About The Position

Join the ECI Group's Professional Technical Services Network as a Principal Data Engineer. This is a Houston based a six-month contract role with an anticipated March 30, 2006 start date and ending on September 30, 2026. NOTE: You must be a US Citizen or Permanent US resident to qualify for the position. Roles and Responsibilities: The Principal Data Engineer is the one who conceptualizes and designs data foundations and end to end solutions including data platforms for the Shell Business to maximize value from data. The role helps create a data-driven thinking within the organization, not just within IT teams, but also in the wider business stakeholder community. A Principal Data Engineer is expected to be a subject matter expert, and an active thought partner in the organization's data strategy and the key driver to define the Vison and Data Strategy for robust and future ready IT solutions Role Objective This is not a standard data engineer role. We are looking for a deeply technical, hands-on individual contributor who can: Diagnose performance, latency, and cost issues in a large-scale cloud data platform Take a top-down, platform-level view across multiple projects Improve architecture, efficiency, and cost optimization, not just write Spark code Act as a technical problem-solver and mentor, guiding other data engineers This person is expected to make the platform better, not just execute tasks. Current Platform & Architecture Data Flow: On-premise systems → Cloud (Azure) Streaming ingestion → Azure Data Lake Storage (ADLS) Data processed into two separate containers: Crude trading Product trading Technologies in Use: Qlik Replicate (formerly Attunity) Streaming data from on-prem to Azure Azure Data Lake Storage (ADLS) Databricks Delta Live Tables (DLT) Spark / PySpark Python SQL (complex queries and procedures) Key Challenges the Role Is Meant to Solve 1. Data Latency High-volume streaming data End-to-end latency issues that need root-cause analysis 2. Databricks / DLT Cost Spikes DLT costs are far higher than expected Known contributors: Very high data volume (expected) Inefficient lookup logic used to split data into separate containers The current solution works but is not optimal Note: This role exists because generic recommendations are not enough. Portfolio: Shell IDT/Downstream & Renewables IDT/Trading & Supply/TS - Crude & Products/TS - Crude Trading/TS - Crude Investments Program: Project: Crude Shift WONA - Crude Data Exchange Description: Considering the decision to pause the work for the DEX to Endur migration, focus remains on advancing the Crude PDS Transformation, with a key priority to establish a global view of data with standardized granularity across the T&S Crude Business. This funding request is to start work on modernizing the WONA Data Warehouse using Azure cloud technology with the target of "cleaning and aligning" the data between WONA and NA. Ambition to eventually move NA ODW into this same platform. Key focus Business case: Considering the decision to pause the work for the DEX to Endur migration, focus remains on advancing the Crude PDS Transformation, with a key priority to establish a global view of data with standardized granularity across the T&S Crude Business. This funding request is to start work on modernizing the WONA Data Warehouse using Azure cloud technology with the target of "cleaning and aligning" the data between WONA and NA. Ambition to eventually move NA ODW into this same platform. Business Application: CRUDE AND PRODUCTS DATA EXCHANGE, Crude Data Exchange Project Type: IT Project Project Class: Application

Requirements

US Citizen or Permanent US resident
Hands-on technical delivery leader
Visible community leader for data engineers
Conducts quality, community & conference presentations/trainings
Has vast array of technology skills with deep expertise in at least 2 core technologies (Azure, AWS, SAP)
A skilled communicator capable of speaking to both technical developers and business managers.
Able to drive change and improvement through a deep understanding of the inter-relationship between People, Process, Data and Technology
AWS/Azure/SAP – Master
ELT – Master
Data Modeling – Master
Data Integration & Ingestion – Master
Data Manipulation and Processing – Skill
GITHUB, Action, Azure DevOps – Skill
Data factory, Databricks, SQL DB, Synapse, Stream Analytics, Glue, Airflow, Kinesis, Redshift, SonarQube, PyTest – Skill
Strong Python (mandatory)
PySpark (advanced, not basic)
Advanced SQL
Complex queries
Stored procedures
Analytical logic

Nice To Haves

Experience in project management, running a scrum team.
Experience working with BPC, Planning.
Exposure to working with external technical ecosystem.
Managing small teams.
MKDocs documentation

Responsibilities

Conceptualizes and designs data foundations and end to end solutions including data platforms for the Shell Business to maximize value from data.
Helps create a data-driven thinking within the organization, not just within IT teams, but also in the wider business stakeholder community.
Expected to be a subject matter expert, and an active thought partner in the organization's data strategy and the key driver to define the Vison and Data Strategy for robust and future ready IT solutions
Diagnose performance, latency, and cost issues in a large-scale cloud data platform
Take a top-down, platform-level view across multiple projects
Improve architecture, efficiency, and cost optimization, not just write Spark code
Act as a technical problem-solver and mentor, guiding other data engineers
Make the platform better, not just execute tasks.
Coordinate the change management process, incident management and problem management process.
Drive implementation efficiency and effectiveness across the pilots and future projects to minimize cost, increase speed of implementation and maximize value delivery.
Drives & contributes to community building initiatives like CoE, CoP.