Principal Data Engineer

Principal Data Engineer – Remote

NBCUniversal is seeking an experienced Principal Data Engineer to join our data engineering team in a fully remote capacity. This is a leadership-level position designed for a seasoned professional with deep expertise in building, scaling, and optimizing enterprise data infrastructure and pipelines.

About the Role

As Principal Data Engineer, you will be responsible for architecting and implementing robust data solutions that power NBCUniversal's content, analytics, and business intelligence initiatives. You'll lead the design and deployment of large-scale data systems, mentor junior engineers, and collaborate across product, analytics, and engineering teams to define data strategy and best practices.

This role offers the opportunity to work on high-impact projects within a major media and entertainment organization, influencing how data flows through one of the world's largest content distributors. You will own end-to-end data pipeline development, from data ingestion and transformation to storage, querying, and analytics consumption.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, architect, and build scalable data pipelines and infrastructure supporting millions of events and petabytes of data
• Lead technical decisions around data platform technology stack, including databases, data warehouses, stream processing, and ETL/ELT frameworks
• Establish data engineering best practices, coding standards, and operational procedures across teams
• Mentor and guide junior data engineers, conducting code reviews and fostering a culture of technical excellence
• Collaborate with data scientists, analysts, and product teams to understand requirements and translate them into scalable data solutions
• Optimize data pipeline performance, reliability, and cost efficiency across cloud and on-premises environments
• Implement monitoring, alerting, and observability solutions for data systems
• Evaluate emerging data technologies and tools, recommending adoption when appropriate
• Participate in architecture reviews and contribute to long-term data platform roadmap planning

Required Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional experience in data engineering, with at least 3+ years in a senior or principal-level capacity
• Expert-level proficiency in one or more modern data platforms (Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift, Databricks) or data warehousing solutions
• Strong hands-on experience with distributed computing frameworks (Spark, Hadoop) and stream processing technologies (Kafka, Flink, Beam)
• Proficiency in programming languages commonly used in data engineering (Python, Scala, Java, or SQL)
• Deep understanding of ETL/ELT design patterns, data modeling, and dimensional design
• Demonstrated ability to lead complex technical projects and mentor team members
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and infrastructure-as-code tools
• Strong problem-solving skills and ability to architect solutions for complex business challenges
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management abilities

Nice-to-Have Qualifications

• Experience in media, entertainment, or streaming industries
• Knowledge of data governance, data quality frameworks, and metadata management
• Familiarity with real-time analytics and event streaming architectures
• Experience with machine learning pipelines and MLOps practices
• Understanding of data security, privacy compliance (GDPR, CCPA), and regulatory requirements

Why Join NBCUniversal

NBCUniversal offers competitive benefits, professional growth opportunities, and the chance to work on data challenges at massive scale. As a fully remote position, you'll have the flexibility to work from anywhere while collaborating with talented engineering teams across the globe. You'll be part of an organization committed to innovation in media and entertainment.

How to Apply

Interested candidates should submit their resume, portfolio, and/or GitHub profile demonstrating relevant data engineering projects. Please apply through the link provided, and our recruiting team will review your application promptly.

💰 Compensation not publicly listed. Market estimate for similar roles: from $130K, varying by experience and location.