Lead Data Engineer

About Us

At Calfus, we are known for delivering cutting-edge AI agents and products that transform businesses in ways previously unimaginable. None of that works without data, which is why our Data & Analytics practice sits at the center of what we do.

We help enterprises modernize the full data estate: lakehouse and warehouse platforms on Snowflake, Databricks, and the major clouds; pipelines and transformation frameworks that hold up in production; governed, well-modeled data that people actually trust; and self-service BI that leads to decisions rather than decks. Increasingly this is the foundation our clients build AI on, because a model is only as good as the data behind it.

We are one of the fastest-growing firms in the space, with delivery teams across the US and India and a culture that rewards people who like to build. The Data & Analytics practice is at an early, high-leverage stage. The direction is set and the demand is real, and there is significant room for the right person to shape how it grows.

About the Role

This is a hands-on technical delivery leadership role for someone who wants to stay close to the work while becoming a trusted client partner. The majority of your time will be spent directly on client delivery: architecting solutions, writing code, solving difficult data problems, and owning outcomes. You will also help guide delivery teams, support client conversations, and contribute to the continued growth of our Data & Analytics capabilities.

We are looking for a high-energy, hands-on Lead Data Engineer who combines strong technical depth with consulting instincts. You should be equally comfortable working in the codebase, guiding engineers through delivery challenges, and sitting across the table from a client to understand what they need and explain how we will solve it. This role is ideal for someone who wants significant delivery ownership today and the opportunity to grow into broader technical and practice leadership over time.

What You'll Do

Hands-On Engineering

• Personally build and ship production solutions, including writing and optimizing SQL and Python, developing pipelines and transformations, and designing data models on platforms such as Snowflake and Databricks
• Build and optimize client-facing dashboards, semantic models, and reporting solutions in Tableau, Power BI, Looker, or similar tools
• Carry meaningful individual delivery ownership on active engagements, with your own technical commitments, deliverables, and deadlines alongside the team
• Participate actively in code and design reviews, enforce practical engineering standards, and pair with engineers and analysts to solve difficult problems
• Act as a senior technical escalation point and be willing to dive directly into code, queries, pipelines, models, or platform configuration to diagnose and resolve issues
• Build reusable accelerators, frameworks, patterns, and reference implementations that improve delivery speed and quality across engagements
• Mentor and guide team members through hands-on technical leadership while remaining an active practitioner yourself

Technical Delivery & Client Leadership

• Own technical delivery on client engagements, partnering closely with US and India delivery teams to drive high-quality outcomes from discovery through deployment
• Work directly with clients to understand business problems, ask the right questions, and translate needs into practical data and analytics solutions
• Present technical approaches, solution options, tradeoffs, and delivery recommendations clearly to both technical and business stakeholders
• Stay current on developments across data, analytics, cloud, and AI, and bring relevant ideas into client solutions and internal delivery practices
• Architect, design, and build solutions; create technical documentation and delivery estimates; and provide hands-on technical guidance to engineers and analysts
• Translate business needs into clear technical requirements, user stories, solution designs, and delivery plans that teams can execute
• Lead day-to-day technical delivery across requirements gathering, design, development, testing, deployment, and production support
• Build strong client relationships through responsiveness, technical credibility, sound judgment, and consistent delivery quality
• Identify risks, dependencies, and delivery challenges early and work with clients and internal teams to resolve them pragmatically
• Facilitate technical workshops, solution discussions, demos, and status conversations with client stakeholders, including senior leaders when appropriate

Skills and Experience

• Approximately 8-12 years of experience in data engineering, analytics engineering, data platforms, or a closely related technical consulting role
• Strong hands-on expertise across the data engineering lifecycle, with experience in platforms such as Snowflake, Databricks, Teradata, Redshift, BigQuery, or Fabric
• Strong practical knowledge of analytics and data workloads on AWS, Azure, or GCP, including relevant storage, compute, security, identity, and networking concepts
• Hands-on experience with business intelligence and analytics tools such as Tableau, Power BI, Looker, or similar
• Strong experience designing and building relational databases, data warehouses, lakehouses, pipelines, and modern analytics solutions
• Current production-level coding ability with strong SQL and Python/PySpark skills, and a clear desire to remain hands-on in the codebase every week
• Working experience with modern engineering practices including Git-based version control, code review, CI/CD, and orchestration/transformation tooling such as dbt, Airflow, or similar
• Strong consulting instincts: curious, responsive, comfortable with ambiguity, and able to build credibility with clients through technical expertise and delivery
• Interest in contributing to presales, solutioning, reusable offerings, and the continued growth of the Data & Analytics practice without stepping away from delivery
• Experience leading technical workstreams or small delivery teams in Agile or iterative delivery environments
• Ability to estimate work, plan technical delivery, identify dependencies, and balance multiple priorities in a fast-moving environment
• A track record of high-impact technical delivery, with evidence of increasing ownership, client exposure, and leadership responsibility
• Bachelor's degree in engineering, information systems, computer science, or another related technical or analytical field, or equivalent practical experience

Compensation:

The anticipated annual base salary range for this position is $160,000–$190,000. Actual compensation will be determined based on job-related factors, including relevant experience, technical expertise, qualifications, skills, and business needs.

Offered Benefits:

Calfus prioritizes the well-being and financial security of its employees & families by providing comprehensive health coverage, which includes medical (by Kaiser & Aetna), Dental & Vision (by Guardian) plans. This ensures that employees & families have access to essential healthcare services, addressing both preventive and ongoing medical needs.

Additionally, Calfus understands the importance of long-term financial planning for its employees. To support this, the company offers retirement savings plan (401k) where you can start saving as soon as you join!

We offer paid time off (PTO) to eligible U.S. employees. PTO is designed to give you flexibility for rest, personal time, and life needs. Details on accrual and usage are provided in the company PTO policy.

Calfus Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Calfus Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to providing a workplace free from discrimination, harassment, and retaliation.

We provide equal employment opportunities to all qualified applicants and employees without regard to race, color, creed, religion, ancestry, national origin, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, marital status, familial status, veteran status, genetic information, status with regard to public assistance, housing status, justice-impacted status, height, weight, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, Minnesota state, or Minneapolis local law.

Calfus is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to qualified applicants and employees in accordance with applicable law. Please contact us at [email protected] to request any accommodation.

Applicant Data Privacy

Calfus Inc. respects the privacy of all job applicants. Personal information submitted during the recruitment process will be collected, used, and maintained for legitimate recruitment, hiring, and employment-related purposes, in accordance with applicable laws and company policies.

Applicant information will be accessible only to authorized personnel and service providers with a legitimate business need and will not be shared with unauthorized third parties. Information will be retained and securely managed in accordance with applicable legal requirements and company data retention policies.