Principal Data Engineer
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Principal Data Engineer
Salary
$101,004.80 - $163,841.60 Annually
Location
390 Robert St. N St. Paul, MN
Job Type
Full-Time
Job Number
2026-00076
Division
Regional Administration
Department
IS-Admin
Opening Date
06/24/2026
Closing Date
7/8/2026 11:59 PM Central
Description
Benefits
Questions
WHO WE ARE
We are the Metropolitan Council, the regional government for the seven-county Twin Cities metropolitan area. We plan 30 years ahead for the metropolitan area's future and provide regional transportation, wastewater, and housing services. More information about us is on our website. (https://metrocouncil.org/About-Us/The-Council-Who-We-Are.aspx)
We are committed to supporting a diverse workforce that reflects the communities we serve.
Information Services (IS) is the central IT department within the Regional Administration (RA) division, supporting all divisions of the Metropolitan Council. Our 140 team members provide technology, practices, and innovative solutions that enable the Council's core services.
How your work would contribute to our organization and the Twin Cities region:
The Principal Data Engineer works with business and IS leaders and stakeholders to establish data engineering strategies that support the organization's goals and objectives. They lead and influence decisions around data architecture, data processing, and data governance, collaborating with IS and business units to create solutions that make data available to systems and/or data consumers, such as system users, developers, data scientists, or business analysts.
They create and socialize the data engineering technology roadmap and plan how to get there. They evaluate new technologies, tools, and techniques, and work closely with the IS architects to build data engineering solutions on top of the overall technology architecture. They help establish data governance policies, procedures, standards, and best practices to ensure compliance with industry regulations, security and data privacy laws, and information security requirements.
This role designs, develops, and maintains data solutions. This includes databases (DBs), data lakes, data warehouses, data marts, and data movement (data pipelines/ETL/ELT), as well as integrating analytics and data science outputs into existing business processes or systems. They administer, monitor, and maintain data solutions and tools, ensuring their security, performance, and availability. They also identify and resolve data quality issues.
The Principal Data Engineer requires the highest degree of expertise in database and data platform technologies, data modeling, structured and unstructured data, and strong programming skills. They often act as technical leads and work on initiatives ranging from small to large, advising and mentoring others. They play a critical role in ensuring the data is properly managed and leveraged to support strategic decision-making and to achieve business objectives.
Full Salary Range: $48.56 - $78.77 hourly/$101,005 - $163,842 yearly
This position is eligible for a hybrid telework arrangement (both remote and onsite). Candidate's permanent residence must be in Minnesota or Wisconsin.
What you would do in this job
Partners with executives, architects, and technical leaders.
Guide to multi-team initiatives.
Represent data engineering in strategic planning.
Lead the design and architecture of enterprise data platforms.
Define engineering standards, frameworks, and best practices.
Drive modernization of data systems and adoption of cloud-native solutions.
Solve highly complex data engineering challenges across platforms.
Partner with leadership to define long-term data strategy.
Provide expert-level mentoring and oversight to engineering teams.
Develop data engineering strategies for operations, reporting, and analytics.
Create and socialize the data engineering roadmap to achieve the strategic plan.
Evaluate new technologies, tools, and techniques and make recommendations.
Develop data policies, procedures, standards, and best practices.
Mentor, influence, and advise data engineers on industry best practices.
May act as a technical lead on small to large data-related initiatives.
Data Operations
Oversee performance, reliability, and security of enterprise data systems.
Guide database and platform engineering teams.
Set and enforce access/security standards.
Define data governance and quality frameworks.
Ensure compliance across platforms.
Oversee classification, retention, and audit practices.
Lead root-cause analysis for major incidents.
Direct capacity planning and optimization.
Set operational standards and reliability targets.
Ensure data systems are available, scalable, secure, and supportable.
Administer, monitor, and support 24x7x365 operations, ensuring data security, performance, and availability.
Resolve incidents and meet Service Level Agreements (SLAs).
Ensure compliance with industry regulations, security, and data privacy laws.
Recommend performance improvements, optimizations, and automation.
Help fulfill data practices requests, complete audits, and respond to cybersecurity events.
Efficiently complete data service requests.
Identify and resolve data quality issues.
Data Development
Define technical architecture for Council-wide data solutions.
Design highly scalable pipelines and data models.
Guide to the adoption of new technologies.
Review and approve complex engineering designs.
Design, develop, and implement data solutions for operational, reporting, and analytical items.
Create solutions that make data available to systems and/or data consumers, including system users, developers, data scientists, and business analysts.
Build and leverage CI/CD development practices.
Integrate analytics and data outputs into business processes or systems.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
Partners with executives, architects, and technical leaders.
Guide to multi-team initiatives.
Represent data engineering in strategic planning.
Effectively collaborate with business teams on data needs and requirements.
Partner with IS teams to deliver available, secure, and supportable solutions for on-premises, hybrid, and cloud environments.
Mentor and train IS and business teams on data solutions.
What education and experience are required for this job (minimum qualifications)
Any of the following combinations of education (in Computer Science/Engineering, Information Technology, or related) and relevant experience:
Master's degree and four (4) years of experience
Bachelor's degree and six (6) years of experience
Associate's degree and eight (8) years of experience
High school diploma/GED and ten (10) years of experience
What additional skills and experience would be helpful in this job (desired qualifications):
Experience with Azure, AWS, GCP, or other cloud service architecture
Experience working with CI/CD pipelines via GitHub or equivalent source control platform
Experience with Terraform or other Infrastructure as Code frameworks
Working knowledge of Spark or equivalent distributed computing engine
Experience as a technical lead on a team
Modern cloud data platform experience in Databricks or equivalent
Developing & supporting data integrations in Python or Scala
Reporting & data visualization experience
Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities Required:
Developed data strategies & roadmaps
Defined data standards, best practices, policies, & procedures
Developed data solutions for operations, reporting, & analytics
ITIL, Incident, Service, Change & Problem Management experience
Knowledge of & experience with data privacy laws, security, & industry regulations
Writing & tuning complex SQL queries
Extensive Experience with Databricks, Snowflake, or equivalent
What additional skills and experience would be helpful in this job (desired qualifications):
Experience with Azure, AWS, GCP, or other cloud service architecture
Experience working with CI/CD pipelines via GitHub or equivalent source control platform
Experience with Terraform or other Infrastructure as Code frameworks
Working knowledge of Spark or equivalent distributed computing engine
Experience as a technical lead on a team
Modern cloud data platform experience in Databricks or equivalent
Developing & supporting data integrations in Python or Scala
Reporting & data visualization experience
Knowledge of IS teams, roles & responsibilities, services, & general technologies.
Understand the data management team, group functions, & data technologies.
Knowledge of the various business units & the @types of data each has and needs.
Understand & use incident, service, problem, & change management processes.
Strong interpersonal relationships within and across teams, to remove barriers, reduce risk, build trust and improve insights.
Skill and comfort in delivering strategic guidance to IS teams and leadership.
What you can expect from us:
We offer the opportunity to make a difference and positively influence the Twin Cities metropolitan area.
We encourage our employees to develop their skills through on-site training and tuition reimbursement.
We provide a competitive salary, excellent benefits, and a good work/life balance.
More about why you should join us (http://metrocouncil.org/Employment/Making-A-Difference.aspx)
We believe our employees are a key to our agency's success! In order to attract and retain high quality employees, the Council provides a highly competitive benefits package both in choice and coverage levels. Some highlights about our benefits are listed below:
Guaranteed monthly retirement income through Minnesota State Retirement System pension fund
Opportunity to save additional funds for retirement on a tax-deferred basis through a voluntary deferred compensation (457) plan
Two or more medical plans from which to choose, with employer contribution towards premiums over 80%
Dental insurance, life insurance and vision insurance
The following benefits are provided to all employees as part of working for the Council. You will have access to free:
Well@Work clinic
bus/rail pass valued at over $1200 per year
parking at many job locations
fitness centers at many job locations
Employee Assistance Program
extensive health and wellness programs and resources
01
Applicant Instructions: It is important thatyour application shows all relevant education and experienceyou possess. The supplemental questions listed below are to further evaluate your education and experience and to determine your eligibility for this position. Answer each question completely, and please do not @type "see resume." Otherwise, your application will be considered incomplete, and you will not receive further consideration for this position. The experience you indicate in your responses should also be consistent with the Work History section of this application. If you attach a resume and/or cover letter to your application, it will be reviewed at the education and experience review step. I have read and understand the above instructions regarding my application and supplemental questions.
Yes
No
02
How did youfirsthear about this job opening?
CareerForce Center
Community Event/Organization
Employee Referral
Facebook
Glassdoor
Indeed
Job Fair
LinkedIn
Metro Transit Bus Advertisement
X (formerly known as Twitter)
Website: governmentjobs.com
Website: metrocouncil.org
Website: metrotransit.org
Website: minnesotajobnetwork.com
Other
03
If you selected 'Other', please describe where you first heard about this job. if you selected 'Employee Referral' please enter the employee's first and last name, ID number (if known), and job title. Type N/A if not applicable.
04
Please select the option below that reflects your education and experience level.
High School diploma or GED AND 10 years of relevant experience
Associate's degree in computer science or related field AND 8 years of relevant experience
Bachelor's degree in computer science or related field AND 6 years of relevant experience
Master's degree or higher in computer science or related field AND 4 years of relevant experience
Other/none of the above
05
Please select areas in which you have professional experience (select ALL that apply).
Developed data strategies & roadmaps
Defined data standards, best practices, policies, & procedures
Administered & supported DB operations 24x7x365 & metrics for SLAs
Developed data solutions for operations, reporting, & analytics
ITIL, Incident, Service, Change & Problem Management experience
Knowledge of & experience with data privacy laws, security, & industry regulations
Installation & configuration of DB software & drivers on servers & clients
Writing & tuning complex SQL queries
Oracle DB Administration
Oracle Exadata Administration
06
Please select areas in which you have professional experience (select ALL that apply).
Oracle Database@Azure Experience
SQL Server Administration
Experience leading a technical team
Modern cloud data platform experience in Databricks
Developing & supporting data integrations (data pipelines/ETL/ELT)
Reporting & data visualization experience
07
Please describe your experience in data engineering on-prem and in the cloud, including the organization, your responsibilities, and the duration of the position(s). If this does not apply, enter "N/A". If you @type "See resume," you will not receive credit for your response.
08
Please describe the @types of databases you have worked with and for how long. If this does not apply, enter "N/A." If you @type "See resume," you will not receive credit for your response.
09
Please describe the development methodologies and tools you have used to design and build data solutions. If this does not apply, "N/A." If you @type "See resume," you will not receive credit for your response.
10
Explain a situation where you used your knowledge, skills, and experience to plan and solve a challenging data solution. What was the outcome and how did it affect the organization? If this does not apply, "N/A." If you @type "See resume," you will not receive credit for your response.
11
Explain a situation where you used your knowledge, skills, and experience to plan and solve a challenging data solution. What was the outcome and how did it affect the organization? If this does not apply, "N/A." If you @type "See resume," you will not receive credit for your response.
Yes
No
12
This is a hybrid position that requires working at least 2 days per month in the 390 Robert Street, St. Paul, MN office. Can you meet this requirement?
Yes
No
Required Question
Employer
Metropolitan Council
Address
390 Robert St. N.St. Paul, Minnesota, 55101
Website
https://metrocouncil.org
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