Principal Data Engineer (Remote)

Who We Are At 8th Light, we bring life to the best ideas. Founded in 2006 and headquartered in Chicago, we are a technology solutions consultancy that partners with organizations from early-stage startups to the world's largest companies. We take on hard software challenges and turn them into durable results. We build agentic products, the platforms they run on, and the engineering and design at every layer. Our commitment to quality means we deliver solutions we’re truly proud of, while our curiosity sparks innovation and breakthrough thinking. 8th Lights thrive in an environment that champions continuous education, fueling our growth through mentorship and hands-on work. We foster an open, collaborative culture grounded in honesty that builds trust, and believe true success is measured by the outcomes we create for our clients. If this kind of work and our kind of people energizes you, you’ve found the right place. Who You Are You've shown long-term repeated success delivering data platforms, typically over the course of 10+ years in software and 7+ years in data engineering, with a clear progression into technical leadership and architectural ownership. You're the person a team leans on to shape data strategy, design scalable solutions, and stay hands-on when the hard part needs solving. In your previous experience, you have: Owned the architecture and delivery of modern data platforms end-to-end Built deep expertise in Databricks and modern lakehouse architecture, including Delta Lake and Spark-based processing Worked at an advanced level in SQL and Python, building and optimizing large-scale data pipelines Worked hands-on with cloud platforms, including their data services and infrastructure design Applied strong data modeling, ETL/ELT patterns, and distributed data processing to real client problems Used orchestration tools and transformation frameworks in production Led technical delivery while staying hands-on when the work called for it Partnered directly with clients on requirements gathering, solution design, and executive communication Worked through ambiguity, prioritized effectively, and drove clarity in complex environments Worked with healthcare data such as Epic, HL7, FHIR, and claims Used CI/CD, DevOps practices, and infrastructure-as-code tools Mentored internal team members and shared what you know Actively sought out and given feedback What You’ll Do At 8th Light As a go-to data platform technologist within 8th Light, you'll take on highly visible, client-facing engagements and set the technical direction for how data gets architected and delivered. You'll be responsible for: Owning architecture and delivery for modern data platforms end-to-end Shaping client data strategy and designing scalable solutions Leading implementation efforts from design through production Partnering directly with client stakeholders, from requirements through executive updates Mentoring internal team members and ensuring high-quality delivery Working pragmatically to balance technology choices while delivering high-quality work within deadlines Advising clients on architecture, scalability, and platform evolution, connecting technical decisions to business outcomes Leading or initiating retrospectives and feedback conversations with teams and clients Clearly articulating and documenting outcomes and driving action items forward Contributing to the health of your team and 8th Light's culture by modeling our Values Identifying, mitigating, and resolving blockers to team progress Contributing to 8th Light by mentoring, leading workshops, representing us in the tech community, or supporting our hiring process Strongly Preferred Skills We work across many areas, and encourage anyone with the experience above to apply. We'd particularly like to hear from applicants with experience in: Platform engineering: building reusable data foundations and infrastructure other teams build on Real-time and streaming data tools such as Kafka, Kine…