Engineer

Location: Minneapolis, MN Salary: $87.00 USD Hourly - $93.00 USD Hourly Description:
Principal Data & AI Engineer (Microsoft Data Platform)

We are not accepting C2C or 1099 arrangements.

Location: Minneapolis, MN (preferred), Chandler, AZ, Irving, TX, or Charlotte, NC
Work Model: Hybrid (3 days onsite, 2 days remote)
About the Role

We are seeking a Principal Data & AI Engineer to lead the design, development, and delivery of enterprise data products that support workforce analytics, operational reporting, executive decision-making, and AI-assisted insights.

In this role, you will combine deep expertise in Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Fabric, data modeling, and modern data engineering practices to build trusted, scalable, and analytics-ready solutions. You will work across structured and unstructured data sources, create reusable analytical models, and leverage generative AI tools to accelerate development, testing, and analysis.

This is a highly hands-on individual contributor role requiring both technical leadership and execution. You will own data solutions from source assessment through ingestion, transformation, governance, modeling, and delivery.
Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, Mathematics, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 7+ years of experience in data engineering, analytics engineering, database engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• 7+ years of hands-on experience with Microsoft SQL Server and advanced SQL development.
• Experience designing and implementing scalable ETL/ELT pipelines.
• Experience working with Microsoft Fabric or a comparable cloud-based data platform.
• Experience with relational, dimensional, semantic, and analytical data modeling.
• Experience integrating data from enterprise systems and external sources, including APIs, flat files, spreadsheets, and web-based data sources.
• Experience with data quality management, profiling, validation, reconciliation, and monitoring.
• Experience supporting BI, analytics, and reporting solutions.
• Experience using AI-assisted development tools to improve engineering productivity and data analysis.
• Ability to communicate complex technical concepts to business and non-technical stakeholders.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Microsoft Fabric Lakehouse, Warehouse, Data Factory, Dataflows Gen2, Notebooks, and Semantic Models.
• Experience with Azure SQL Database, Azure Data Lake Storage, Azure Data Factory, or related Azure data services.
• Experience with Power BI, including DAX, semantic modeling, performance optimization, and executive reporting.
• Experience with Python, PySpark, PowerShell, or similar automation and data transformation technologies.
• Experience with Databricks, Delta Lake, Apache Spark, and Lakehouse architectures.
• Experience with Medallion Architecture and enterprise data governance frameworks.
• Experience with Power Apps and Power Automate.
• Experience working in regulated environments handling confidential or sensitive data.
• Experience with GitHub, Azure DevOps, CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and release management.
• Experience supporting both traditional business intelligence and AI-driven analytical solutions.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, deploy, and support scalable data pipelines and integration solutions using Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Fabric.
• Develop reusable ETL/ELT frameworks that deliver governed, trusted, and analytics-ready data products.
• Author and optimize complex SQL queries, stored procedures, views, and performance-tuned data processing solutions.
• Design enterprise data models and semantic layers that enable analytics, reporting, self-service BI, and AI-assisted analysis.
• Build and maintain Lakehouse and Medallion-based data architectures that support enterprise-scale analytics.
• Integrate data from databases, APIs, enterprise applications, spreadsheets, files, reports, and approved external sources.
• Establish data validation, reconciliation, monitoring, and quality controls to ensure data accuracy and reliability.
• Create curated datasets and semantic models for consumption through Power BI, Excel, and AI-enabled workflows.
• Utilize approved generative AI tools to accelerate data analysis, development, testing, troubleshooting, documentation, and knowledge sharing.
• Review and validate AI-generated code, SQL, calculations, and analytical outputs to ensure accuracy and compliance.
• Partner with business stakeholders to translate requirements into scalable technical solutions and actionable insights.
• Produce clear technical documentation, data definitions, architecture diagrams, and operational procedures.
• Ensure compliance with data governance, privacy, security, risk, and regulatory requirements.
• Provide technical leadership and best-practice guidance on data engineering, modeling, and analytics initiatives.

Technical Expertise
Core Technologies

• Microsoft SQL Server
• Microsoft Fabric
• Azure Data Services
• Power BI
• Advanced Microsoft Excel

Data Engineering & Analytics

• Data Modeling
• ETL/ELT Development
• Data Quality & Governance
• Medallion Architecture
• Semantic Modeling
• Lakehouse Design

AI & Developer Productivity

• Microsoft 365 Copilot
• GitHub Copilot
• Claude Code
• VS Code AI Extensions
• Prompt Engineering
• AI-Assisted Analytics and Development

Nice to Have

• Databricks
• Delta Lake
• Apache Spark
• Power Apps
• Power Automate
• Python / PySpark
• Azure DevOps

Why This Role

This position offers the opportunity to shape enterprise data and AI capabilities within a modern Microsoft ecosystem. You will help build trusted data assets, enable AI-powered analytics, and influence the future architecture of the organization as technologies such as Databricks and advanced AI tooling continue to be adopted.

Benefits Featured

Medical, Dental , and Vision Insurance is offered to qualified candidates.

Medical, dental, and vision insurance are available to qualified candidates who meet eligibility requirements.
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