Senior Data Engineer in Portland, Oregon - #72290 | VanderHouwen

Description

Job Id: 72290

Senior Data Engineer
Our client is seeking a highly experienced Senior Data Engineer who can operate independently while leading the design and delivery of scalable, cloud-based data solutions. This individual will play a critical role in building data foundations that support advanced analytics and AI-driven applications, including LLM-enabled systems. The ideal candidate combines deep technical expertise with strong communication skills, enabling them to partner effectively across engineering teams and client stakeholders.

This role is fully remote.

Senior Data Engineer Responsibilities

• Lead the design and implementation of scalable data pipelines (batch and real-time), ensuring reliability, performance, and data quality across platforms.
• Architect and maintain ETL/ELT workflows with strong observability, lineage tracking, and governance best practices built in from the ground up.
• Design data solutions that support AI and LLM use cases, including unstructured data ingestion, embedding pipelines, and vector-based retrieval systems.
• Own cloud-based data architecture within AWS, leveraging services such as S3, Redshift, Glue, Athena, Kinesis, and Lambda to support analytics and AI workloads.
• Establish data standards, contracts, and best practices across projects while mentoring engineers and ensuring consistency in delivery.
• Partner with cross-functional teams to translate business and product requirements into scalable, maintainable data solutions.
• Lead technical planning for data workstreams, including task breakdown, estimation, and coordination within project delivery timelines.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to assess data readiness, identify gaps, and recommend improvements for analytics and AI adoption.
• Contribute to secure, compliant architecture design, including environments with regulatory or government requirements when applicable.
• Support documentation, architecture design artifacts, and client-facing deliverables to ensure transparency and long-term maintainability.

Senior Data Engineer Qualifications

• 5+ years of hands-on data engineering experience, including progression into senior or lead-level responsibilities.
• Strong experience designing and deploying data solutions within AWS environments using core data services and cloud-native architectures.
• Proven ability to build and optimize production-grade data pipelines, including both batch and streaming data processing.
• Experience supporting AI or machine learning workflows, with exposure to LLM-related data structures such as embeddings or vector storage.
• Solid understanding of data modeling, warehousing concepts, and pipeline performance optimization.
• Experience with infrastructure-as-code and automation tools such as Terraform, CDK, or similar frameworks.
• Ability to communicate complex technical concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Experience working in collaborative, cross-functional environments, ideally within consulting or multi-project delivery settings.
• Familiarity with modern data tools such as Databricks, dbt, Airflow, or similar orchestration frameworks is preferred.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Data Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Salary: $130K-$160K/year. (DOE)

Benefits
Benefits are available to eligible full-time employees and include coverage for medical, dental, vision, life insurance, short and long term disability, and matching 401k.

Meet VanderHouwen
What kind of recruiter do you see yourself working with? One who prioritizes your best interest, no matter what? VanderHouwen does, and we’re in it for the long game! Our recruiters focus on YOU, building meaningful, long-term relationships while developing a deep understanding of companies’ staffing needs and workplace cultures. This approach helps us find an ideal job match that aligns with your unique career aspirations and goals.

VanderHouwen is an award-winning, Women & Diversity-Owned, WBENC certified professional staffing firm. Founded in 1987, VanderHouwen places experienced professionals across the nation! Our recruitment teams specialize in either Technology and IT, Engineering, Human Resources, or Accounting and Finance career markets. Partner with us to land your next exciting career!

VanderHouwen is an Equal Opportunity Employer and participates in E-Verify. VanderHouwen does not discriminate based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, or any other characteristic protected by applicable local, state, or federal civil rights laws.

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