[Remote] Senior Databricks Engineering Lead

Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is a world-class research institution focused on scientific research and innovation. They are seeking a Senior Azure Databricks Engineer to lead the design, build, and operation of a data lakehouse that powers analytics and reporting across PNNL Enterprise Systems, ensuring data governance and enabling self-service analytics.ResponsibilitiesLead the design, build, and operation of our data lakehouse that powers analytics and reporting across PNNL Enterprise SystemsDeliver governed, performant, and reliable data products—especially for ERP and other enterprise—and enable self-service analytics with Power BI and AI/MLDesign and evolve a Databricks‑based architecture that moves data with confidence from source systems to curated gold tablesBuild robust pipelines that transform raw data into analytics‑ready assets for Power BI and AI/ML, balancing pragmatic MVP delivery with a future‑focused architectureLead modernization from legacy data warehouses and ETL tools into Azure Databricks—refactoring brittle jobs into scalable patternsShape CI/CD for Databricks (e.g., DAB, Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions) and standardize deployment practices across environmentsConfigure and operate workspaces, clusters, jobs, and workflows; tune for performance and reliability; and embed data quality, monitoring, and observability to keep critical pipelines healthyImplement role‑based access controls, data masking, and fine‑grained models with Unity Catalog to enable secure, compliant data sharing and ensure proper classification, lineage, and auditabilityGuide engineers and analysts in adopting lakehouse best practices and modern data engineering standards—coding, testing, version control, and documentationStay current with Azure and Databricks capabilities, recommending and piloting features like Delta Live Tables and Unity Catalog enhancements to build a secure, reliable, and future‑ready data platformSkillsPhD and 3 years of Software Engineering experience -OR-MS/MA and 5 years of Software Engineering experience -OR-BS/BA and 7 years of Software Engineering experience -OR-AA and 16 years of Software Engineering experience in designing, architecting, programming, deploying, and automating software solutions in support of scientific research or consumer digital product development -OR-HS/GED and 18 years of Software Engineering experience in designing, architecting, programming, deploying, and automating software solutions in support of scientific research or consumer digital product development7+ years of professional data engineering or platform engineering experience, with 3–5+ years focused on cloud data platforms5+ years of experience operating production Azure Databricks, including Delta Lake, SQL, notebooks, Jobs/Workflows, and cluster managementProduction experience (3-5+ years) designing and operating ingestion-to-gold pipelines (medallion architecture) for ERP or other complex transactional sourcesExperience with Azure Data Factory and/or Fabric Data Pipelines for orchestration and integrationFamiliarity with core Azure services: ADLS Gen2, Key Vault, Azure DevOps or GitHubStrong proficiency in Python and SQL in a Spark/Databricks environmentExperience implementing Databricks Asset Bundles (DAB) or equivalent for CI/CD and standardizing deployment workflowsExperience using GenAI / LLM-based tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Azure OpenAI, Databricks Genie, or similar) to accelerate and automate engineering tasks such as code generation, test creation, documentation, and troubleshootingExposure to agentic AI / AI agents (e.g., orchestrating multi-step AI workflows for data quality checks, pipeline monitoring, or support automation) is a plusBenefitsMedical insuranceDental insuranceVision insuranceRobust telehealth care optionsSeveral mental health benefitsFree wellness coachingHealth savings accountFlexible spending accountsBasic life insuranceDisability insurance 6Employee assistance programBusiness travel insuranceTuition assistanceRelocationBackup childcareLegal benefitsSupplemental parental bonding leaveSurrogacy and adoption assistanceFertility supportCompany-funded pension plan 6401 (k) savings plan with company match 6Up to 120 vacation hours per yearTen paid holidays per yearCompany OverviewPacific Northwest National Laboratory operates as a government research laboratory. It was founded in 1965, and is headquartered in Richland, Washington, USA, with a workforce of 5001-10000 employees. Its website is http://www.pnnl.gov/.