Principal Data Engineer

Diagnostic Imaging & Telemedicine is seeking an analytics-focused Data Engineer to serve as the technical owner and lead for the DI&TM analytics data platform and semantic layer, a business-critical data product supporting financial, clinical, operational, and strategic decision-making.

This role is accountable for defining and leading the technical direction, architecture, standards, and roadmap for the data foundation that enables analysts, operational leaders, business partners, applications, and AI-enabled solutions to confidently access and use trusted data.

The engineer treats the semantic layer as a strategic data product-establishing consistent definitions, relationships, business logic, data models, documentation, and reusable patterns that enable trusted metrics and datasets across multiple use cases. The role owns the technical evolution of this foundation and independently identifies opportunities to improve scalability, reliability, performance, automation, data quality, accessibility, and cost.

The ideal candidate brings deep expertise in data engineering and analytics engineering, with specialized knowledge of database architecture, data modeling, modern transformation practices, and analytics platforms. The role requires the ability to interpret complex and ambiguous business and technical problems, evaluate trade-offs, and recommend scalable solutions that may influence architecture and data practices beyond Diagnostic Imaging & Telemedicine.

The incumbent serves as a recognized technical expert and best-practice resource for data modeling, dbt, Snowflake, SQL, and modern analytics engineering practices. This role provides technical leadership and mentorship to data analysts and engineers and establishes engineering standards and development practices across the group.

Working with a high degree of autonomy, the role sets technical priorities in alignment with business objectives and operates independently except in the most complex or enterprise-level situations.

This is a fully remote position with the opportunity to travel to our corporate headquarters.

• Owns and leads the technical strategy and architecture for the DI&T analytics data platform and semantic layer, ensuring the data foundation can reliably support current and future financial, clinical, operational, and strategic business needs.
• Designs and develops scalable data models and curated datasets that transform raw data into trusted, reusable data products for business, financial, clinical, and operational analytics.
• Defines and leads the architecture of the analytics semantic layer, including standardized business logic, metrics, dimensions, relationships, and definitions that enable consistent and reliable reporting and analysis across Diagnostic Imaging and Telemedicine.

• Leads the development and evolution of reliable production data pipelines and transformation processes integrating data from operational systems, data warehouses, integration hubs, data lakes, and other enterprise sources.
• Translates business and analytical requirements into scalable data solutions, partnering closely with Business Analysts, Data Analysts, and operational stakeholders to understand needs and develop data products that are fit for purpose and reusable across multiple use cases.
• Solves complex cross-system data problems where established patterns or precedents may not exist, applying broad technical and business perspective to identify root causes, evaluate alternatives, and develop innovative solutions.
• Establishes and applies data modeling, engineering, and governance standards, including naming conventions, documentation, data definitions, lineage, version control, testing, and development practices that improve the consistency and maintainability of the analytics environment.
• Ensures data quality, accuracy, reliability, and accessibility by implementing validation, testing, monitoring, and error-handling processes and proactively identifying and resolving data issues.
• Provides technical leadership and mentorship to data analysts, data engineers, and other technical team members, raising the organization's capabilities in SQL, data modeling, Git, dbt, testing, documentation, and engineering practices.
• Serves as the recognized subject matter expert and best-practice resource for data modeling, dbt, Snowflake, SQL, and analytics engineering within Diagnostic Imaging & Telemedicine and with partner teams across IDEXX.
• Monitors data pipeline and model performance, identifies bottlenecks, failures, and gaps, and implements sustainable solutions that improve reliability and reduce manual intervention.
• Partners with technology and engineering teams to evolve the data architecture, identifying opportunities to centralize fragmented data, automate manual workflows, improve system integration, and strengthen the overall data foundation for Diagnostic Imaging and Telemedicine.
• Independently identifies opportunities and sets technical priorities in alignment with business objectives, balancing immediate delivery needs with the long-term health and scalability of the data platform.
• Communicates complex technical concepts, risks, trade-offs, and recommendations to technical and non-technical audiences, influencing decisions across organizational boundaries.

• Education: Bachelor's degree in computer science, data engineering, information systems, or a related field; equivalent combination of education and significant relevant experience will be considered.
• Experience: 7+ years in data engineering, analytics, data architecture, or a related technical discipline, including technical leadership of production data platforms or enterprise-scale analytics environments.
• Certifications preferred, not required: Cloud certifications (e.g., AWS, Azure) and data engineering certifications are increasingly valued

• Deep dbt or equivalent experience. Demonstrates strong opinions and technical judgment regarding project structure, modularity, testing, documentation, deployment, and maintainability and can clearly articulate and defend architectural decisions.
• Deep Snowflake or equivalent analytical platform experience, including analytics engineering, performance tuning, architecture, cost optimization, workload management, and data model design.
• Advanced experience with dimensional, wide-table, and hybrid modeling approaches, including designing models at the appropriate grain for scalable downstream analytics.
• Expert SQL capabilities. This is a hands-on technical role and requires continued development and review of production code.
• Production data engineering experience, including building and maintaining pipelines, orchestration, monitoring, error handling, and operational support. Airflow or equivalent orchestration experience preferred.
• Strong Git and CI/CD experience, including establishing and enforcing code review, branching, testing, deployment, and engineering discipline across a technical team.
• Python or other scripting language experience preferred.
• Experience applying AI-assisted development tools such as Claude, Snowflake Cortex Code, GitHub Copilot, or equivalent technologies to improve engineering productivity and solution development.
• Demonstrated ability to evaluate technical trade-offs and make architecture decisions involving scalability, performance, cost, reliability, maintainability, and business value.
• Demonstrated ability to influence architecture and system design across organizational boundaries while partnering with enterprise engineering and technology teams.
• Ability to translate complex technical concepts into clear recommendations for technical and non-technical stakeholders, including senior leadership.
• Strong understanding of data governance, data lineage, business definitions, naming conventions, metadata, and context engineering and their role in creating trusted and reusable data products.
• Demonstrated ability to work independently, exercise sound technical judgment, and determine priorities with limited direction.
• Strong problem-solving skills with the ability to address complex, ambiguous, and novel technical problems where established solutions may not exist.

• Salary of $140000 to $160000
• Opportunity for annual cash bonus
• Health / Dental / Vision Benefits Day-One
• 5% matching 401k
• Additional benefits including but not limited to financial support, pet insurance, mental health resources, volunteer paid days off, employee stock program, foundation donation matching, and much more

We're proud of the work we do, because our work matters. An innovation leader in every industry we serve, we follow our Purpose and Guiding Principles to help pet owners worldwide keep their companion animals healthy and happy, to ensure safe drinking water for billions, and to help farmers protect livestock and poultry from disease. We have customers in over 175 countries and a global workforce of over 10,000 talented people.

So, what does that mean for you? We enrich the livelihoods of our employees with a positive and respectful work culture that embraces challenges and encourages learning and discovery. At IDEXX, you will be supported by competitive compensation, incentives, and benefits while enjoying purposeful work that drives improvement.

Let's Pursue What Matters.

IDEXX values a diverse workforce and workplace and strongly encourages women, people of color, LGBTQ individuals, people with disabilities, members of ethnic minorities, foreign-born residents, and veterans to apply.

IDEXX is an equal opportunity employer. Applicants will not be discriminated against because of race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, religion, national origin, citizenship status, disability, ancestry, marital status, veteran status, medical condition, or any protected category prohibited by local, state, or federal laws.

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