Data Engineer (Data Lake)

Ledgent Technology is hiring a Data Engineer (Data Lake) for a senior, contract engagement in Los Angeles, CA. The role focuses on evaluating and improving an enterprise-scale data platform while modernizing data lake environments in the Microsoft data ecosystem.

In this position, you will shape the technical direction for scalable architecture, strengthen governance and security, and help ensure trusted, high-quality data delivery across reporting, analytics, and business operations.

What you will do

• Assess current enterprise data environments, including data lake architecture, ingestion frameworks, transformation processes, security models, data lineage, and operational support practices.
• Lead architecture reviews and propose improvements to support scalability, performance, governance, and long-term platform modernization.
• Design, build, and maintain robust data pipelines and integration solutions for high-trust, high-quality data used in reporting and analytics.
• Implement and enhance data governance processes covering metadata management, cataloging, lineage, data quality monitoring, sensitivity classification, and access controls.
• Work with business stakeholders, data stewards, infrastructure teams, security teams, and application owners to deliver secure, scalable data solutions.
• Apply controls that support data privacy, regulatory compliance, audit readiness, and enterprise security requirements.
• Define operational standards for monitoring, alerting, troubleshooting, performance optimization, deployment validation, and production support.
• Provide technical leadership through architecture guidance, code reviews, mentoring, and knowledge transfer across data engineering and analytics teams.
• Create and maintain architecture documentation, technical standards, governance procedures, implementation roadmaps, and executive-level recommendations.
• Support evaluation of cloud data warehousing and lakehouse technologies, including interoperability, scalability, governance, and cost considerations.

Key qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field.
• 7+ years of experience in data engineering, data architecture, business intelligence engineering, or enterprise data platform development.
• Strong experience with Microsoft Fabric.
• Strong experience with Azure Synapse Analytics.
• Strong experience with Azure Data Lake Storage (ADLS Gen2).
• Strong experience with OneLake.
• Strong experience with Power BI and Power Automate.
• Strong experience with Microsoft Purview.
• Experience with Azure-based data integration and analytics services.
• Deep understanding of data lake architecture, lakehouse methodologies, data warehousing, dimensional modeling, semantic modeling, metadata management, and enterprise governance frameworks.
• Experience leading architecture assessments, defining future-state solutions, building technology roadmaps, and presenting recommendations to technical and executive audiences.
• Advanced SQL experience plus hands-on work with ETL/ELT development, orchestration, data modeling, performance tuning, data validation, and issue resolution.
• Strong grasp of governance and security controls, including role-based access, data classification, lineage, cataloging, audit logging, and change management.
• Ability to mentor engineers, lead design reviews, establish engineering standards, and drive best practices across teams.
• Excellent communication skills for explaining complex concepts, architecture decisions, risks, and implementation strategies to diverse stakeholders.

Technology focus

• Microsoft Fabric
• Azure Synapse Analytics
• Azure Data Lake Storage (ADLS Gen2)
• OneLake
• Power BI
• Power Automate
• Microsoft Purview
• Snowflake
• ETL/ELT
• Azure

Preferred qualifications

• DevOps experience for enterprise data platforms, including Git-based source control.
• DevOps experience for enterprise data platforms, including CI/CD pipelines.
• DevOps experience for enterprise data platforms, including automated deployments.
• DevOps experience for enterprise data platforms, including environment promotion strategies.
• DevOps experience for enterprise data platforms, including rollback planning.
• DevOps experience for enterprise data platforms, including separation-of-duties controls.
• Familiarity with Snowflake architecture and administration, including performance optimization, workload management, governance, security, and cost management.
• Experience evaluating and comparing cloud data platforms for scalability, governance, interoperability, performance, and long-term architecture strategy.
• Knowledge of data privacy regulations, security frameworks, compliance requirements, and audit-ready controls for sensitive enterprise data.

Preferred certifications

• Microsoft Certified: Fabric Data Engineer Associate
• Microsoft Certified: Fabric Analytics Engineer Associate
• Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert
• Microsoft Certified: Power BI Data Analyst Associate
• Microsoft certifications related to Microsoft Purview, Information Protection, Data Governance, Security, Privacy, or Compliance
• Microsoft Azure Fundamentals, Data Fundamentals, or Security Fundamentals
• Snowflake SnowPro Core, SnowPro Advanced Data Engineer, SnowPro Advanced Architect, or similar cloud data platform certifications

Location: Los Angeles, CA (onsite) | Type: contract | Compensation: USD 70 - 75 per hour