Data Engineer III

job summary:

Data Engineer III - Houston, TX (Onsite)

We are seeking a senior Data Engineer to design, build, and optimize large-scale data pipelines and modern lakehouse architectures. This role focuses on delivering reliable, scalable, and high-performance data solutions to support analytics and business decision-making. The ideal candidate has strong experience with SQL, Python, ELT/ETL pipelines, and cloud-based data platforms, and is skilled in implementing data quality, observability, and performance optimization.

This is an onsite, full-time contract role based in Houston, TX.

location: Houston, Texas

job type: Contract to Perm

salary: $80 - 85 per hour

work hours: 8am to 5pm

education: Bachelors



responsibilities:

Job Responsibilities

• Design, build, and maintain ELT pipelines across ingestion, transformation, modeling, and delivery layers (bronze ? silver ? gold)
• Implement incremental loading, change data capture (CDC), merge/upsert, and idempotent pipeline patterns to ensure reliability and repeatability
• Define and apply data architecture patterns, including layered lakehouse designs, domain-oriented datasets, and semantic models aligned to business needs
• Engineer physical data designs including partitioning strategies, partition key selection, clustering/micro-partitioning, and compaction for performance and cost efficiency
• Develop curated datasets and data marts to enable analytics and self-service BI
• Implement data quality, observability, and lineage frameworks including validations, profiling, SLAs, monitoring, and alerting
• Optimize performance on cloud data platforms through compute sizing, query optimization, and workload tuning
• Design and manage lakehouse table formats (e.g., Apache Iceberg or Delta) on object storage, including schema evolution and maintenance
• Collaborate with data architects, analytics engineers, and business stakeholders to translate requirements into scalable technical solutions
• Mentor junior engineers, participate in design reviews, and contribute to engineering standards and reusable frameworks
• Automate and optimize the data lifecycle using CI/CD and infrastructure-as-code, applying DevOps best practices

qualifications:

Qualifications and Skills

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Data Engineering, Information Systems, or a related field (advanced degree preferred)

7-10+ years of experience in Data Engineering or software engineering roles with a strong data focus

Expert-level SQL development and query optimization skills

Strong Python programming experience with knowledge of software engineering principles, unit testing, and version control

Hands-on experience building and orchestrating ELT/ETL pipelines using tools such as Airflow or Astronomer

Deep understanding of data engineering patterns: ingestion, transformation, dimensional modeling (SCDs), and delivery

Experience with database physical design, including partitioning strategies, effective partition key selection, clustering, and micro-partitioning

Knowledge of lakehouse table formats (Apache Iceberg, Delta, or Hudi) and columnar storage (Parquet) on object storage platforms

Experience implementing data quality, observability, and monitoring frameworks with operational SLAs

Strong problem-solving, analytical, and architectural design skills

Excellent communication skills with the ability to present complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders

Preferred: experience with Snowflake workload optimization, dbt or similar transformation frameworks, event streaming (Kafka, Kinesis, Flink), API integrations, and data governance tools

Equal Opportunity Employer: Race, Color, Religion, Sex, Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, National Origin, Age, Genetic Information, Disability, Protected Veteran Status, or any other legally protected group status.

At Randstad Digital, we welcome people of all abilities and want to ensure that our hiring and interview process meets the needs of all applicants. If you require a reasonable accommodation to make your application or interview experience a great one, please contact

Pay offered to a successful candidate will be based on several factors including the candidate's education, work experience, work location, specific job duties, certifications, etc. In addition, Randstad Digital offers a comprehensive benefits package, including: medical, prescription, dental, vision, AD&D, and life insurance offerings, short-term disability, and a 401K plan (all benefits are based on eligibility).

This posting is open for thirty (30) days.