Lead Data Engineer

Job- Lead Data Engineer

Location: Chicagoland, IL candidates ONLY

Duration: Contract to Hire - 3-6 months

Company:

Founded in 1898 and headquartered in Chicago, IL, GATX Corporation (NYSE: GATX) leases transportation assets and provides critical services to customers worldwide. Our diverse portfolio of assets includes railcars, locomotives, tank containers, and aircraft spare engines.

We are an industry leader with 125+ years of success - success that is powered by our people. We are proud of our high-performance culture, hard-working and enthusiastic management team, and beautiful office space in the Willis Tower.

Overview:

We are investing in the next evolution of our data, analytics, and artificial intelligence ecosystem. We are looking for a Lead Data Engineer who s ready to do more than just build pipelines on Databricks and AWS.

You will help shape enterprise analytics strategy, influence architecture, and partner directly with the business to drive smarter decisions.

Why This Role?

This is a high-impact, high visibility role where you will:

Lead the design and implementation of a modern AWS + Databricks Lakehouse platform

Partner across IT, analytics, and business teams to turn data into decisions

Drive scalable, governed, high-performance data solutions

Influence how data powers analytics, reporting, and AI across the company

What You ll Be Doing

Design and lead enterprise-grade pipelines, supporting both batch and streaming data processing

Own the full ETL/ELT lifecycle, from design through production support

Drive data engineering standards, best practices, and architecture across the data ecosystem

Translate business requirements into scalable, high-performance data solutions

Mentor a small team while remaining hands-on

Ensure data reliability, performance, governance, and cost optimization

Qualifications:

10+ years of IT experience, including deep expertise in data engineering & ETL

4-6+ years of recent hands-on experience in designing, building, and scaling data pipelines

Strong hands-on experience with Databricks (Spark, Delta Lake, Unity Catalog) and AWS (S3, IAM, networking)

Highly proficient in Databricks' core architectural pattern, which combines the best elements of data lakes and data warehouses.

Familiar with advanced features like Unity Catalog (for governance), Delta Live Tables (DLT for pipelines), Databricks SQL, and workflow orchestration.

Expertise in SQL, Python, data modeling, and distributed processing.

Experience with CI/CD, DevOps, and modern data architecture (lakehouse, medallion, etc.).

Experience working in an Agile analytics environment where close collaboration with key stakeholders to address evolving requirements is the norm.

Strong communication skills and the ability to translate complex technical concepts into solutions that deliver business outcomes.

A passion for continued learning and an interest in staying current with the rapidly evolving data and analytics space.

What Sets You Apart

You re analytical, curious, and solutions-oriented

You thrive in environments where you balance priorities and drive outcomes

You re comfortable with ambiguity and can quickly learn the business

You build strong partnerships and bring a get things done mindset

Interview Process:

60-90 minute technical interview with Director testing ability to do hands-on design work, to work in their database platform, etc. - IN PERSON IS mandatory.

30-45 minute behavioral/team fit interview with Manager