Principal Data Engineer Ops Engineering Ops

About The Position

Although were an apparel and footwear-focused company, technology is central to everything we do. Columbia Sportswear’s Digital Technology (CDT) group enables an IT infrastructure and applications across four global brands, a global supply chain, and 500+ geographically dispersed stores. These teams support in-store, mobile, and data platforms to enhance customer interface and service in an ever-evolving industry.

The Principal Data Operations Engineer is a member of the Data & Analytics (D&A) team that is responsible for data and business intelligence design, development and testing of new capabilities/enhancements to existing solutions that meet CSCs business needs within an Agile environment. The Principal Data Operations Engineer is responsible for investigating, documenting, and resolving production issues affecting enterprise data assets. Principal Data Operations Engineers will provide Tiers 1, 2 and 3 support to enterprise data assets and systems across D&A team, including critical processes and job failures. Responsibility to be on call rotation with onshore support during off hours. The Principal Data Operations Engineer will work with fellow BI/data Engineers onsite and offshore. The Principal Data Operations Engineer will also work closely with several enterprise support organizations and CSC users in addition to the D&A team.

How You’ll Make a Difference

• Provide Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 support to enterprise data assets and systems across the D&A team, including triage and resolution of pipeline failures, job errors, and data quality issues for solutions within the D&A environment spanning Azure, SAP BW/HANA, and BI platforms
• Demonstrate and lead other operations resources into tier 3: to be able to update/bug fix, test and maintain existing data integrations, ETL processes and BI solutions within the D&A environment consisting of Azure, SAP BW/HANA and BI Platforms
• Lead Azure environment refresh and cutover activities for system integration testing and go live for major and minor releases
• Participate in an on-call rotation to support D&A production processes and systems
• Execute and oversee routine maintenance tasks, including backups and updates
• Implementing and managing data governance policies.
• Configuring and managing integrations with external data sources
• Lead deployments, monitor logs, and ensure timely reporting of issues
• Implement automated solutions using scripting/programming languages in Azure environment
• Point of contact for all platform operational activities, ownership of operational documentation, operational standards
• Mentor, train and support other team members and coordinate with other support teams across the enterprise
  
  

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent demonstrable experience
• 7+ years of experience in data operations, data engineering, or BI support roles, with at least 3 years in a Tier 2/3 production support capacity
• Strong hands-on experience with the Azure data ecosystem, including Azure Data Factory, Azure Data Lake Storage, and Azure Databricks
• Solid understanding of Delta Lake and lakehouse architecture (medallion architecture experience a plus)
• Strong SQL skills including query optimization, performance tuning, and debugging complex data pipelines
• Experience with Python or PowerShell for scripting and automation in an Azure environment
• Experience executing and maintaining CI/CD pipelines and version control practices (Git or equivalent)
• Experience with enterprise job scheduling platforms; familiarity with Tidal or comparable schedulers (Autosys, Control-M)
• Experience authoring and maintaining operational documentation and runbooks for consumption by Tier 1 and Tier 2 teams
• Experience with BI and reporting platforms, particularly Power BI
• Experience working in an Agile/scrum environment with operational documentation ownership
• Strong communication skills; able to work effectively with business stakeholders, enterprise support teams, and offshore counterparts
• Availability to participate in an on-call rotation for production support coverage
  
  

• Experience with SAP environments (BW, HANA, Data Services, or BOBJ)
• Familiarity with Unity Catalog or enterprise data governance concepts
• Experience with Azure Analysis Services or comparable semantic layer tooling
• Comfort working with REST APIs for integration and troubleshooting
• Prior experience in a hybrid onshore/offshore operating model