KeHE Distributors

Data Engineer, Principal

KeHE Distributors$108K — $159K *
Information Technology
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 7+ years of experience in software development, ideally in Agile environments.
  • Expertise in modern development stacks such as C#, Python, Angular, SQL.
  • Proficiency in cloud platforms like AWS, Azure, or GCP.
  • Proven experience in architecture and platform engineering focused on cloud-native solutions.
  • Bachelor's degree in computer science, software engineering, or related field, or equivalent coding education alternatives.

Responsibilities

  • Define and guide target architectures for scalable and secure complex systems.
  • Lead architectural design reviews and document technical decisions for engineering teams.
  • Translate strategic outcomes into architectural initiatives for product delivery.
  • Design resilient APIs and event-driven architectures to support growth.
  • Advance DevOps and CI/CD practices, ensuring quality and security in pipelines.
  • Improve system reliability and operational maturity through monitoring and incident response.
  • Mentor engineers and advocate for modern engineering practices across teams.

Benefits

  • Opportunity to influence high-impact architectural decisions and technical strategy.
  • Close partnership with product and design teams for innovative solutions.
  • Focus on continuous improvement in quality and engineering practices.
  • Mentorship opportunities across diverse engineering teams for career growth.
  • Access to professional development and certification programs.
Full Job Description
Primary Responsibilities
The Principal DEA Engineer serves as a technical leader, architecting complex systems and setting engineering standards that enable product teams to deliver scalable, reliable, and secure solutions in a timely fashion. This role partners closely with product and design to shape technical strategy, drive platform innovation, and mentor engineers within and across teams. Principal Engineers are accountable for high-impact architectural decisions, platform patterns, and continuous improvement in quality, automation, and cloud governance. Unlike Engineers or Senior Engineers, who focus primarily on feature development and implementation, Principal Engineers influence product and architecture direction, elevate engineering practices, and ensure long-term technical excellence across the organization.
Essential Functions
DUTIES, TASKS AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
  • Define and guide target architectures for complex systems and platforms, ensuring solutions are scalable, secure, extensible, and aligned with enterprise engineering standards.
  • Lead architectural design reviews and technical decision-making, documenting trade-offs and guiding engineering teams in adopting consistent patterns and best practices across the technology stack.
  • Partner with product and business leaders to translate strategic outcomes into architectural initiatives, evaluating value, risk, and effort while enabling iterative delivery of high-impact capabilities.
  • Design and evolve scalable platform capabilities, including resilient APIs, event-driven architectures, caching strategies, and data models that support performance, reliability, and long-term growth.
  • Advance DevOps, CI/CD, and cloud engineering practices, standardizing pipelines, enforcing build quality and security gates, and implementing infrastructure-as-code for consistent and compliant environments.
  • Improve system reliability, observability, and operational maturity, defining service-level objectives, implementing monitoring and tracing practices, and leading architectural improvements based on incident learnings.
  • Mentor engineers and influence engineering practices across teams, running design reviews and technical forums, coaching engineers on architectural thinking, and promoting adoption of modern engineering practices.

SKILLS, KNOWLEDGE AND ABILITIES:
  • Ability to design and guide complex distributed systems and platform architectures that balance scalability, performance, reliability, and security.
  • Deep expertise in cloud platforms, DevOps practices, and modern engineering architecture such as microservices, event-driven systems, and resilient API design.
  • Ability to translate business and product strategy into architectural direction and platform investments that enable faster product delivery and improved system capabilities.
  • Expertise in service reliability, monitoring, tracing, and incident management practices that improve system performance and operational resilience.
  • Ability to mentor engineers, lead architectural discussions, influence cross-team decisions, and drive adoption of engineering standards across the organization.

Minimum Requirements, Qualifications, Additional Skills, Aptitude
EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE:
  • 7+ years of experience in software development, preferably in a product-centric or agile environment.
  • Expertise in modern development stacks (C#, Python, Angular, SQL) and cloud platforms (AWS/Azure/GCP).
  • Proven experience in architecture, platform engineering, and cloud-native solutions.
  • Bachelor's degree in computer science, software engineering, or a related field preferred or similar coding education alternatives to traditional four-year degrees.
  • Demonstrated ability to deliver high-quality software solutions and contribute to team success.
  • Participation in training, certifications, or professional development initiatives is a plus.
  • Experience with modern development tools, version control systems, and CI/CD pipelines is preferred.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS:
  • These physical demands are representative of the physical requirements necessary for an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of the job.

Requisition ID


About KeHE Distributors

KeHE Distributors is a food distribution company that provides natural and organic, specialty and fresh products to grocery and natural food stores. The company was founded in 1953 and is headquartered in Romeoville, Illinois. KeHE Distributors has over 16,000 products and serves over 30,000 customers.
Learn more about KeHE Distributors
Size
5,000 employees
Industry
Founded
1952

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