Lead Data Engineer (Azure)We are seeking a Lead Data Engineer with deep Azure data engineering and production operations experience to provide onsite technical leadership and operational governance for enterprise data platforms. This role will lead solution design, guide offshore delivery teams, and own end-to-end operational stability across data pipelines, analytics platforms, and governance tooling.The ideal candidate is local to Chicago, highly experienced in ETL, Azure Data Factory, Azure Synapse, and has a strong background in Incident, Problem, and Change Management within the data engineering space.Key ResponsibilitiesTechnical Leadership & ArchitectureProvide technical design direction and oversight to offshore data engineering teams.Review and consult on the design, development, and deployment of all data products.Design and validate Azure-based data architectures that meet performance, availability, scalability, security, and compliance requirements.Review architectural diagrams, design documents, and technical specifications; provide clear, actionable recommendations to stakeholders.Ensure adherence to Azure best practices and enterprise architecture standards.Azure Data EngineeringLead solutioning and technical reviews across:Azure Data Factory (ADF)Azure Synapse AnalyticsEnterprise ETL / ELT pipelinesAzure Data Lakes and data warehousesEstablish patterns for ingestion, transformation, orchestration, and analytics workloads.Ensure production-grade reliability, scalability, and performance of data pipelines.Operations, Support & ITSM (Critical Focus)Provide continuous operational monitoring of ETL pipelines, analytics platforms, and data governance tools.Own end-to-end Incident, Problem, and Change Management, including:Triage and resolutionRoot Cause Analysis (RCA)Long-term remediation and stabilizationAct as the escalation point for production data platform issues.Drive operational excellence through runbooks, monitoring improvements, and automation.Application Maintenance & Lifecycle ManagementManage application lifecycle activities, including:Patching and vulnerability remediation (based on monthly vulnerability reports)Platform and integration upgradesRelease planning and backlog / story groomingSupport application vulnerability tracking, remediation, and compliance.Execute and support Disaster Recovery (DR) activities, including incident-driven recovery and annual DR drills.DevOps & Environment ManagementSupport code promotions and deployments across SIT, UAT, and PROD using Azure DevOps.Manage source code repositories, CI/CD pipelines, and deployment automation.Execute UAT data refreshes from production data warehouses/data lakes while ensuring governance and security.Support non-production environments for testing and validation cycles.Testing & Release ManagementDefine and execute unit and system testing.Support and troubleshoot QA and UAT test cycles.Own and execute production releases in compliance with Client ITSM policies, including:Change management complianceRelease scheduling and coordinationDeployment execution and rollback proceduresPost-release validation and stabilizationData Governance, Observability & TransformationSupport implementation and operationalization of Data Governance and Observability platforms, including Ataccama.Design and support data observability pipelines.Required QualificationsLocal to Chicago, IL with ability to work onsite.10+ years of experience in data engineering, with lead or architect-level responsibility.Very strong hands-on experience with:Azure Data Factory (ADF)Azure Synapse AnalyticsEnterprise ETL / ELT frameworksProven experience running production data platforms with strong ownership of Incident, Problem, and Change Management.Strong Azure cloud architecture and engineering background.Experience leading and governing offshore delivery teams.Hands-on experience with Azure DevOps (CI/CD, releases, environment management).Strong communication skills with the ability to engage technical and business stakeholders.Preferred / Nice-to-HaveExperience with Ataccama or other data governance / data quality tools.Familiarity with data security and compliance in enterprise environments.Power BI administration or CoE setup experience.Drive continuous improvement initiatives such as:Operational trend analysisDevOps and automation opportunitiesEstablishment of a Power BI Analytics Center of Excellence (CoE).