Principal Engineer, Azure Architect - University of Maryland

The IT Principal Engineer in the Division of Information Technology (DIT) at the University of Maryland, College Park, is an individual contributor, and will perform technical planning, end-to-end architecture development and design specifications for distributed cloud computing environments, solution design, and development of specific applications for products and services in the Azure ecosystem. Provides technical leadership and is responsible for establishing the direction for the architecture, standards, design, automation and implementation in a distributed cloud and on-premises environment. Creates, evaluates and implements plans and design proposals for high impact cloud integrated enterprise solutions. Leads, contributes to, and carries out hands-on development applied to all aspects of business systems, infrastructure prototypes, and applications. Performs work of high complexity and designs logical processes based on technical platforms. The Principal Engineer is responsible for monitoring and analyzing overall cloud spending as well as developing and maintaining methods for shared reporting for customers outside DIT and for minimizing spending by DIT. Engages in problem, business and technical analysis. Possesses broad and deep skills across disciplines, serving as a mentor to others. The individual will be carrying out solution design, development, troubleshooting and maintenance of applications in the Power Platform environment, using Fabric infrastructure, developing data pipelines, standards, best practices, and mentoring of current staff.

This individual will gain organizational commitment for all systems and software plans, as well as evaluate and select all technologies required to complete those plans. In addition, the IT Principal Engineer provides technical leadership across the organization, from strategic decision making down to the project planning level. This individual will interface with multiple stakeholders and ensure that the Division of IT services are modern, secure and stable.

This position is considered an essential position and may be required to work at the normal work location or an alternative location during a major catastrophic event, weather emergency, or other operational emergencies to help maintain continuity of University services.

Minimum Qualifications:

Education: Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university.

Experience:

* Ten (10) years of professional experience supporting the operations, maintenance, and administration of information technology infrastructure.

* Excellent written and oral communication skills with the capability of adapting communication style to different audiences.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

* Ability to independently prioritize and execute advanced support and feature requests in area of expertise.

* Skilled in managing IT projects and associated team members with a primary focus is on the implementation and delivery of technical initiatives.

* Demonstrated ability to drive decision making efforts by effectively working toward a consensus with various stakeholders.

* Ability to to lead presentations and trainings to large sized groups.

* Proven track records for quickly learning new technologies up and to the point of being a subject matter expert.

* Skilled in identifying and solving problems of high complexity both independently and with other team members.

* Demonstrate the ability to define deadlines and manage and maintain the quality of the work in use.

* Provides leadership and helps bridge the gap between team manager and team members on technical topics.

* Ability to analyze business requirements, assess technology options, and create high-level solutions that align with the division’s long-term goals and priorities.

* Skilled in the use of office productivity software such as Office 365 or Google Workspaces

* Subject matter expert in at least three (3) technical areas: Azure Synapse, Data Factory, Data/Delta Lake,Data Engineer, Microsoft Fabric, Data pipelines.

* Experience creating and maintaining infrastructure using public cloud services, specifically AWS or Azure.

* Familiar with modern data integration techniques such as data pipelines and real time streaming to ensure data consistency and availability.

* Ability to understand and articulate common architectural patterns and design principles verbally and within architecture diagrams.

Preferences:

* Experience architecting cloud native solutions.

* Understanding of cloud security best practices and compliance standards.

* Five or more years of experience as a Solution Architect, Principal/Senior Engineer (Lead Developer), or similar role.

* 4+ years of architecture experience with Microsoft Azure, specifically with data analytics related services – SQL Server, Azure Data Factory, Fabric, Power Automate, Power BI etc

* Experience working in a higher education environment.

* Expertise in the following Microsoft Azure technologies: Azure Synapse, Data Factory, Data/Delta Lake, Databricks in order to architect end to end solutions. Develops reference data architecture, pipelines using Azure modern data stack.

* Formulates best practices for data pipelines.

Prefer that the candidate have one of the following certifications:

* AZ-305 – Microsoft Azure Architect Design

* DP-100 – Designing and Implementing a Data Science Solution on Azure

* DP-203 – Microsoft Certified: Azure Data Engineer Associate

* DP-500 – Azure Enterprise Data Analyst Associate