Principal Data Engineer

Kin is redesigning insurance to be smarter, faster, and centered on the customer. We use intelligent pricing, offer seamless bundling, and make every step (from purchasing, servicing to claims) simple and friction-free, especially in the places traditional insurers often ignore.

We empower people to protect what matters most, starting with their homes and expanding to all they value, in a world where climate risks, rising costs, and outdated systems leave too many behind. Our approach has fostered amazing growth, attracted marquee investors, and earned us accolades, including being named to:

• Built In Chicago's Best Places to Work, Midsize Companies (2021-2025).

• Forbes' America's Best Startup Employers (2021- 2024, Ranked #37 in 2024).

• Inc. 5000 Fastest-Growing Private Companies.

• Forbes’ Fintech 50.

Simply put, our people are what make us great – we need forward-thinking, inspired game-changers like you to join us in our mission.

So what’s the role?

Data is central to our business at Kin. As a Principal Data Engineer, you will be the senior technical lead for the data engineering department. You’ll partner with our Director of Data Engineering to provide technical leadership and architectural direction to our Data organization. You’ll lead our transition to distributed computing as we move to Databricks. You are the go-to expert at Kin regarding our data stack and environment, a mentor to your data team members, and a partner to cross-functional colleagues and stakeholders.

What you’ll do

You will lead the design, development, and implementation of a distributed computing environment based on Databricks and best-in-class data governance. You’ll lead Kin’s transformation into a data-first environment while collaborating with cross-functional team members from Product, AppEng, analytics, and business units to solve complex challenges. These range from architecting scalable and efficient data pipelines to optimizing data storage and retrieval systems to ensuring data quality and integrity throughout the data lifecycle. We have utilized modern technology since beginning our business, and now we’re super-charging our data infrastructure and processes. You will lead those technical initiatives across all facets of our data team. This involves:

• Leading the overall data architecture design, including ingestion, computing, storage, governance, and machine learning engineering capabilities

• Implementing the architecture and creating a vision for how data will flow through the organization using a federated approach

• Managing data governance across multiple systems: data mastering, metadata management, data definitions, semantic-layer design, data taxonomies, and ontologies

• Design and implement solutions using Databricks for advanced analytics, data processing, and machine learning workloads

• Helping define the technology strategy and roadmaps for the portfolio of data platforms and services across the organization

• Ensuring data security and compliance, working within industry regulations

• Designing and documenting data architecture at multiple levels across conceptual, logical, and physical views

• Providing hands-on architectural guidance and leadership throughout the entire lifecycle of development projects

• Translating business requirements into conceptual and detailed technology solutions that meet organizational goals

• Collaborating with other architects, engineering directors, and product managers to align data solutions with business strategy

• Leading proof-of-concept projects to test and validate new tools or architectural approaches

• Staying current with industry trends, vendor product offerings, and evolving data technologies to ensure the organization leverages the best available tools

• Cross-training peers and mentoring team members to share knowledge and build internal capabilities

The skills to succeed

• 10+ years of experience in designing & architecting data systems, warehousing and/or ML Ops platforms

• Proven experience in the design and architecture of large-scale data systems, including lakehouse and machine learning platforms, using modern cloud-based tools

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills. Your ability to collaborate and deliver clear vision and messaging with cross-functional and executive teams is just as important as your technical abilities

• Proven ability to develop and implement data architecture roadmaps and comprehensive implementation plans that align with business strategies

• Expertise in data architecture and design, for both structured and unstructured data, as well as data modeling across