Lead Data Engineer

Walker & Dunlop

Lead Data Engineer serving as a technical leader for Walker & Dunlop's data engineering organization. Focusing on platform modernization and architecture standards for a commercial real estate enterprise.

Posted 6/5/2026full-timeRemote • 🇺🇸 United StatesSenior💰 $170,000 - $190,000 per yearWebsite

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

AirflowAmazon RedshiftAWSCloudKafkaPostgresSQL

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Define and maintain architectural standards for the enterprise data platform, including data modeling, pipeline design, orchestration, and observability practices.
Lead the Technical Design Document (TDD) process, including authoring, reviewing, and approving technical designs for complex initiatives.
Conduct design reviews and production readiness reviews across Data Engineering teams.
Guide the evolution of the core data platform stack, including Redshift, Airflow, Kafka, SQL Server, and Aurora PostgreSQL.
Establish and promote engineering standards related to code quality, testing, CI/CD, documentation, and release management.
Identify and help address technical debt, platform fragmentation, scalability concerns, and reliability improvements.
Partner with Engineering Managers and teams on technical planning, solution design, and implementation approaches.
Mentor and coach engineers on architecture, engineering best practices, and technical leadership skills.
Serve as a technical point of contact for cross-functional stakeholders on platform capabilities, integrations, and data architecture patterns.
Support evaluation and adoption of new tools, frameworks, and technologies related to data engineering, transformation, quality, and governance.

Requirements

What you’ll need

Bachelor’s degree preferred, preferably in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
8+ years of experience in data engineering, including experience serving as a technical lead or senior individual contributor across multiple teams or initiatives.
Strong experience building and supporting cloud-native data platforms within AWS environments.
Experience with modern data engineering tools and technologies including Airflow, Kafka, Redshift, PostgreSQL, or similar platforms.
Experience implementing CI/CD practices, automated testing, and production support processes for data pipelines and platforms.
Familiarity with enterprise data warehouse technologies and data transformation frameworks preferred.
Commercial real estate, financial services, or regulated industry experience preferred.

Benefits

Comp & perks

Up to 83% subsidized medical payroll deductions
Competitive dental and vision benefits
401(k) + match
Pre-tax transit and commuting benefits
A robust health and wellness program – earn cash rewards and gain access to resources that promote health, engagement, and balance
Paid maternity and parental leave, as well as other family paid leave programs
Company-paid life, short and long-term disability insurance
Health Savings Account and Healthcare and Dependent Care Flexible Spending
Career development opportunities
Empowerment and encouragement to give back – volunteer hours and donation matching

ATS Keywords

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Hard Skills & Tools

data modelingpipeline designorchestrationobservability practicestechnical design document (TDD)cloud-native data platformsCI/CDautomated testingdata transformationdata engineering

Soft Skills

technical leadershipmentoringcoachingcollaborationcommunication