Principal Data Engineer – CPS DataValidation Platform (OmniShopper & Homescan)

Company Description We are seeking a highly experienced Principal Engineer to provide technical leadership and operational ownership for the CPS DataValidation platform supporting NielsenIQ's OmniShopper and Homescan solutions. This role serves as the primary technical point of contact for production support, platform reliability, and strategic OmniShopper initiatives.  The successful candidate will drive modernization across a hybrid ecosystem spanning on-premise and Azure platforms while partnering closely with Data Science, PMO, Operations, Product Leadership, and Engineering teams located primarily in the US Eastern Time zone.

Job Description Platform Ownership & Production Leadership   Own the overall health, reliability, performance, and scalability of the DataValidation platform.  Serve as the primary engineering escalation point for production incidents and business-critical issues.  Lead incident management, root cause analysis, and post-incident remediation activities.  Drive improvements in observability, monitoring, alerting, and operational excellence.  Establish and maintain operational KPIs, SLAs, and platform health metrics.  Technical Leadership  Define and execute the technical strategy and roadmap for the DataValidation platform.  Participate to architecture decisions across both on-premise and Azure-based systems.  Ensure solutions are scalable, maintainable, secure, and cost-effective.  Review system designs and provide technical guidance to development teams.  Balance technical debt reduction with business delivery commitments.  Act as the engineering lead for strategic OmniShopper initiatives.  Collaborate with Product Leadership and PMO to define technical solutions supporting business objectives.  Coordinate execution across multiple engineering and business teams.  Ensure DataValidation capabilities align with future OmniShopper and Homescan requirements.  Cross-Functional Collaboration  Partner closely with:  Data Science teams  PMO  Operations teams  Product Leadership  Global Engineering teams  Responsibilities include:  Translating business requirements into technical solutions.  Managing technical risks and dependencies.  Driving prioritization discussions.  Communicating platform health and roadmap updates to stakeholders.  Influencing decision-making without direct authority.    Qualifications Experience  10+ years of software engineering experience.  5+ years in Staff Engineer, Principal Engineer, Architect, or equivalent technical leadership roles.  Experience owning mission-critical production systems.  Experience supporting enterprise-scale data platforms.  Proven success influencing multiple organizations and stakeholders.  Technical Skills  Strong hands-on experience with:   Python  Oracle Database  Linux environments  SQL performance tuning  Azure Data Services  PySpark  Parquet datasets  ETL and data engineering frameworks  Data quality and validation platforms  Leadership Skills  Strong stakeholder management skills.  Excellent communication with technical and non-technical audiences.  Ability to work effectively across global teams.  Strong ownership mindset and bias for action.  Experience leading complex incident resolution efforts.  Preferred Qualifications  Retail measurement, consumer panel, or syndicated data domain experience.  Experience working with OmniShopper, Homescan, or similar consumer analytics platforms.  Experience working with Data Science and advanced analytics teams.  Knowledge of modern data quali