Lead Data Engineer (Contract, Remote)

Engagement: Contract, initial 6 months, extendable on performance and renewal

Location: Remote, India-based (Pune preferred, so we can work closely together)

Overlap: 2 to 3 hours of daily overlap with US Eastern time

We are hiring a hands-on Lead Data Engineer for one of our US-based clients, an established product company running a modern cloud data platform. Trusted, traceable data drives the decisions their platform makes every day, and this role owns the data foundation behind it.

This is a build-and-lead role, not a manage-from-a-distance role. You will design and build pipelines, write and review SQL and Python, tighten orchestration, chase down production data issues, and set direction for a small data team (4 to 6 people). If your idea of a lead is someone who has stopped touching code, this is not the role for you.

What you will actually do:

• Design, build, review and support production data pipelines and data models
• Write and review SQL, Python, transformation logic and data quality checks
• Improve orchestration so workflows are observable, restartable and easy to operate at 2am
• Set up practical data validation, reconciliation and lineage so bad data gets caught early, not fixed downstream
• Partner directly with the client's CTO on durable data architecture and honest build-versus-simplify calls
• Coach a lean team and reduce the only one person knows how this works problem

The stack:

Snowflake, dbt, Airflow, Python, SQL, Tableau. Running on AWS (RDS, EKS, SQS, Redis/ElastiCache, S3). Application side is Java/Spring Boot with GitHub, Jira, Confluence and modern CI/CD. You do not need every single tool, but you must be genuinely strong in a Snowflake, dbt, Airflow, Python, SQL and AWS world.

What we are looking for:

• 8+ years hands-on in data engineering, data platform or analytics engineering
• Real depth in SQL, Python, data modelling and pipeline development
• Proven experience building, debugging and supporting production data workflows in the cloud
• Solid grip on data quality, validation, monitoring and production support
• Enough leadership weight to earn trust from engineers in architecture and code reviews
• Comfortable in a lean, fast-moving company where leaders stay close to the work

Nice to have: experience with large-scale operational and analytics data; experience in a compliance-aware or regulated environment (SOC 2, data privacy, auditability, secure access); DataOps, data contracts, schema evolution; experience working with offshore or contractor teams.

About working with us:

VidyaMohan is a Pune-based software consultancy. We work with clients across different domains and project types, from greenfield builds to migrations and long-running platforms, so a good contractor with us can grow across more than one engagement over time. We are small, we are direct, and we care about a short list of things: honesty, sincerity, hard work and ownership. We would rather work with someone who says I broke it, here is how I am fixing it than someone who always looks busy. If that is how you operate, we will get along well.

To apply, please answer the screening questions. Applications without answers will not be reviewed.