Principal Data Engineer

Job Title: Principal Data Engineer / Engineering Manager

Contract Type: Contract to Hire - initial 12 month contract, then convert to full-time

Job Location: Sanford, Connecticut (preferred) or New York City

Days a Week Onsite/Hybrid/Remote: 4 days onsite / hybrid

Job Pay Rate: $90-$98/hr

Job Salary: $175,000 - $185,000 upon conversion

Interview Process: 3 rounds process

Optomi, in partnership with a leading media technology company, is looking for an Principal Data Engineer / Engineering Manager to spearhead a critical project. You will lead an initiative to consolidate disparate telemetry systems into a unified platform, enhancing automation, root-cause analysis, and self-healing capabilities with AI. This role involves interfacing with various teams, including SSAI, player, and CDM teams, to streamline video operations and KPI analysis. The successful candidate will be a highly technical leader — part architect, part developer, and part engineering manager — who can work across multiple teams and systems to drive innovation in video engineering.

**This is not a traditional people-management-focused Engineering Manager role; the person needs to be highly technical and hands-on, with a strong architecture mindset. Staff/Principal/Distinguished Engineers or Architects who are interested in a player-coach leadership role could be strong fits.

What the right candidate will enjoy:

• Leading a high-impact project at the intersection of media, data, architecture, AI, and technology
• Architecting a solution that brings together telemetry and data from multiple platforms and systems
• Collaborating with multiple teams to solve complex technical challenges
• Building a new team and helping shape its technical direction
• Working on automation, AI, and self-healing capabilities
• Being part of a dynamic and innovative team environment

What type of experience does the right candidate have:

• Proven experience with observability, monitoring, and telemetry tools
• Strong architecture and technical leadership background
• Experience integrating or consolidating disparate platforms, systems, or data sources
• Strong understanding of data architecture, data harmonization, and distributed systems
• Hands-on engineering experience and willingness to remain technically involved
• Experience with automation, AI, or self-healing operational capabilities
• Experience in media or streaming industries is a plus, but NOT required
• Staff, Principal, Distinguished Engineer, Architect, or highly technical Engineering Manager backgrounds could be strong fits

What the responsibilities are of the right candidate:

• Lead the consolidation of telemetry systems across teams
• Architect and help build a unified platform for video operations, monitoring, and KPI analysis
• Determine the appropriate data points and telemetry to pull from underlying component systems
• Structure and harmonize data from multiple sources to support automation and AI
• Implement AI-driven automation and self-healing capabilities for enhanced operational efficiency
• Work closely with SSAI, player, CDM, and other engineering teams to integrate their systems and telemetry
• Drive deeper root-cause analysis beyond surface-level alerts
• Lead and develop a newly formed team, potentially including offshore support
• Participate in hiring and help define the technical capabilities of the new team
• Communicate effectively with technical and business stakeholders to achieve project goals