Principal Data/AI Engineer

FUJIFILM Biotechnologies is looking for a Principal Data/AI Engineer to drive the technical strategy and architecture of enterprise-scale data and AI platforms. The role involves planning, designing, and developing data pipelines while mentoring junior engineers and advocating for best practices in data and AI engineering.

Responsibilities:

• Architect, build, and maintain highly scalable batch and streaming pipelines on the Snowflake Data Platform (Snowpipe, Tasks, Streams, Dynamic Tables, Snowpark, Iceberg)
• Architect and deliver ML/GenAI solutions using managed cloud services (AWS, Azure, Snowflake Cortex)
• Implement modern data modeling and architecture patterns; establish and enforce standards for data quality (tests, expectations, SLAs/SLOs), observability (metrics, logs, traces), and lineage
• Ensure integration of biotech systems (MES, LIMS, SCADA, ERP, QMS) into centralized data platform
• Collaborate with product managers, product engineers, platform architects, and business stakeholders to align data and AI engineering solutions with business requirements
• Enable modern AI use cases - feature stores, vector search/RAG, model serving, safety/guardrails, and continuous monitoring for drift, bias, and performance
• Optimize storage tiers, compute clusters/warehouses, caching, and workload orchestration for latency and throughput
• Partner with cybersecurity and compliance teams to ensure adherence to GxP, FDA 21 CFR Part 11, and data privacy regulations
• Lead design reviews, incident postmortems, and cross-team architecture forums
• Stay current with emerging technologies (data mesh, real-time streaming, digital twins, generative AI platforms) and introduce relevant innovations
• And other job duties that may be assigned from time to time

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Data Engineering, AI/ML Engineering, or related field
• 12+ years of professional experience in data/software engineering, AI/ML engineering, or cloud platform engineering
• Proven experience using Python and SQL
• Extensive experience building and maintaining data pipelines using modern frameworks (e.g. Airflow, dbt)
• Proven experience with data modelling for analytics and AI use cases
• Strong experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure)
• Proven experience delivering production-grade data solutions
• Familiarity with biotech or life sciences systems and regulatory compliance frameworks (GxP, FDA, EMA)
• Design and implementation of scalable batch and streaming data pipelines
• Strong proficiency in Python and SQL/dbt for data processing, automation, and analytics
• Extensive experience in Airflow or similar orchestration tool
• Expertise in designing and developing data solutions on Snowflake, including data modelling, performance optimization, and cost-efficient usage
• Experience with modern AI technologies, including LLMs, embeddings, and vector databases
• Proven track of delivering cloud-based solutions (AWS, Azure)
• Containerization and deployment of data and AI workloads using Docker
• Orchestration and operation of containerized workloads using Kubernetes
• Data quality management, observability, lineage, and governance
• Knowledge of biotech IT/OT systems (MES, LIMS, SCADA), and compliance frameworks (GxP, FDA, data privacy)
• Strong problem-solving, optimization, and troubleshooting skills for large-scale data systems
• Effective communication with both technical and non-technical stakeholders, influencing at senior levels
• Passion for emerging technologies, continuous improvement, and building innovative engineering cultures
• Advanced degree (MS/PhD) preferred
• Relevant industry certifications (e.g., Snowflake, AWS, Azure) preferred