Lead Data Engineer

At Elanco (NYSE: ELAN) – it all starts with animals!

As a global leader in animal health, we are dedicated to innovation and delivering products and services to prevent and treat disease in farm animals and pets. At Elanco, we are driven by our vision of Food and Companionship Enriching Life and our purpose – all to Go Beyond for Animals, Customers, Society and Our People.

At Elanco, we pride ourselves on fostering a diverse and inclusive work environment. We believe that diversity is the driving force behind innovation, creativity, and overall business success. Here, you’ll be part of a company that values and champions new ways of thinking, work with dynamic individuals, and acquire new skills and experiences that will propel your career to new heights.

Making animals’ lives better makes life better – join our team today!

Your Role: Lead Data Engineer

As a Lead Data Engineer, you will be part of the Enterprise IT - Data Engineering team, delivering products and thought leadership that transform how Elanco leverages data. In this role, you'll be responsible for orchestrating the smooth flow of data, building stable pipelines and data products, and coaching junior engineers. You will focus on speed to value, improving our organization’s access to useful data, and promoting continual improvement to help execute and deliver our enterprise data strategy.

Your Responsibilities:

• Lead data engineering squads in partnership with Product Managers to discover, design, and develop compelling data solutions, leveraging modern product and engineering approaches.
• Establish and enforce strong technical standards, governance, and quality change management practices for data pipelines and products, including partnering with core engineering groups on application security.
• Promote and educate colleagues and stakeholders on Enterprise Data Engineering capabilities, standards (including FAIR data principles), and patterns to ensure their value is understood and leveraged.
• Act as a key technical escalation point for diagnosing complex data engineering challenges and guide the modernization of our data landscape to ensure reliable and scalable outcomes.
• Coach and mentor junior engineers, contribute to the Data Engineering community, and foster a culture of learning, innovation, and collaboration across Elanco.

What You Need to Succeed (minimum qualifications):

• Education: Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or equivalent professional experience.
• Experience: A minimum of 6 years of experience engineering and delivering enterprise-scale data solutions.
• Top Skills: Proven technical leadership and coaching of colleagues; Strong experience with cloud data platforms (Databricks, Azure, GCP).

What will give you a competitive edge (preferred qualifications):

• Expertise in designing and implementing modern data architectures such as the lakehouse, scalable data pipelines, APIs, and data contracts.
• Deep understanding of and experience with SQL/NoSQL, and FAIR data principles.
• Familiarity with machine learning workflows, data quality frameworks, and data governance practices.
• Experience working in complex and diverse global landscapes (business, technology, regulatory, etc.).
• Hands-on experience with infrastructure automation technologies such as Terraform and Ansible.

Additional Information:

• Travel: Occasional travel may be required.
• Location: United States - Indianapolis, IN (HQ)
   

Don't meet every single requirement? Studies have shown underrecognized groups are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At Elanco we are dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive work environment. If you think you might be a good fit for a role but don't necessarily meet every requirement, we encourage you to apply. You may be the right candidate for this role or other roles!
 

Elanco Benefits and Perks: We offer a comprehensive benefits package focusing on financial, physical, and mental well-being while encouraging our employees to pursue our purpose! Some highlights include:

• Multiple relocation packages
• Two weeklong shutdowns (mid-summer and year-end) in the US (in addition to PTO)
• 8-week parental leave
• 9 Employee Resource Groups
• Annual bonus offering
• Flexible work arrangements
• Up to 6% 401K matching

Elanco is an EEO/Affirmative Action Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, protected veteran status, disability or any other legally protected status.

Elanco is an EEO/Affirmative Action Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, protected veteran status, disability or any other legally protected status

Elanco may use automated tools, including AI, to support parts of our recruitment process, such as reviewing applications against job‑related criteria and/or transferrable skills. These tools help ensure a consistent, structured evaluation, but they do not make hiring decisions. All decisions involve a human reviewer. For more information on how we handle personal data, please see our Elanco Workforce Privacy Notice.