Senior Data Specialist (Lead Data Engineer)

Career Area: Technology, Digital and Data Job Description: Your Work Shapes the World at Caterpillar Inc. When you join Caterpillar, you're joining a global team who cares not just about the work we do – but also about each other.  We are the makers, problem solvers, and future world builders who are creating stronger, more sustainable communities. We don't just talk about progress and innovation here – we make it happen, with our customers, where we work and live. Together, we are building a better world, so we can all enjoy living in it. Your Impact Shapes the World at Caterpillar Inc When you join Caterpillar, you're joining a global team who cares not just about the work we do – but also about each other. We are the makers, problem solvers and future world builders who are creating stronger, more sustainable communities. We don't just talk about progress and innovation here – we make it happen, with our customers, where we work and live. Together, we are building a better world, so we can all enjoy living in it.   Job Summary We are seeking a skilled Senior Data Specialist (Lead Data Engineer) join our Financial Systems Tech Support -CAT IT Division who can operate as a strong hands-on individual contributor while providing technical leadership and guidance across enterprise data initiatives. This role is responsible for designing, developing, implementing, and supporting scalable data solutions, analytics platforms, and automation capabilities that enable data-driven decision making across the organisation. The ideal candidate will possess deep expertise in Data Engineering, Power BI, Microsoft Power Platform, Database Technologies, Cloud Platforms, System Design, and Modern Data Architectures . This individual should be capable of independently solving complex technical challenges, driving solution design, evaluating emerging technologies, mentoring team members, and ensuring the successful delivery of high-quality data products. The role requires a balance of strong technical execution, architectural thinking, debugging expertise, stakeholder collaboration, and continuous innovation. The preference for this role is to be based out of Bangalore – Caterpillar PSN What you will do Data Engineering & Platform Development Hands-on Data Engineering Design, develop, and maintain scalable, reliable batch, near real-time or streaming data pipelines. Build and optimise ETL/ELT solutions that process large volumes of structured and unstructured data. Develop reusable data integration frameworks, ingestion components, and orchestration workflows. Design and implement enterprise-grade data warehouses, data lakes, and modern data platforms. Integrate data from databases, APIs, enterprise applications, SaaS platforms, files, and external systems. Ensure data accuracy, consistency, reliability, and traceability across all data assets. Develop scalable data models that support reporting, analytics, operational workloads, and future AI/ML initiatives. Data Quality & Governance Implement data quality controls, validation frameworks, and reconciliation processes. Establish monitoring, observability, lineage, metadata management, and auditing capabilities. Ensure compliance with data governance, privacy, security, and retention requirements. Partner with governance and business teams to improve trust and usability of enterprise data. Visualization Solutions (Good to have) Power BI Development Design and develop enterprise-grade dashboards, reports, scorecards, and executive visualisations using Power BI. Create intuitive, interactive, and business-focused visualisations that provide meaningful insights. Develop and maintain semantic models, datasets, KPIs, metrics, and reporting frameworks. Design star schemas and dimensional models to support reporting and analytics requirements. Implement advanced DAX calculations, measures, and performance optimisation techniques. Business Intelligence & Reporting Collaborate closely with business stakeholders to understand reporting requirements and translate them into scalable BI solutions. Establish Power BI development standards, governance practices, and reporting best practices. Optimize report performance, data refresh processes, and dataset management. Implement Row-Level Security (RLS) and data access controls where required. Power Platform & Automation Power Automate Design and implement automated business processes using Microsoft Power Automate. Build workflows for approvals, notifications, data synchronisation, document processing, and operational automation. Integrate Power Automate with SharePoint, Power BI, Dataverse, Microsoft 365, APIs, and enterprise systems. Identify opportunities to automate manual business processes and improve operational efficiency. Power Platform Contribute to the design and implementation of solutions using the Microsoft Power Platform ecosystem. Support integration between Power Apps, Power BI, data platforms, and backend systems. Ensure solutions are scalable, maintainable, secure, and aligned with governance standards. Solution Design & Architecture Solution Ownership Translate business requirements into scalable, secure, and maintainable technical solutions. Design end-to-end architectures for data ingestion, transformation, storage, reporting, and automation solutions. Develop high-level and low-level solution designs for complex technical initiatives. Evaluate architectural trade-offs related to performance, scalability, security, reliability, and cost. System Design Design enterprise-scale data platforms and distributed systems. Develop integration patterns for APIs, microservices, event-driven architectures, and cloud-native solutions. Define non-functional requirements including: Scalability Performance Availability Reliability Security Maintainability Observability Participate in architecture reviews, design reviews, and technical governance activities. Problem Solving & Debugging Excellence Complex Problem Resolution Lead analysis and resolution of complex technical challenges across data platforms and applications. Apply strong analytical thinking and systems-thinking approaches to troubleshoot issues. Translate ambiguous business problems into actionable technical solutions. Debugging & Root Cause Analysis Investigate and resolve issues across Data Pipelines, Power BI Reports, Dashboards, Database Platforms, Cloud Services, APIs and Integrations, and ETL/ELT Processes. Perform root cause analysis (RCA) and implement long-term corrective actions. Identify recurring issues and implement preventive engineering improvements. Develop monitoring, alerting, and observability strategies to proactively identify potential failures. Performance Optimisation Optimise SQL queries, ETL workloads, Power BI datasets, data models, and reporting solutions. Improve scalability, throughput, and performance of enterprise data platforms. Identify opportunities for automation and efficiency improvements. Cloud & Modern Data Technologies Cloud Platforms Design and develop cloud-based data solutions leveraging modern cloud technologies. Support cloud migration, modernisation, and optimisation initiatives. Implement secure and scalable cloud-native data architectures. Preferred Cloud Knowledge AWS or Azure Snowflake Databricks Responsibilities Design highly available and fault-tolerant solutions. Support infrastructure automation and cloud governance initiatives. Implement secure storage, processing, and access patterns. Optimise cloud cost, performance, and operational efficiency. Technology Exploration & Innovation Emerging Technologies Continuously evaluate emerging technologies, tools, frameworks, and industry trends. Research modern data engineering, analytics, automation, AI, and cloud platforms. Conduct Proof of Concepts to assess business value and technical feasibility. Innovation Explore