About the Role

Blueprint is seeking a Principal Data Lead to provide senior leadership for data strategy, governance, quality, and coordination across a complex federal healthcare data environment. This person will be accountable for turning data strategy into practical standards and operating practices that improve the reliability, discoverability, and trusted use of data.

The Principal Data Lead will collaborate with data owners, technical leaders, product teams, engineering teams, and program stakeholders across multiple source systems and data domains. The role also provides senior oversight across data engineering, metadata management, lineage, documentation, and trusted-data promotion.

What You’ll Do

• Lead the execution of data strategy across a large, multi-domain federal healthcare program.
• Establish and advance data supply chain and metadata maturity practices.
• Define governance for trusted-data promotion, including the standards and controls data must meet before broader use.
• Set and maintain data quality standards, measurement practices, and accountability across data domains.
• Coordinate priorities and decisions across source-system teams, data owners, engineering teams, and program stakeholders.
• Provide senior oversight for data engineering practices involving Databricks, Spark, Python, SQL, jobs and workflows, schema design, optimization, and pipeline reliability.
• Guide data governance and metadata practices involving Unity Catalog, machine-readable documentation, lineage, and data discoverability.
• Translate program objectives into clear data standards, roadmaps, operating practices, and measurable outcomes.
• Identify cross-domain dependencies, risks, and quality issues and drive them to resolution.
• Communicate data strategy, governance decisions, and delivery progress to technical and nontechnical stakeholders.
• Participate in proposal-related oral presentation preparation and presentation activities as required for this key personnel role.

What You’ll Bring

• Demonstrated experience leading enterprise data strategy, governance, data quality, or data management across complex environments.
• Experience coordinating data decisions across multiple source systems, data domains, and stakeholder groups.
• Strong understanding of modern data engineering, metadata management, lineage, schema design, and reliable data pipeline practices.
• Experience establishing standards and governance processes that improve data trust, quality, documentation, and reuse.
• Ability to lead through influence and align technical teams, data owners, and program stakeholders around shared priorities.
• Ability to translate complex data concepts into clear decisions, plans, and communications for technical and nontechnical audiences.
• Experience operating at a principal, enterprise, or program leadership level.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting federal healthcare, public-sector healthcare, or similarly regulated data environments.
• Experience with Databricks, Spark, Python, SQL, and Unity Catalog.
• Experience developing machine-readable documentation and end-to-end data lineage practices.
• Experience leading data governance or data modernization across multiple teams or delivery workstreams.
• Experience participating in client presentations, solution reviews, or proposal oral presentations.

Compensation

At Blueprint, we strive to offer competitive pay that reflects the value of our team members. Compensation for this role is influenced by a variety of factors, including skills, education, responsibilities, experience, and geographic market.

The anticipated compensation range is $174,300 to $205,900 USD annually, with a midpoint of $190,100. Please note that we typically do not hire new employees at the top of the posted range. Actual starting pay will be determined based on experience, skills, and internal equity. The final compensation and job title may vary depending on the selected candidate’s qualifications.

Location and Work Arrangement

This role is primarily remote, but candidates must reside in the Washington, D.C., Maryland, or Northern Virginia area. Occasional onsite attendance in Baltimore, Maryland, will be required for key kickoffs and other important program activities.