IT Data Engineer

Company Overview

Why Choose Us?

Novolex is a leading manufacturer of food, beverage, and specialty packaging that supports multiple industries including foodservice, restaurant delivery and carryout, food processing, grocery and retail, and industrial sectors. Novolex manufacturing and sourcing expertise spans a diverse range of substrates including resin, paper, molded fiber, aluminum and more. We provide customers a broad array of stock and customized solutions with 120 product categories, 250 brands and over 39,000 SKUs.

Our Sustainability Commitment

The Novolex sustainability vision is built upon three pillars: our products, our operations and our people. Each is critically important to our growth and future as a business. These pillars form the foundation of our company-wide commitment to sustainability, helping us achieve our ambitious goals through our wide-ranging initiatives.

Job Description

The Opportunity

We are seeking a highly motivated Data Engineer to join our Data & Analytics (D&A) organization. This role is ideal for a self-driven person who combines strong technical skills and analytical mindset with polished communication and collaboration skills.

As a member of the Data and Analytics team, you will build innovative and scalable data products, and support analytics and reporting initiatives across the organization, including data needs in the Finance, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, and Commercial areas.

The ideal candidate will have hands-on expertise in cloud data platforms like Azure/Microsoft Fabric or Databricks, strong experience with PySpark notebooks, data modeling skills, experience collaborating with business and technical teams, and have a focus on creating scalable, efficient, and actionable data products.

Key Responsibilities

• Data Modeling & Data Product Design:
  • Translate business requirements into robust conceptual data models and data product designs to support easy and efficient analytics experience at all levels of the organization.
  • Create corresponding physical data models, data flow design, and technical specifications to enable building and implementation of the data product.
• Data Product Development and Support:
  • Bring data from disparate systems and applications into a central data lake/warehouse.
  • Collaborate with data analysts, data scientists, and engineering teams to deliver accessible, well-structured datasets.
  • Build scalable data models and storage layers using Azure Data Lake, Delta Lake, Synapse, Fabric Lakehouse, or related services.
  • Develop, optimize, and maintain PySpark notebooks for data processing, transformation, and analytics.
  • Design and manage ETL/ELT pipelines within Azure or Microsoft Fabric environments.
  • Create and maintain workflows using tools such as Azure Data Factory, Dataflow Gen2, Pipeline activities, or Fabric Data pipelines.
  • Set up orchestration of workflows using a mix of data platform options and an enterprise scheduler for cross-system dependencies.
  • Ensure high data quality, reliability, and performance across all data systems.
• Maintain and Support Data Products:
  • Document support documentation including standard operating procedures.
  • Monitor pipeline performance, troubleshoot failures, and optimize compute usage for cost efficiency.
  • Maintain data products and related analytics to meet analytics use case.
• Business Insights and Dashboards:
  • Design and create data visualizations and features that can power end-user analytics for actionable insights.
  • Engage in analysis of data to identify data insights that can aid business improvements.
• Governance & Quality
  • Document data sources, data definitions, and data lineage to ensure transparency and data governance.
  • Incorporate data quality processes into all data loads, and ensure alignment with enterprise governance standards.
  • Contribute to documentation, business glossaries, and data lineage tracking in the Alation data catalog.
• Continuous Improvement
  • Recommend and implement process enhancements that drive efficiency and data maturity.
  • Stay abreast of emerging tools and best practices in analytics and data management.

What We Need From You:

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science/MIS, Mathematics/Statistics, related disciplines, or equivalent technical work experience.
• 3+ years work experience designing, developing, and implementing data engineering solutions.
• Hands-on experience with cloud data platforms (Azure Synapse, Azure Data Factory, Databricks) or Microsoft Fabric (Lakehouse, Pipelines, Dataflows, Notebooks), and modern ELT practices.
• Strong expertise in PySpark, including writing and optimizing PySpark code inside notebooks (Azure Synapse, Databricks, or Microsoft Fabric).
• Strong SQL and Python skills for data extraction, transformation, and analytics.
• Familiarity with Delta Lake, Parquet, and distributed data processing patterns.
• Understanding of data modeling, warehousing concepts, and data partitioning strategies.
• Strong analytical mindset, ability to identify business insights from data, and creative problem-solving skills.
• Proficient in documenting technical specifications, standard operating procedures, and support documentation using tools such as Visio and other Microsoft Office software.
• Experience working in cross-functional teams and collaborating with business stakeholders.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills to collaborate effectively with business stakeholders and other IT teams.
• Ability and aptitude to evaluate and self-learn evolving technologies.
• Relevant Microsoft or other certifications are highly desirable.

Preferred Qualifications

• Proficiency in data visualization tools such as Microsoft Power BI.
• Experience sourcing data from applications such as SAP, Blue Yonder, One Stream, etc. is desirable.
• Experience with SAP ERP and its Data Model
• Experience with an enterprise automation tool like Autosys
• Experience with other ETL/ELT tools such as Alteryx
• Familiarity with manufacturing, supply chain, or cost accounting processes.
• Understanding of agile or iterative delivery methodologies.
• Experience with machine learning and AI solutions is a plus.

Compensation:

A reasonable estimate of the current range is $135,000 - 155,000 + bonus + benefits. The range displayed on each job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target salaries for the position across all US locations. Within the range, individual pay is determined by job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training. At Novolex, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at the top of the range for their role and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case.

The benefits for this role include 401(k) plan with company match, comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance, flexible spending and health savings accounts, paid vacation, and sick days, paid parental leave, paid holidays and wellness program.

#LI-TM1

Company Benefits

What You'll Get From Us

Benefits

With safety as our top priority and a commitment to employee well-being an important focus, we offer comprehensive and competitive benefits that include medical, dental and vision insurance as well as a variety of other well-being resources focused on mental, physical and financial health. Specific benefits and well-being programs may vary depending on where you work.

Community Engagement

At Novolex, giving back to the local communities that support us is important. Our Focused Giving Program prioritizes support for organizations whose missions promote sustainability initiatives or address food and hunger needs. We also encourage facility level support of activities in the communities where our employees live and work.

Training and Development

We offer constant opportunities for advancement. From skills development to advanced education programs, training and development programs and courses are available through MyLearning. Programs include company and industry training curricula, support for formal education through the Tuition Reimbursement Program (Non-Union), and a Learning Management System that supports and enhances employee skills at all levels of the organization.

Novolex is committed to providing equal employment opportunity in all employment practices, including but not limited to selection, hiring, promotion, transfer, and compensation to all qualified applicants and employees without regard to age, race, color, national origin, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, handicap or disability, genetics, citizenship status, service member or veteran status, or any other category protected by federal, state, or local law. Any individual who, because of his or her disability, needs an accommodation in connection with an aspect of the Company's application process should contact myHRservices@novolex.com.

Formerly Pactiv Evergreen