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About the Role

As DataSF grows to support every city department and their diverse needs, we’re formalizing the data practice that sits around the platform—clear service offerings, consistent onboarding, intuitive self‑service tools, and reliable data quality standards. This role is the principal engineer leading that effort. You’ll own the department‑facing experience: how teams learn to work with DataSF, what they can expect from our services, and how projects are defined and delivered. You’ll combine strong platform and data engineering depth with the ability to translate departmental needs into actionable, scalable solutions. Starting as an individual contributor partnering closely with two analytics engineers, the role may evolve to manage a small team as our practice grows.

Responsibilities

Own the full department engagement lifecycle—from initial conversation through scoping, onboarding, delivery, and ongoing support.
Define and publish the DataSF service catalog, clearly outlining what constitutes standard queue work, what requires a scoped project, and what triggers an interagency agreement, using measurable criteria.
Partner directly with departments to understand and model their data domains, translating those needs into actionable requirements the platform can serve.
Shape the analytics engineering practice, including dbt models, department pipelines, data quality approaches, and reusable standards the team relies on.
Build self‑service pathways that allow departments to discover data, assess its trustworthiness, and request access without needing to know whom to contact.
Own data quality standards and trust signals—freshness, completeness, lineage—so users understand what assumptions they can make about each dataset.
Integrate governance and data‑readiness requirements into the onboarding process rather than treating them as afterthoughts.
Set and maintain clear scope expectations with departments and perform related duties as assigned.

Requirements

An associate degree in computer science, computer engineering, information systems, or a closely related field from an accredited college or university OR its equivalent in terms of total course credits/units [i.e., at least sixty (60) semester or ninety (90) quarter credits/units with a minimum of twenty (20) semester or thirty (30) quarter credits/units in one of the fields above or a closely-related field].
Five (5) years of experience analyzing, installing, configuring, enhancing, and/or maintaining the components of a system or platform.
One year of additional experience as described above may be substituted for the required degree.
Completion of the 1010 Information Systems Trainee Program may be substituted for the required degree.
Applicants must meet minimum qualification requirements by the final filing date unless otherwise noted.
Verification: Please make sure it is clear in your application exactly how you meet the minimum qualifications.
All candidates must complete a supplemental questionnaire as part of the employment application.

Skills

Strong hands-on data platform or data engineering background: building and operating pipelines, data modeling, transformation frameworks, and platform governance.
Analytics engineering depth in dbt, semantic modeling, or comparable.
Cloud data warehouse experience (Snowflake preferred) and advanced SQL.
Data governance, privacy, or security awareness, including handling of sensitive data.
Demonstrated strength working directly with non-technical stakeholders to understand their needs, translating them into technical work, and driving adoption.
Experience getting people to actually use a platform, not just building one: onboarding, enablement, training, or change management.
Comfort setting expectations and holding boundaries with demanding stakeholders while maintaining the relationship.
Experience mentoring engineers or analysts and raising the standard of a team's work.
Genuine interest in public-sector impact and a clear-eyed understanding of what working in government is like.
Commitment to equity, transparency, and ethical data use in service of San Francisco's residents.

Location

San Francisco

Work Type

Hybrid

Experience Level

Principal Engineer

Education Level

Associate degree in computer science, computer engineering, information systems, or a closely related field OR equivalent experience

Benefits

Employee Benefits Overview

About the Company

The Office of the City Administrator and its 25+ divisions and departments operate core internal and public-facing services in San Francisco.
Our vision is to lead the nation in public administration and to enable City departments to effectively deliver critical public services.
We aim to help the city run better, to connect San Francisco residents and constituents to the vital public services they seek, and to create a meaningful and diverse work culture that is the place of choice for people who are invested in a career in public service.
We are committed to ensuring that City services are inclusive, efficient, equitable, and culturally competent for San Franciscans of all races, ethnic backgrounds, religions, and sextual orientations.
This commitment requires comprehensive review and thorough analysis of existing practices and policies to remove barriers to real inclusion.
We are also committed to ensuring that we have a safe, equitable, and inclusive workplace for individuals of all races.
This includes creating opportunities for hiring, promotion, training, and development, for all employees, including but not limited to, Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC).
Want to build robust and scalable data infrastructure to power data-driven City services? Join the DataSF team to empower and expand the use of data in government!
DataSF’s mission is to transform the way San Francisco works with data.
We believe that data, when harnessed effectively, can improve transparency, resident engagement, and government performance.
We are committed to removing barriers and making it easier for all people to access services and knowledge, and we actively seek team members whose diverse life experiences reflect the residents we serve.

Equal Opportunity

The City and County of San Francisco encourages women, minorities and persons with disabilities to apply.
Applicants will be considered regardless of their sex, race, age, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition (associated with cancer, a history of cancer, or genetic characteristics), HIV/AIDS status, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, military and veteran status, or other protected category under the law.