Lead Platform Engineer Visa Sponsorship Jobs in Michigan
Lead platform engineer roles in Michigan draw sponsorship from Detroit's automotive tech giants like Ford, GM, and Stellantis, alongside Ann Arbor's growing software and cloud infrastructure firms. Demand concentrates in metro Detroit and the Ann Arbor-Ypsilanti corridor, where enterprise platform teams are expanding rapidly across automotive, mobility, and enterprise software sectors.
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Get Access To All JobsINTRODUCTION
The Senior Data Engineer – Platform Foundation is a hands-on, senior-level contributor embedded in the Foundations squad. You will design, build, and evolve the shared ingestion platform that underpins data delivery across the company. The platform is the product — your job is to make it reliable, extensible, and easy for other teams to adopt.
The Foundations squad operates across three pillars: simplifying the overall data platform landscape by reducing complexity and consolidating redundant patterns; enabling structured and unstructured data ingestion at scale; and supporting the exposure of data products to consumers across the organization. You contribute to all three — making architectural decisions, writing production code, and enabling other teams through documentation and hands-on support.
ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Platform Foundation Development
- Design and implement reusable ingestion components using dlt and dbt-core, covering both structured and unstructured data sources, handling high-volume, append-heavy, and schema-drifting patterns
- Own the Airflow platform end-to-end: extend and maintain DAGs and shared operators, handle deployments and version upgrades, and provide hands-on support to consuming teams
- Ensure incremental loading strategies, data quality checks, and lineage metadata are first-class outputs of every pipeline
Platform Simplification & Architecture
- Identify and eliminate redundant ingestion patterns across consuming teams, drive standardization onto shared Platform Foundation components
- Collaborate with Solution Architects to evolve the platform architecture in response to new data sources and shifting business requirements
- Support data product exposure: define and implement governed interfaces that make data reliably accessible to internal consumers
- Contribute to Terraform-managed infrastructure; participate in multi-cloud (AWS / Azure) deployment patterns
AI Tooling & Developer Productivity
- Actively use and evaluate AI-assisted development tools (GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, etc.) to accelerate platform Foundation delivery
- Champion AI tooling adoption within the squad; share best practices and guardrails around AI-generated code review
- Explore AI-powered capabilities (RAG pipelines, LLM-assisted data cataloguing) for internal platform documentation and self-service enablement
DevOps & Reliability
- Maintain and improve CI/CD pipelines (TeamCity, GitHub Actions) for platform Foundation components
- Define and enforce observability standards: DAG/Task-level alerting, SLA tracking
- Participate in on-call rotation for critical ingestion pipelines; drive post-incident improvements
Team Enablement & Stakeholder Management
- Produce platform Foundation documentation, runbooks, and enablement materials for consuming squads
- Translate ambiguous or moving business requirements into concrete technical designs — comfortable challenging scope when needed
- Mentor mid-level engineers; participate in hiring and technical assessments
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
- Bachelor's degree in Business, Information Systems, Data/Analytics, Computer Science, or related field
- Minimum 5 years in data engineering roles, with at least 2 years in a senior / platform-level position
- Proven track record building production ingestion and transformation pipelines at scale
- Experience contributing to a shared platform or internal developer tooling consumed by multiple teams
CORE TECHNICAL SKILLS
- Python: idiomatic, testable, production-grade code — not just scripting
- dbt-core: advanced modelling (custom materializations), testing, documentation, packages
- Apache Airflow: DAG design patterns, custom operators, dynamic task mapping, SLA management
- Cloud data platforms: comfortable with one or more major cloud warehouses (Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks, Microsoft Fabric)
- SQL: complex analytical queries, window functions, query profiling
- Git, CI/CD: trunk-based development, automated testing gates, pipeline-as-code
AI & MODERN TOOLING
- Daily user of AI coding assistants (Copilot, Claude Code or equivalent)
- Understands the limits of AI-generated code — applies rigorous review, not blind trust
- Interest in LLM-powered data tooling (RAG pipelines, Cortex, semantic layers) is a plus
INTRODUCTION
The Senior Data Engineer – Platform Foundation is a hands-on, senior-level contributor embedded in the Foundations squad. You will design, build, and evolve the shared ingestion platform that underpins data delivery across the company. The platform is the product — your job is to make it reliable, extensible, and easy for other teams to adopt.
The Foundations squad operates across three pillars: simplifying the overall data platform landscape by reducing complexity and consolidating redundant patterns; enabling structured and unstructured data ingestion at scale; and supporting the exposure of data products to consumers across the organization. You contribute to all three — making architectural decisions, writing production code, and enabling other teams through documentation and hands-on support.
ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Platform Foundation Development
- Design and implement reusable ingestion components using dlt and dbt-core, covering both structured and unstructured data sources, handling high-volume, append-heavy, and schema-drifting patterns
- Own the Airflow platform end-to-end: extend and maintain DAGs and shared operators, handle deployments and version upgrades, and provide hands-on support to consuming teams
- Ensure incremental loading strategies, data quality checks, and lineage metadata are first-class outputs of every pipeline
Platform Simplification & Architecture
- Identify and eliminate redundant ingestion patterns across consuming teams, drive standardization onto shared Platform Foundation components
- Collaborate with Solution Architects to evolve the platform architecture in response to new data sources and shifting business requirements
- Support data product exposure: define and implement governed interfaces that make data reliably accessible to internal consumers
- Contribute to Terraform-managed infrastructure; participate in multi-cloud (AWS / Azure) deployment patterns
AI Tooling & Developer Productivity
- Actively use and evaluate AI-assisted development tools (GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, etc.) to accelerate platform Foundation delivery
- Champion AI tooling adoption within the squad; share best practices and guardrails around AI-generated code review
- Explore AI-powered capabilities (RAG pipelines, LLM-assisted data cataloguing) for internal platform documentation and self-service enablement
DevOps & Reliability
- Maintain and improve CI/CD pipelines (TeamCity, GitHub Actions) for platform Foundation components
- Define and enforce observability standards: DAG/Task-level alerting, SLA tracking
- Participate in on-call rotation for critical ingestion pipelines; drive post-incident improvements
Team Enablement & Stakeholder Management
- Produce platform Foundation documentation, runbooks, and enablement materials for consuming squads
- Translate ambiguous or moving business requirements into concrete technical designs — comfortable challenging scope when needed
- Mentor mid-level engineers; participate in hiring and technical assessments
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
- Bachelor's degree in Business, Information Systems, Data/Analytics, Computer Science, or related field
- Minimum 5 years in data engineering roles, with at least 2 years in a senior / platform-level position
- Proven track record building production ingestion and transformation pipelines at scale
- Experience contributing to a shared platform or internal developer tooling consumed by multiple teams
CORE TECHNICAL SKILLS
- Python: idiomatic, testable, production-grade code — not just scripting
- dbt-core: advanced modelling (custom materializations), testing, documentation, packages
- Apache Airflow: DAG design patterns, custom operators, dynamic task mapping, SLA management
- Cloud data platforms: comfortable with one or more major cloud warehouses (Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks, Microsoft Fabric)
- SQL: complex analytical queries, window functions, query profiling
- Git, CI/CD: trunk-based development, automated testing gates, pipeline-as-code
AI & MODERN TOOLING
- Daily user of AI coding assistants (Copilot, Claude Code or equivalent)
- Understands the limits of AI-generated code — applies rigorous review, not blind trust
- Interest in LLM-powered data tooling (RAG pipelines, Cortex, semantic layers) is a plus
Lead Platform Engineer Job Roles in Michigan
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Search Lead Platform Engineer Jobs in MichiganLead Platform Engineer Jobs in Michigan: Frequently Asked Questions
Which companies sponsor visas for lead platform engineers in Michigan?
Michigan's strongest sponsoring employers for lead platform engineers include Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Stellantis, and their technology subsidiaries, alongside enterprise software firms and cloud infrastructure teams in Ann Arbor. Companies like Quicken Loans parent Rock Central and healthcare technology firms in the Detroit metro area also maintain active H-1B visa filing histories for senior platform engineering roles.
Which visa types realistically fit lead platform engineer roles in Michigan?
Lead platform engineer roles qualify as specialty occupations requiring a directly related bachelor's degree, making H-1B the most common path. H-1B1 visa applies to Chilean and Singaporean nationals. E-3 visa covers Australian citizens. TN visa is available to Canadian and Mexican engineers holding a qualifying engineering degree under USMCA. Longer-term, EB-2 or EB-3 employment-based green cards are common for established engineers at Michigan's large employers.
How to find lead platform engineer visa sponsorship jobs in Michigan?
Migrate Mate lists Michigan employers with verified visa sponsorship histories for lead platform engineer roles, so you can focus on companies that have actively filed for similar positions. Search by role and location within Michigan to surface openings in Detroit, Ann Arbor, and surrounding metro areas where platform engineering demand is highest among automotive, mobility, and enterprise technology employers.
Which cities in Michigan have the most lead platform engineer sponsorship jobs?
Metro Detroit, including Dearborn and Southfield, leads Michigan for lead platform engineer sponsorship given Ford, GM, and Stellantis headquarters operations. Ann Arbor is the second-strongest market, driven by University of Michigan spin-offs, automotive software firms, and enterprise technology companies. Grand Rapids has a smaller but growing technology sector with occasional senior platform engineering openings.
Are there state-specific factors that affect visa sponsorship for lead platform engineers in Michigan?
Michigan's platform engineering market is heavily influenced by automotive industry digital transformation, meaning many sponsoring roles require experience with vehicle software platforms, cloud-connected mobility systems, or manufacturing technology. The University of Michigan and Michigan State University supply a consistent pipeline of international engineering talent, which keeps sponsoring employers experienced with H-1B and OPT-to-H-1B transitions for senior technical hires.
What is the prevailing wage for sponsored lead platform engineer jobs in Michigan?
U.S. employers sponsoring a visa must pay at least the prevailing wage, which is what workers in the same role, area, and experience level typically earn. The Department of Labor sets this rate to make sure companies aren't hiring foreign workers simply because they'd accept lower pay than a U.S. worker. It varies by job title, location, and experience. You can look up current prevailing wage rates for any occupation and location using the OFLC Wage Search page.