Senior Business Intelligence Engineer (AI Native Analytics)

Company Overview:

Hillwood, a Perot Company, is a premier real estate investment and development company founded on a culture of integrity, respect, excellence and teamwork. The company is a full-service real estate developer, investor and advisor focused on developing opportunities for investors, partners and communities around the world. See additional details at www.hillwood.com.

Position Summary:

Hillwood IT is seeking an experienced Senior Business Intelligence Engineer (AI‑Native Analytics) to join our team in Dallas, TX to play a high‑visibility role at the center of the company’s data strategy. This position is responsible for designing and delivering executive‑grade analytics used by executive and senior leadership, translating complex real estate and financial data into clear, actionable insights that support critical decision‑making.

The Senior BI Engineer will blend deep business intelligence engineering expertise with strong business acumen and modern, AI‑enabled analytics. Serving as a trusted partner to executive stakeholders, this role will lead discovery conversations, shape reporting requirements, and ensure every deliverable meets board‑level standards for accuracy, clarity, and design quality. The ideal candidate brings both technical depth and executive polish, discerning when a traditional dashboard is sufficient and when AI‑powered, conversational, or embedded analytics deliver greater value. They ask strong business questions, translate ambiguity into clarity, and care deeply about both the substance and presentation of the insights delivered.

Responsibilities:

Executive Analytics and Dashboard Delivery:

• Design and build executive-facing dashboards using Power BI, Databricks AI/BI (Lakeview), and other appropriate solutions based on audience and use case.
• Lead design reviews and approve mockups with senior stakeholders prior to build.
• Ensure visual hierarchy, data accuracy, performance, and usability across all BI outputs.
• Maintain a reusable library of certified dashboards, report components, and design standards.
• Develop BI center-of-excellence practices, including self-service standards and guardrails
• Enable conversational and AI-assisted analytics experiences (e.g., Databricks Genie Spaces, chat-to-chart, voice-to-insight).
• Build and deploy Databricks Applications (Lakehouse Apps / Mosaic AI) to embed analytics into operational workflows.

Data Modeling and Semantic Layer:

• Build and maintain Power BI semantic models aligned to certified enterprise metrics.
• Design star schemas and dimensional models serving as single sources of truth.
• Partner with data engineering on Databricks pipelines and report-ready data structures.
• Implement row-level security and access controls in alignment with governance policies.

Stakeholder Engagement:

• Facilitate requirements sessions with C-suite and division leaders to define KPIs and reporting cadence.
• Translate qualitative executive feedback into clear technical specifications.
• Present dashboards and data narratives to senior leadership with confidence and clarity.
• Act as a subject matter expert on BI standards, design patterns, and best practices.

Governance and Quality Assurance:

• Enforce data governance, metric certification, and lineage documentation across BI assets.
• Validate equivalence between source systems (e.g., JDE, OneStream, Yardi, Salesforce) and published reports.
• Maintain documentation for report logic, DAX measures, and semantic model decisions.

Required Skills and Abilities:

• Advanced proficiency in Power BI, including DAX, semantic data modeling, row‑level security, paginated reports, and deployment pipelines.
• Strong capability working within Databricks AI/BI environments, including Lakeview dashboards, Genie Spaces, and Databricks Applications.
• Deep understanding of dimensional modeling principles, semantic layer design, and enterprise metric consistency.
• Strong ability to design executive‑grade dashboards that prioritize clarity, accuracy, performance, and visual storytelling.
• Ability to establish and apply BI standards, data quality expectations, and governance guardrails across analytics assets.
• Demonstrated ability to translate ambiguous business questions into clearly defined KPIs, reporting requirements, and technical solutions.
• Strong communication and stakeholder partnership skills, with the ability to influence outcomes through clarity, credibility, and judgment.
• Sound judgment in selecting appropriate analytics approaches, ranging from traditional dashboards to AI‑assisted or embedded analytics solutions.

 Education and Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree in IT, Computer Science or related field.
• 5+ years of experience in business intelligence, analytics, or related discipline.
• Experience supporting executive-level or C-suite reporting.
• Experience in real estate or investment-driven reporting environments, preferred.
• Exposure to enterprise systems such as JDE, OneStream, Yardi, or Salesforce, preferred.
• Relevant certifications (PL-300, Databricks, or equivalent experience), a plus.

EEO Statement:

Hillwood is committed to providing Equal Opportunity in Employment, to all applicants and employees regardless of race, color, religion, gender, age, national origin, military status, veteran status, handicap, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information or any other characteristic protected by law.

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