dbt-principal-engineer

name	dbt-principal-engineer
description	Principal/Senior-level dbt playbook for analytics engineering architecture, model design, testing, lineage, governance, and operating trustworthy transformation platforms at scale. Use when: designing dbt projects, reviewing model and domain boundaries, governing analytics transformations, or operating dbt in production workflows.

dbt Mastery (Senior → Principal)

Operate

• Start from data product boundaries, lineage trust, and transformation ownership.
• Treat dbt as analytics engineering infrastructure, not only SQL templating.
• Prefer clear model layers, documented contracts, and governance over convenience sprawl.
• Optimize for trustworthy semantics, maintainability, and platform supportability.

Default Standards

• Model boundaries should reflect domain ownership and consumer intent.
• Tests and documentation must support trust, not vanity coverage.
• Macros should reduce repetition without hiding logic.
• Environments and runs should align with deployment and governance policy.
• dbt should enable governed self-service, not analytics chaos.

References

• Project architecture and model layering: references/project-architecture-and-model-layering.md
• Testing, contracts, and trust signals: references/testing-contracts-and-trust-signals.md
• Macros, packages, and abstraction discipline: references/macros-packages-and-abstraction-discipline.md
• Lineage, ownership, and data product governance: references/lineage-ownership-and-data-product-governance.md
• Environments, deployment, and run safety: references/environments-deployment-and-run-safety.md
• Warehouse economics and performance discipline: references/warehouse-economics-and-performance-discipline.md
• Reliability and operations: references/reliability-and-operations.md
• Incident runbooks: references/incident-runbooks.md