Staff Data Lake Engineer

This is a remote position; however, the candidate must reside within 30 miles of one of the following locations: Portland, ME; Boston, MA; Chicago, IL; Dallas, TX; San Francisco Bay Area, CA; and Seattle/WA.

About the role/Team

As a Staff Software Engineer on the Data Lake Engineering team, you will be a key technical leader in developing our enterprise data platform. Your mission is to build a unified, intelligent data infrastructure using a data lakehouse architecture that boosts developer productivity and establishes standardization across the organization.

In this role, you will be a vital link between the Data Engineering community and our strategic solutions. You will manage stakeholder relationships, translating their business requirements into technical roadmaps and guiding execution. This is a hands-on position where you'll not only drive the development of scalable, secure, and high-performing systems, but also provide technical mentorship to junior engineers.

Your work will directly impact the business by enabling crucial self-service capabilities for data engineers, building a robust business catalog for strong data and AI governance, and implementing systems for data quality and lineage that empower business analysts. This is an opportunity to solve complex, large-scale problems and make a significant impact on both the team and the business.

How you'll make an impact

• Platform Strategy & Leadership: Lead the technical vision, architecture, and strategy for the Data Lake platform. Drive the development roadmap to deliver a platform that meets both near-term business needs and long-term strategic goals.

• Technical Execution & Innovation: Design and lead the implementation of our data lake platform and services. Challenge the status quo, championing innovative technical solutions that leverage data, AI, and modern engineering practices.

• Cross-Functional Partnership: Partner closely with solutions architecture, product, and engineering teams to deeply understand business needs and design effective solutions. Collaborate with information security to ensure data privacy and access controls are a core part of the platform's design.

• Mentorship & Team Development: Serve as a technical mentor to engineers, providing guidance on engineering principles, best practices, and skills. Foster a culture of continuous learning, innovation, and accountability for quality results.

• Stakeholder Communication: Report on the status of development, quality, and system performance to management and partners. Advise senior leadership on complex technical initiatives and drive projects to achieve defined OKRs.

Experience you'll bring

Experience: 8+ years of experience in software design and development, with a focus on building large-scale, distributed systems.

Technical Depth:

• Strong hands-on experience in software development, architecture, deployment, and production operations, preferably with Java / J2EE (Spring/Spring Boot).

• Proficiency in languages like Python is highly desirable.

• Deep expertise in building and operating Big Data platforms and large-scale data lakes.

• Experience with Data Lakehouse formats such as Apache Iceberg, Apache Hudi, or Delta Lake is a significant plus.

• Strong understanding of modern data processing tools and services (e.g., Spark, AWS Glue, dbt, Apache Polaris).

Cloud & Infrastructure:

• Extensive experience with cloud architecture and services, including AWS (S3, EMR, Kubernetes, Lambda) and Azure.

• Deep understanding of CI/CD automation, modern development tools, and frameworks.

Leadership & Soft Skills:

• Proven ability to lead and guide engineering teams, acting as a technical mentor and thought leader.

• Excellent analytical skills with a proven ability to identify and resolve complex technical problems.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with a philosophy of continuous improvement.

Education: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related technical field. A higher degree is a plus.

Domain: Experience within the payments industry is a plus.