Lead Data Platform Engineer

ABOUT THIS ROLE We're seeking an exceptional Data Platform Engineer to shape the strategic direction and architecture of our data infrastructure. This is a high-visibility, high-impact role where you'll co-own the overall platform architecture, set technical standards across the entire Data Engineering organization, and drive initiatives that directly impact our data strategy. You'll be a force multiplier—inspiring teams, mentoring senior engineers, and making architectural decisions that affect how the entire organization builds and operates data systems. We are in the midst of transforming our legacy infrastructure into a modern cloud-first platform, and you'll be instrumental in leading this technical evolution. WHAT YOU'LL DO STRATEGIC PLATFORM LEADERSHIP • Co-own and evolve the overall data platform architecture across all domains • Guide the technical vision for the entire Data Engineering organization • Drive platform initiatives that directly support the company's data strategy • Lead the modernization of legacy systems while ensuring business continuity • Identify and solve problems that span the entire Data Engineering org before they impact delivery • Set the bar for excellence and serve as an inspiration across all engineering teams ARCHITECTURE & TECHNICAL EXCELLENCE • Design and drive implementation of highly scalable platform architectures for multi-TB+ daily workloads • Author and sign off on all RFCs and technical specifications that touch your domain(s) • Define best practices and patterns that become standard across the organization • Build self-service infrastructure that empowers hundreds of data consumers while maintaining reliability • Design event-driven, real-time data architectures using Kafka and stream processing at scale • Contribute to any codebase across the organization, setting quality standards through exemplary code PLATFORM ENGINEERING EXCELLENCE • Architect comprehensive Infrastructure as Code strategies and GitOps frameworks • Design enterprise-grade security frameworks including encryption, zero-trust access controls, and compliance • Establish SLAs/SLOs for critical platform services and drive observability strategy • Lead complex incident response, conduct thorough post-mortems, and implement systemic improvements • Drive platform reliability and performance optimization initiatives INFLUENCE & ENABLEMENT • Mentor IC9 and IC10 engineers, accelerating their technical growth and impact • Collaborate across the entire Engineering organization as a thought partner • Interact with executives and external stakeholders as a domain expert • Democratize data access by empowering more teams to contribute to the data stack safely • Identify hiring gaps and help define interview panels for critical technical roles • Actively participate in and contribute to Data Engineering communities (conferences, Stack Overflow, vendor forums) WHAT YOU BRING DEEP TECHNICAL EXPERTISE • Expert-level proficiency in SQL, Python, and at least one additional programming language • Demonstrated mastery of object-oriented design and software engineering principles • Deep expertise with databases across paradigms: PostgreSQL, MySQL, Snowflake, Oracle, DynamoDB, MongoDB • Extensive Kafka ecosystem expertise: cluster management, Debezium, schema registry, Connect frameworks, stream processing • Advanced container orchestration with Kubernetes and Docker at scale • Expert knowledge of Infrastructure as Code, GitOps, and cloud-native architectures PLATFORM ENGINEERING MASTERY • Proven track record architecting platforms processing multi-TB daily workloads • Experience designing and operating systems supporting hundreds of concurrent users • Deep understanding of distributed systems, cloud architectures, and scalability patterns • Expert-level experience with observability stacks (Prometheus, Grafana, ELK, Jaeger) • Mastery of data orchestration platforms like Airflow, Prefect, or Dagster • Demonstrated success modernizing le