Lead Principal Data Systems Software Engineer

About the role

Serves as domain expert shaping product architecture and velocity. Defines scalable patterns for microservices, data modeling (including spatial/graph), and performance engineering across multiple product areas. Applies in-database analytics and machine learning to differentiate value and reduce latency. Sets service-level objectives and enforces them via testing and observability. Leads post-release analyses to connect features to revenue, adoption, and retention outcomes; guides technical strategy with product leadership.

Responsibilities

• Set product-wide patterns for microservices and data modeling (including spatial/graph) to accelerate feature delivery.
• Integrate in-database analytics and machine learning to enable personalization, recommendations, or fraud detection.
• Define service-level objectives and enforce them via performance gates, query linting, and production telemetry.
• Architect existing and modern/emerging new services.
• Lead project initiatives to design software solutions and identify and analyze requirements.
• Write and define foundational code for new projects or prototypes.
• Adhere to and improve execution of all phases of the software development lifecycle; coach engineers across teams or units to drive improvements.
• Act as a subject matter expert to develop and guide new software features and enhancements following design specifications, ensuring accessibility, and document software design and code.
• Lead process, architecture, and code reviews across projects and/or products/services to drive improvements.
• Utilize modern/emerging technologies to conduct debugging and troubleshooting to identify and fix highly complex software issues.
• Lead strategic initiatives to optimize software testing (e.g., functional and non-functional), quality assurance processes, software error logging, monitoring, and observability for effective debugging.
• Encourage innovation, research, and relevant industry practices to optimize performance across products and domains.
• Resolve and troubleshoot highly complex and systematic issues related to application programming interface (API) functionality and integration.
• Implement innovative API versioning, lifecycle, and interoperability strategies.
• Define project or design scope; review, influence, and approve scope and design recommendations.
• Provide technical guidance, domain expertise, and coaching in software architecture decisions and best practices that drive key organizational decisions, including industry standards and competitive considerations.
• Mentor and coach small teams and peers, contributing to both individual and team development across the line of business/function.
• Utilize innovative methods to conduct highly complex periodic reviews and ensure adherence to architectural standards.
• Collaborate with stakeholders across lines of business and externally to align and build software architecture with business and/or customer goals and priorities.
• Implement innovative performance optimization and scalability strategies in software design.
• Conduct regular technology research and evaluation for architectural enhancements and translate them into decisions and plans that can have a major impact on the organization.
• Collaborate with internal and external stakeholders to understand customer issues, root causes, and mitigation strategies to align and explain the rationale behind solutions.
• Provide expert technical guidance and support to customers regarding customer-reported issues to mitigate recurrence.
• Act as an advisor to advocate for customers' interests and suggest product enhancements and solutions based on feedback.
• Network across lines of business to ensure customer satisfaction through timely resolution of issues and effective communication.
• Guide the implementation of strategic solutions for customer issue and/or defect handling and training processes.
• Investigate and troubleshoot the most complex and broadly reaching product maintenance issues to ensure customer agreement on short- and long-term solutions (e.g., future enhancements).
• Collaborate with the security team and leadership to establish, follow, and improve development practices and coding standards, providing coaching to less experienced team members.
• Participate in peer review processes and provide technical leadership in initiatives to ensure quality and adherence to broad acceptance criteria during development.
• Demonstrate, contribute to, and share deep expertise in industry best practices and their application to software development processes.
• Implement highly complex secure software development practices/solutions requiring modern/emerging innovation to prevent security vulnerabilities, leveraging automated solutions to augment the manual review process.
• Lead project initiatives for periodic maintenance and testing operations for systems that require upgrading or patching (e.g., for critical vulnerabilities).
• Act as a subject matter expert to drive improvements, ensure automation, testing, and debugging of systems to ensure service/product availability, health, support, and reliability.
• Manage and provide direction on timelines, deliverables, and budgets for critical high-impact projects or initiatives that impact the line of business, ensuring timely completion and adherence to requirements.
• Anticipate and plan for shifts in resources or timelines based on changing business priorities, ensuring optimal outcomes.
• Influence cross-functional leaders and external stakeholders to gain alignment on strategic objectives.
• Foster partnerships with key business leaders, stakeholders, and/or customers, identifying opportunities for expanding partnerships and promoting long-term organizational success.
• Champion transparency and inclusivity by actively seeking, listening to, and incorporating diverse perspectives.
• Lead specialized, advanced problem-solving efforts, serving as an escalation point for complex issues.
• Guide others to leverage innovative data-driven techniques to address ambiguous or novel issues, identify root causes, and drive the implementation of solutions that prevent future issues.
• Leverage deep industry knowledge and expertise to serve as a thought leader within the organization.
• Contribute to the advancement of the field or industry through thought leadership (e.g., conference presentations, white papers, research contributions).
• Maintain and evolve expertise in relevant areas by proactively monitoring emerging trends, technologies, and industry standards, ensuring the organization remains current with best practices.
• Champion continuous learning and knowledge sharing, promoting professional development across teams.
• Develop innovative solutions and drive the implementation of ideas that increase the efficiency and effectiveness of processes, protocols, and workflows across the organization.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of updated approaches and methods for continued improvement to enhance efficiencies and ensure changes align with organizational goals.
• Design and develop metrics to measure the success of improvement initiatives.
• Serve as a subject matter expert regarding talent needs and organizational talent strategy.
• Impart leadership and expert knowledge throughout the talent development pipeline, including candidate interviews, candidate assessment, and hiring decisions, ensuring alignment with organizational talent strategy.

Qualifications

Certain U.S.-based or U.S. customer/client-facing roles may require compliance with applicable requirements, such as immunization/occupational health mandates and/or drug testing.

Pay

Hiring range in USD from: $122,800 - $306,400 per year. May be eligible for bonus, equity, and compensation deferral.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance, including expert medical opinion
• Short-term disability and long-term disability
• Life insurance and AD&D
• Supplemental life insurance (Employee/Spouse/Child)
• Health care and dependent care Flexible Spending Accounts
• Pre-tax commuter and parking benefits
• 401(k) Savings and Investment Plan with company match
• Flexible Vacation for eligible salaried employees (13 days annually for the first three years, 18 days annually thereafter; accrual prorated for part-time employees working 20-34 hours per week)
• 11 paid holidays
• Paid sick leave: 72 hours upon date of hire, refreshes each calendar year, with a maximum cap of 112 hours
• Paid parental leave
• Adoption assistance
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan
• Financial planning and group legal
• Voluntary benefits including auto, homeowner, and pet insurance