Senior Data Engineer, Predictive Modeling

About the role

At Carvana, we're revolutionizing the car buying experience. Founded with a mission to make car shopping fun, fast, and fair, we've grown rapidly, becoming the fastest-growing and most profitable public automotive retailer. Our innovative approach has led us to serve over 4 million customers and reach the Fortune 500, all while expanding nationally and going public.

This role is located in our Tempe office, Monday through Friday. Join a dynamic team that values creativity, collaboration, and growth. If you're passionate about making a difference and working in a forward-thinking environment, we'd love to have you on board.

Work Model

This is a 100% on-site role at our Tempe office, Monday through Friday.

About the Team and Position

The Data Science and Analytics team at Carvana is at the heart of our operations, leveraging data to drive decision-making and innovation. Our team automates processes from consumer behavior modeling to inventory optimization, ensuring we stay ahead in the competitive automotive market.

We're seeking a Senior Data Engineer to join our team. Your role will involve refactoring and productionalizing Python code, designing and maintaining scalable data pipelines, and developing internal tools to enhance productivity for our analysts, data scientists, and engineers.

What You'll Be Doing

• Refactor and productionalize Python code from Data Scientists and Analysts, transforming experimental notebooks into reliable, maintainable, and production-ready applications with proper testing, error handling, and documentation.
• Design, architect, and maintain robust, scalable predictive modeling data pipelines across our data science ecosystem.
• Design, develop, and maintain internal tooling that accelerates productivity for our Analysts, Data Scientists, and Data Engineers.
• Support data scientists and software engineers in building and deploying new RESTful services.
• Apply software engineering best practices including code reviews, version control, testing frameworks, and continuous integration to ensure high-quality, maintainable codebases.
• Design and develop high-availability applications using technologies like Docker and Kubernetes with focus on scalability, reliability, and observability.
• Develop comprehensive solutions for application logging, error reporting, alerting, and task scheduling across distributed systems.
• Create robust ETL/ELT processes to integrate data between different systems and formats, ensuring data quality and lineage tracking.
• Design processes that contain sensitive data in a responsible manner (using certificates, hashing, AD permissions), ensuring that necessary security practices are followed.
• Read beyond initial project specifications to identify opportunities for improvement, additional functionality, and technical debt reduction.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to translate business requirements into scalable technical solutions.
• Mentor junior engineers and provide technical guidance on software engineering practices and data architecture decisions.
• Stay current with emerging technologies in data engineering, AI/ML tooling, and agent workflows that can enhance team capabilities.
• Excellent communication skills to explain technical concepts clearly.

What You Should Know

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Applied Math, or a related field from an accredited institution required.
• 5+ years of experience in data engineering and data warehousing.
• 2+ years of experience building production systems designed for scalability, availability, and robustness with emphasis on code quality and maintainability.
• Strong software engineering fundamentals including object-oriented design, design patterns, testing methodologies, and code review practices.
• Strong experience with at least one cloud service platform provider (AWS, GCP, Azure).
• Strong coding and application development skills in Python.
• Strong experience with enterprise software development using modern tools and approaches including Docker, Kubernetes, and container orchestration, Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines, version control systems (Git), and collaborative development workflows, code quality tools (linting, static analysis, dependency management).
• Fluency in SQL and NoSQL databases with understanding of data modeling and optimization techniques.
• Knowledge of API design, microservices architecture, and integration patterns for connecting AI agents with backend systems.
• Familiarity with DevOps principles and CI/CD pipelines.
• Experience with AI/ML tooling and agent workflow development is a strong plus.
• Strong communication skills with ability to explain technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

The Technical Stack You'll Be Working With

• Docker / Kubernetes
• Cloud service platform providers (GCP, Azure)
• Python
• Flask
• Object-oriented Programming
• Data Science ecosystem (numpy, scikit-learn, Jupyter)
• Snowflake
• SQL Server and various database technologies
• AWS DataBricks
• Git

What We'll Offer

• Full-time salary
• Medical, Dental, and Vision benefits
• 401K with company match
• Multitude of perks including student loan payments, discounts on vehicles, benefits for your pets, and much more
• A great wellness program to keep you healthy and happy both physically and mentally
• Opportunities to expand your skill set and share your knowledge with others across the organization
• Promotions from within, with a start-up atmosphere allowing for varied and rapid career development
• A seat in one of the fastest-growing companies in the country

Legal Stuff

• Hiring is contingent on passing a complete background check.
• This role is eligible for visa sponsorship.
• Carvana is an equal employment opportunity employer. All applicants receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, national origin, age, mental or physical disability, protected veteran status, or genetic information, or any other basis protected by applicable law.
• Carvana also prohibits harassment of applicants or employees based on any of these protected categories.