Staff Data Engineer - Data & ML Platform

As a technical leader on the Data & ML Platform team, you will own the architecture and reliability of the data infrastructure that powers real-time member experiences, analytics, and AI across Hinge Health. You will design systems that move data from dozens of upstream services—across Kafka event streams and transactional databases—into a unified data platform serving real-time APIs, analytical workloads, and ML systems on Databricks. This role involves setting patterns, standards, and architectural decisions that shape the entire platform, driving complex cross-functional initiatives, and ensuring data trustworthiness in a HIPAA-compliant environment.

Responsibilities

• Own data platform architecture and technical direction: Lead the design of systems spanning raw ingestion, streaming and batch transformations, analytical models, and the serving layer. Make architectural decisions balancing reliability, performance, cost, and long-term maintainability.
• Lead the hardest cross-functional technical problems: Drive initiatives spanning multiple teams and services, define data contracts, lead schema evolution strategies, and resolve systemic friction between producers and consumers.
• Raise the engineering bar across the team: Set and enforce standards for data modeling, pipeline reliability, testing, code quality, and operational excellence. Mentor senior engineers through design reviews and technical coaching.
• Keep the platform reliable and the data trustworthy: Own the reliability posture of critical data systems, define SLAs/SLOs, lead incident response, and drive systemic fixes. Champion observability, data quality, and operational rigor.
• Make it easy for teams to own their data: Build tooling and establish practices enabling service teams to manage their data effectively, including compliance strategies, performance tuning, and schema evolution.
• Deliver with ownership and grit: Take high-stakes projects from problem definition to production, navigating technical blockers, cross-functional dependencies, and competing priorities.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree (or equivalent) in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field.
• Minimum of 4+ years of data engineering experience building and operating reliable production data platforms at scale.
• 4+ years of strong proficiency in Python and SQL.
• 4+ years of experience with distributed data processing frameworks (e.g., PySpark, Flink, Spark) and data warehouse design (star/snowflake schemas).
• 3+ years of experience deploying and operating pipelines in the cloud, including CI/CD, monitoring, and incident response.

Preferred Qualifications

• 8+ years of data engineering experience with a focus on data platforms.
• Deep expertise in data modeling, governance, schema design, and data quality.
• Experience in growth-stage environments where foundational architectural decisions were made.
• Expertise in streaming and event-driven architecture (Kafka, Flink, or equivalent).
• Mentorship experience and ability to set engineering standards across teams.
• Product and business awareness, connecting technical work to business problems.

Skills

• Python, SQL, Flink, PySpark, Kafka, Delta Lake, dbt, Airflow, Aurora PostgreSQL, AWS.

Schedule

This is a hybrid role based in the San Francisco office, requiring in-person attendance three days per week for a full 8-hour business day. On remote days, employees are expected to work during core business hours with flexibility. Occasional off-site/on-site events may occur.

Benefits

• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage, including gender-affirming care and family planning tools.
• Traditional or Roth 401k with a 2% company match.
• Learning and development stipends.
• Discounted company stock through ESPP with payroll deductions.
• Dog-friendly workplace.

Pay

Compensation range: $197,600 - $296,400.

About Hinge Health

Hinge Health uses technology to scale and automate healthcare delivery, starting with musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions affecting over 1.7 billion people worldwide. The platform leverages AI and a human-centered care model to improve outcomes, experiences, and costs. Available to over 20 million people through partnerships with 50+ health plans and 2,550+ employers, Hinge Health is headquartered in San Francisco with offices in Montreal and Bangalore.