Senior Software Engineer, Data Governance and Foundations

Instacart; Remote; CAD 168,000 - 178,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading data management company is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to enhance data governance systems. This role involves designing services for data access control, collaborating with legal and compliance teams, and implementing security measures in modern data platforms. The ideal candidate will have over 5 years of software engineering experience, strong programming skills, and a proven track record in building resilient data systems. This position offers a market-competitive salary, with a range from CAD 168,000 to CAD 177,500, and is fully remote.

Benefits

Competitive salary

Remote work flexibility

Equity grant eligibility

Qualifications

• 5+ years of software engineering experience in data-intensive systems.
• Hands-on experience with modern data platforms.
• Demonstrated experience implementing data security controls.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and operate services for data access control.
• Develop event-driven controls and metadata pipelines.
• Collaborate with Legal and Compliance to translate requirements into technical controls.

Skills

Programming in Python, Java, Scala, or Go

Strong SQL skills

Experience with data security controls

Experience operating services in cloud environments

Experience with Snowflake, Databricks, Trino, Iceberg, Kafka

Education

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Snowflake

Databricks

Apache Kafka

Job description

Overview

Instacart’s Data Governance and Foundations team builds the core infrastructure that keeps our data trusted, secure, and compliant across every region where we operate. We partner closely with Legal, Compliance, Security, and Engineering to translate regulatory requirements like SOX and GDPR into resilient, scalable systems that power safe data access and accelerate the business.

As a Senior Software Engineer on this team, you will design and deliver platform capabilities for policy management, role-based data access, auditing, data classification, and lineage across Instacart’s modern data stack (Snowflake, Databricks, Kafka, Iceberg, Trino). Your work will directly enable product teams, analysts, and data scientists to innovate confidently while meeting stringent privacy and compliance standards.

You’ll join a collaborative team of 6–7 engineers focused on foundational infrastructure, with opportunities to lead high-impact architecture, influence standards, and mentor others.

About the Job

• Design, build, and operate services and tooling for role-based and attribute-based access control, policy enforcement, auditing, and data classification across Snowflake, Databricks, Trino, and Iceberg-backed datasets.
• Develop event-driven controls and metadata pipelines (e.g., Kafka-based) to automate governance workflows, detect drift, and continuously validate compliance posture.
• Collaborate with Legal, Compliance, and Security to translate requirements (e.g., GDPR, SOX, PII handling) into technical controls, runbooks, and demonstrable evidence for audits.
• Own projects end-to-end—from architectural design and implementation to reliability, performance, and operability—setting and meeting clear SLOs in a fast-paced environment.
• Standardize and evangelize best practices for data privacy, schema evolution, cataloging/lineage, and policy-as-code across Instacart’s data platform and partner teams.

About You

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 5+ years of software engineering experience building backend or platform services for data-intensive or distributed systems.
• Proficiency in one or more programming languages such as Python, Java, Scala, or Go, plus strong SQL skills.
• Hands-on experience with modern data platforms, including at least two of the following: Snowflake, Databricks, Trino/Presto, Apache Iceberg, Apache Kafka.
• Demonstrated experience implementing data security controls (e.g., RBAC/ABAC, row/column-level security, tokenization, or dynamic data masking) in production.
• Experience operating services in cloud environments (AWS, GCP, or Azure), including monitoring, incident response, and on-call participation.
• Proven track record of delivering complex, multi-stakeholder projects in a rapidly changing environment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Deep knowledge of distributed systems concepts (consensus, partitioning, streaming semantics, exactly-once processing, schema compatibility).
• Familiarity with data privacy and compliance frameworks (e.g., GDPR, SOX) and building auditable technical controls and evidence pipelines.
• Experience with data cataloging and lineage (e.g., Unity Catalog, DataHub, OpenLineage) and policy frameworks (e.g., OPA/Rego, Apache Ranger, Lake Formation).
• Exposure to Infrastructure-as-Code (e.g., Terraform) and policy-as-code practices to standardize governance across environments.
• Ability to lead design reviews, mentor engineers, and drive alignment across Legal, Compliance, Security, and Engineering partners.

LI-Remote

Instacart provides highly market-competitive compensation and benefits in each location where our employees work. This role is remote and the base pay range for a successful candidate is dependent on their permanent work location. Please review our Flex First remote work policy here. Currently, we are only hiring in the following provinces: Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, and Nova Scotia.

Offers may vary based on many factors, such as candidate experience and skills required for the role. Additionally, this role is eligible for a new hire equity grant as well as annual refresh grants. Please read more about our benefits offerings here.

For Canadian based candidates, the base pay ranges for a successful candidate are listed below.

CAN

$168,000 — $177,500 CAD