Staff Software Engineer, Metadata

United States Digital Space LLC; Toronto; On-site; CAD 225,000 - 276,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

RSU stock grants

Professional development

PTO & parental leave

Team events

Cell phone stipend

Mental health resources

Job summary

dbt Labs is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to lead the Metadata team, owning the discovery API, catalog, lineage, and run history services for the modern data stack. You will guide architecture, drive cross-engineer initiatives, and raise the bar for design and code quality through reviews and mentorship.

You’ll work with Python, GraphQL, Postgres, Snowflake, Kafka, Kubernetes, Docker, AWS, and GCP, collaborating across development, SDLC artifacts, and incident response while enabling trusted

Qualifications

• 8+ years of software engineering experience with a track record of leading complex, team-scope technical work to completion.
• Deep expertise designing and owning subsystems in distributed, cloud-based systems.
• Ability to set technical direction for a team and drive multi-engineer initiatives across an area of ownership.
• Excellent design and architecture judgment; identifies design flaws and proposes sound solutions.
• Writes exemplary, well-tested code and reliably estimates and delivers sprint to sprint.
• Strong track record of raising quality through code reviews, coaching, and engineering practices.
• Experience partnering with QE on test strategy and owning operational health.
• Proficiency in a modern backend language (Python/Java/C++/C#) and cloud platforms (AWS/GCP/Azure), containers (Docker/Kubernetes).
• Fluent in using AI code assistants and coding agents to generate and investigate code.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design and delivery of complex, team-level projects across the Metadata services.
• Independently design and develop the architecture of new subsystems, and own team-level subsystems end to end.
• Review and approve technical designs, ensuring high quality and identifying deficiencies early.
• Drive technical initiatives across discovery API, catalog, lineage, and run history.
• Set and uphold design, architecture, and coding best practices; mentor engineers.
• Write technical specs, document common components, and ensure project documentation.
• Fix and optimize critical parts of the codebase and improve reliability and performance.
• Participate periodically in the on-call rotation.

Skills

Distributed systems

Technical leadership

Architecture direction

Code quality

Mentoring

Backend development

QE collaboration

Cloud platforms

AI copilots

Communication

Tools

Python

GraphQL

Postgres

Snowflake

Kafka

Kubernetes

Docker

AWS

GCP

Datadog

Job description

From the company’s founding until now, our mission has remained the same: to make access to data as simple and reliable as electricity. With the company, customer data arrives in their warehouses, canonical and ready to query, with no engineering or maintenance required. We’re proud that more organizations continue to leverage our technology every day to become truly data-driven.

the company and dbt Labs are bringing together two industry-leading companies with a shared mission: helping organizations unlock the full value of their data.
Together, we’re delivering the data infrastructure layer that helps organizations move, transform, and trust their data — from the moment data moves, through every transformation, to the context teams and AI systems rely on.
the company helps organizations automate data movement across the systems, clouds, engines, and tools they rely on. dbt Labs pioneered analytics engineering, helping teams transform data into reliable, governed insights. Together, we support thousands of organizations as they build a trusted foundation for analytics, AI, and better business decisions.
As we bring our teams and technology together, we’re building on the strengths of both companies while continuing to deliver the products and experiences our customers know and trust. It’s an exciting time to join us: we’re creating a company with the scale, talent, and technology to help more organizations put their data to work with greater speed, confidence, and impact.
During this transition period, you may see references to both the company and dbt Labs throughout our recruiting process as we integrate our teams, systems, and career sites.

About the Role

the company and dbt Labs are building data pipelines to power the modern data stack for thousands of companies.

We're looking for a staff software engineer to be a technical leader on our Metadata team, which owns the metadata layer of the dbt platform — the discovery API, catalog, lineage, and run history services that let customers understand, trust, and act on what their data is doing.

As a Staff Software Engineer, you'll contribute to the technical direction for the team. You'll own the architecture of major subsystems, lead complex projects that span multiple engineers, and raise the bar for design and code quality across the team. You'll spend your time on the hardest technical problems, and multiply the team through design reviews, coaching, and mentorship.

Technologies You'll Use

Python, GraphQL, Postgres, Snowflake, Kafka, Kubernetes, Docker, AWS, GCP, Datadog

What You'll Do

• Lead the design and delivery of complex, team-level projects across the Metadata services, coordinating development across multiple engineers
• Independently design and develop the architecture of new subsystems, and own team-level subsystems end to end
• Use AI tooling and agents — across development and SDLC artifacts such as TDDs, PRDs, post-mortems, and test plans
• Review and approve technical designs, ensuring they meet a high quality bar, and identify design deficiencies before they ship
• Drive technical initiatives across the team's responsibility areas — discovery API, catalog, lineage, and run history
• Set and uphold design, architecture, and coding best practices, and hold teammates accountable for code quality
• Coach and mentor engineers, demonstrably improving the quality of code across the team
• Write technical specs, document common components, and keep the team accountable for necessary project documentation
• Fix and optimize critical parts of the codebase, drive incident follow-through, and advance the reliability and performance of the services you own
• Participate periodically in the on-call rotation

Skills We're Looking For

• 8+ years of software engineering experience with a track record of leading complex, team-scope technical work to completion
• Deep expertise designing and owning subsystems in distributed, cloud-based systems
• Demonstrated ability to set technical direction for a team and drive multi-engineer initiatives across an area of ownership
• Excellent design and architecture judgment; identifies design flaws in existing systems and proposes sound solutions with clear trade-offs
• Writes exemplary, well-tested code that serves as a model for others, and reliably estimates and delivers sprint to sprint
• Strong track record of raising quality through code review, coaching peers, and enforcing accepted engineering practices
• Experience partnering with QE on test strategy and owning operational health — incidents, post-mortems, reliability, and performance
• Proficiency in a modern backend or systems language such as Python, Java, C++, or C#
• Hands‑on experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure), containerization (Docker, Kubernetes), and managing dev infrastructure
• Fluent in using AI code assistants and coding agents to generate and investigate code, and conversational AI (e.g. Claude, ChatGPT) to author, review, and synthesize SDLC artifacts — and able to model those practices for a team

Bonus Skills

• Experience in data processing (ETL, ELT) and/or cloud-based data platforms
• Experience architecting metadata, catalog, lineage, or discovery/search systems
• Experience with GraphQL APIs and high-throughput, multi-tenant data services
• Familiarity with the analytics engineering workflow and the dbt ecosystem

The compensation range displayed on this job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hire compensation for the target position and level, and may include sales incentives or target bonuses depending on the role. Our compensation ranges are determined by role, level, and location. Our job titles may span more than one career level. Within the range, individual compensation is determined by additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, relevant education or training, business need, market demands. The compensation range is subject to change and may be modified in the future. Your recruiter can share more about the specific compensation range for your location during the hiring process.

Ontario Pay Range

$162,157.50 — $198,877.25 USD

Perks and Benefits

• 100% employer-paid medical insurance*
• Generous paid time-off policy (PTO), plus paid sick time, inclusive parental leave policy, holidays (including a year end Global Week of Rest), and volunteer days off
• RSU stock grants*
• Professional development and training opportunities
• Company virtual happy hours, free food, and fun team-building activities
• Monthly cell phone stipend
• Access to an innovative mental health support platform that offers personalized care and resources in areas such as: therapy, coaching, and self-guided mindfulness exercises for all covered employees and their covered dependents.

*May vary by country and worker type - please reach out to your recruiter for more information