Staff Software Engineer (Data Platform)

Scale AI; York and North Yorkshire; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health coverage

Dental & vision insurance

Learning & development stipend

Employee ERG events

Job summary

Scale AI is seeking a Platform Engineer to lead design and development of core data storage, streaming, caching, and indexing platforms. You will drive architecture and reliability of foundational data systems, working with stakeholders to refine requirements and deliver scalable solutions.

You will collaborate with cross‑functional teams to deliver new features, mentoring junior engineers and upholding high engineering standards across Scale AI as it applies RLHF, data generation, and model

Qualifications

• 8+ years of full‑time engineering experience, post‑graduation.
• Back-end systems for large‑scale data storage, streaming, and warehousing.

Responsibilities

• Lead design and development of data storage, streaming, caching, and indexing platforms.
• Drive architecture, design, implementation, and reliability of foundational data platforms.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to deliver new features.
• Mentor junior engineers and uphold engineering standards across the organization.
• Present technical information to stakeholders and guide development processes.

Skills

MongoDB

Postgres

ElasticSearch

Redis

Kinesis

Flink

Spark

Trino/Presto

Snowflake

Kubernetes

Cloud

Distributed systems

Backend

CircleCI

GDPR

Mentoring

Cross-functional

Scaling

AI technologies

Tools

CI/CD tooling

Job description

• As the world adjusts to this new reality, leading platform companies are scrambling to build LLMs at billion scale, while large enterprises figure out how to add it to their products


• To make them safe, aligned and actually useful, these models need human evaluation and reinforcement learning through human feedback (RLHF) during pre-training, fine-tuning, and production evaluations


• At Scale, our products include the Generative AI Data Engine, SGP, Donovan, and others that power the most advanced LLMs and generative models in the world through world-class RLHF, human data generation, model evaluation, safety, and alignment


• The data we are producing is some of the most important work for how humanity will interact with AI


• At the foundation of these products is the Platform Engineering team


• In this role, you will lead the design and development of core data storage, streaming, caching, and indexing platforms and underlying systems


• You’ll also get widespread exposure to the forefront of the AI race as Scale sees it in enterprises, startups, governments, and large tech companies


• You’ll drive the architecture, design, implementation, and reliability of our foundational data platforms and systems, working closely with stakeholders and internal customers to understand and refine requirements


• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to define, design, and deliver new features


• Proactively identify opportunities for, and driving improvements to, current programming practices, including process enhancements and tool upgrades


• Present technical information to teams and stakeholders, providing guidance and insight on development processes and technologies


• Provide technical leadership, including: upholding and upleveling engineering standards across the organization, mentoring junior engineers

Benefits

• Health & Wellbeing: Our holistic approach to supporting Scaliens includes comprehensive health coverage, dental and vision insurance, mental healthcare services, and more. PTO policies and accommodating schedules ensure you’ll get time off when you need it to relax and recharge. Note that our offerings may vary by region as we strive to respond to the unique needs of Scaliens around the globe.


• Personal & Career Growth: Continuously learn and grow through annual learning & development stipend, attending leadership breakfasts, manager training, speaker series, and joining an ERG.


• Building Scale Community: We welcome guests to our offices, and you can expect to see Scalien families and friends around. Join local happy hours, and accept invites to game nights, book clubs, and many other employee-led community events.


• Parental Support: Balancing work and family is essential, and Scale understands the importance of having adequate leave policies in place to promote a healthy home and work life.

• Extensive experience in various database technologies (MongoDB, Postgres), streaming/processing solutions (Kinesis, Flink, Spark), indexing/caching (ElasticSearch, Redis), and various data query engines (Trino, Presto, Snowflake, etc.)


• Experience working fluently with standard containerization & deployment technologies like Kubernetes and various public cloud offerings


• Show a track record of mentoring and leading teams in successful projects


• Experience driving cross functional collaboration and communication at an organizational or broader level


• Extensive experience in software development and a deep understanding of distributed systems, cloud platforms and data systems


• 8+ years of full‑time engineering experience, post‑graduation with specialties in back‑end systems, specifically related to building large‑scale data storage, streaming, and warehousing systems


• Possess excellent communication and collaboration skills, and the ability to translate complex technical concepts to non‑technical stakeholders


• Strong knowledge of software engineering best practices and CI/CD tooling (CircleCI)


• Experience with performance tuning and cost optimizations of cloud based data platforms


• Experience defining a data lifecycle strategy and designing/implementing tooling for data privacy (i.e. GDPR) needs


• Experience scaling products at hyper-growth startups


• Excitement to work with AI technologies