Data Platform Engineer

Greybridge Search & Selection; New York (NY); On-site; USD 161,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Greybridge Search & Selection is partnering with a leading AI and legal‑tech business in New York to hire Senior and Staff Data Platform Engineers. You will own platforms, pipelines and backend infrastructure that ingest, process, store and serve large volumes of complex document data.

This hands‑on role emphasizes architectural ownership across distributed systems, databases and cloud infrastructure, with collaboration with AI/ML teams and a pathway to technical leadership for Staff level.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of software engineering experience on data platforms or backend infrastructure.
• Strong Python experience and another systems-oriented language.
• Experience designing scalable APIs and distributed systems.
• Strong SQL and database knowledge (relational/NoSQL).
• Experience with Spark, Hadoop or Snowflake.
• Cloud experience across AWS, GCP or Azure with IaC.
• Experience with migrations, data modelling and query optimisation.
• Understanding of data governance, privacy, security and compliance.
• Experience with Kafka or Flink is beneficial.
• Exposure to ML/data pipelines or feature engineering platforms is useful.

Responsibilities

• Design and optimise data pipelines ingesting, transforming and distributing large-scale document data.
• Build reliable backend services for storage, retrieval and processing.
• Improve the data platform from schema design to migrations, scalability and security.
• Collaborate with AI/ML teams to support model training and inference at scale.
• Staff: set technical direction and act as platform architect across teams.

Skills

data platforms

backend infrastructure

distributed systems

Python

SQL

Spark

Hadoop

Snowflake

cloud

infrastructure-as-code

database migrations

data governance

Kafka

Flink

ML/data pipelines

Tools

AWS

GCP

Azure

Job description

Senior: $161,000–$184,000 + 15% bonus

Staff: $170,000–$230,000 + 20% bonus

We’re working with a leading AI and legal technology business that is building data infrastructure to support the next generation of intelligent products used by legal and financial professionals.

The team is looking for Senior and Staff Data Platform Engineers to take ownership of the platforms, pipelines and backend infrastructure that ingest, process, store and serve large volumes of complex document and transaction data.

This is a hands‑on engineering role with significant architectural ownership. You’ll work across distributed systems, data pipelines, databases, cloud infrastructure and APIs, with the opportunity to influence how the platform evolves as the business scales.

What you’ll be working on

You’ll design and optimise data pipelines that ingest, transform and distribute large-scale document data, while building reliable backend services for storage, retrieval and processing.

A key part of the role will be improving the underlying data platform — from database schema design, migrations and query optimisation through to scalability, reliability, security and governance.

You’ll also work closely with AI and machine learning teams, providing the infrastructure required to support model training and inference at scale.

At Staff level, you’ll have broader responsibility for setting technical direction and owning outcomes across the platform. You’ll act as a technical leader and platform architect, influencing architecture, driving cross‑functional initiatives and helping engineers make better decisions around system design and engineering practices.

What we’re looking for

We’re looking for experienced software engineers with a strong background in data platforms, backend infrastructure or distributed systems.

You’ll ideally bring:

• 7+ years of software engineering experience, with significant experience working on data platforms or backend infrastructure
• Strong Python experience, alongside another systems‑oriented language where relevant
• Experience designing and building scalable APIs and distributed systems
• Strong SQL and database knowledge across relational and/or NoSQL technologies
• Experience with large–scale data technologies such as Spark, Hadoop or Snowflake
• Cloud experience across AWS, GCP or Azure, ideally alongside infrastructure‑as‑code
• Experience with database migrations, data modelling and query optimisation
• An understanding of data governance, privacy, security and compliance
• Experience with streaming technologies such as Kafka or Flink is beneficial
• Exposure to ML/data pipelines or feature engineering platforms is also useful

For the Staff position, we’re particularly interested in engineers who have moved beyond simply delivering technical tasks and have demonstrated ownership of technical direction, architecture and outcomes. You should be comfortable operating as a platform architect, influencing across teams and mentoring other engineers.

The opportunity

You’ll be joining a technically ambitious environment where data infrastructure sits directly underneath AI‑powered products. The problems are genuinely large‑scale and involve a mixture of document data, distributed systems, backend engineering, databases and cloud infrastructure.

There’s also a strong emphasis on personal accountability — engineers are expected to own their outcomes, make decisions, drive initiatives forward and take responsibility for the direction of the systems they work on.

If you’re a Senior or Staff‑level engineer who enjoys solving complex data infrastructure problems and wants genuine architectural ownership, I’d be keen to speak.