Data Platform Engineer / BigQuery / PostgreSQL / Python / GCP - OC Onsite

Motion Recruitment; Lake Forest (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 155,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Healthcare benefits

401(k) with employer match

Generous paid time off

Job summary

Motion Recruitment seeks a hands-on data engineer/backend developer to help expand a retail technology data platform on Google Cloud. You will build and optimize PostgreSQL databases, BigQuery warehouses, data pipelines, and APIs to support customer products and internal reporting.

The role emphasizes 3–7 years of relevant experience, strong data warehousing skills, and collaboration with operations teams to improve reliability and drive new capabilities.

Qualifications

• 3-7 years of hands-on data engineering or backend development experience.
• Strong BigQuery data modeling and analytics experience.
• Deep PostgreSQL production database experience.

Responsibilities

• Design and maintain PostgreSQL schemas, queries, indexes, migrations, and production database operations on Google Cloud SQL.
• Build and improve BigQuery datasets, data models, analytical views, and reporting pipelines.
• Develop Python services and data pipelines moving information between operational systems, event streams, and the warehouse.
• Build secure REST or GraphQL APIs to expose data to customer applications and internal tools.
• Improve data quality, pipeline reliability, query performance, and cloud costs.
• Enforce access controls and data separation across the platform.
• Use GCP services and Terraform to deploy and maintain data infrastructure.
• Investigate production issues and collaborate with teams on fixes and knowledge sharing.

Skills

Backend development

Data modeling

BigQuery

PostgreSQL

GCP

Python

Data warehousing

Tools

BigQuery

PostgreSQL

Cloud SQL

Python

Job description

Our client is a retail technology company developing connected devices and cloud software to help retailers improve loss prevention and customer safety. Its platform brings together device events, operational data, analytics, and customer-facing applications across store locations.

The company is expanding its data platform on Google Cloud and is seeking a hands-on engineer with strong BigQuery, PostgreSQL, GCP, Python, backend development, and data warehousing experience.

This role sits at the intersection of data engineering and backend development. You will build and improve the PostgreSQL database, BigQuery warehouse, data pipelines, and APIs that support customer products and internal reporting.

The ideal candidate has roughly 3-7 years of relevant experience and has personally built and supported production systems. You will work with other engineers and operations teams to solve data problems, improve reliability, and deliver new capabilities.

Responsibilities

• Design and maintain PostgreSQL schemas, queries, indexes, migrations, and production database operations on Google Cloud SQL.
• Build and improve BigQuery datasets, data models, analytical views, and reporting pipelines.
• Develop Python services and data pipelines that move information between operational systems, event streams, and the warehouse.
• Build secure REST or GraphQL APIs that make data available to customer applications and internal tools.
• Improve data quality, pipeline reliability, query performance, and cloud costs.
• Help enforce access controls and separation of customer data throughout the platform.
• Use GCP services and Terraform to deploy and maintain data infrastructure.
• Investigate production issues, work with engineering and operations teams on fixes, and share knowledge through code reviews and collaboration.

Required Skills / Tech

• Roughly 3-7 years of hands-on data engineering or backend development experience.
• Strong, direct BigQuery experience, including data modeling, analytical queries, performance optimization, and warehouse design.
• Strong PostgreSQL experience, including schema design, query optimization, indexing, and production database work.
• Hands-on GCP experience, particularly with BigQuery, Cloud SQL, and services used to run data pipelines or backend applications.
• Production Python development experience for backend services, data pipelines, or cloud integrations.
• Experience building and maintaining data warehouses and reliable data flows.Experience developing APIs or backend services used by production applications.

Preferred Skills / Tech

• Experience using AI tools or integrating AI capabilities into products or engineering workflows.
• Experience with event-driven systems, change data capture, or device-generated data.
• Terraform, CI/CD, and GCP infrastructure experience.
• Experience with multi-tenant applications, access controls, and data security.
• Familiarity with retail technology, IoT, or loss prevention.
• Experience working with hardware, firmware, or distributed engineering teams.

The Offer

• Attractive total compensation package between 140-155k
• Comprehensive healthcare benefits including medical, dental, and vision coverage; Life/ADD/LTD insurance; FSA/HSA options
• 401(k) Plan with employer match
• Generous paid time off policy
• Observance of 11 paid company holidays