Data Platform Engineer Palo Alto, CA

BrightAI Inc.; Palo Alto (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

BrightAI Inc. in Palo Alto is seeking a Platform Data Engineer to build and maintain scalable data infrastructures powering our real-time platforms.

You will ingest, process, and manage massive streams of sensor and operational data from diverse devices, collaborating with Cloud, Edge, Product, and AI teams to define data contracts and retention policies.

The role emphasizes end-to-end data workflows on AWS, IaC with Terraform, and ML-ready data pipelines in Databricks.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional experience in software or data engineering.
• Strong programming skills in Python and Golang.
• Deep understanding of SQL and modern data lake architectures (Parquet, Iceberg, or Delta Lake).
• Hands-on experience with AWS services (S3, Lambda, Glue, Kinesis, Athena, RDS).
• Proficiency with Terraform for automating infrastructure deployment.
• Hands-on experience with Databricks for ML workflows and Delta Lake.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and maintain scalable data ingestion pipelines for structured and semi-structured data.
• Implement data lake and SQL-based storage architectures optimized for performance and cost.
• Develop internal tools and frameworks for data ingestion using Python, Golang, and SQL.
• Build and maintain inference pipelines to support model serving and near real time prediction workflows.
• Develop and maintain deployment processes to support ML development workflow including experimentation, testing, deployment and monitoring.
• Collaborate with Cloud, Edge, Product, and AI teams to define data contracts and retention policies.
• Use AWS cloud infrastructure (S3, Lambda, Glue, Kinesis, Athena, RDS) to support end-to-end data workflows.
• Employ IaC practices using Terraform to manage data platform infrastructure.
• Monitor data pipelines for quality, latency, and failures using CloudWatch, SumoLogic, or DataDog.
• Land curated sensor and operational data into Delta tables on Databricks to support ML experimentation and model training.
• Optimize storage, partitioning, and query performance across large-scale datasets.
• Participate in architecture reviews and ensure security, compliance, and best practices.

Skills

Python

Golang

SQL

Data engineering

Cloud computing

Debugging

Communication

Tools

AWS

Terraform

Databricks

Kubernetes

Kafka

Delta Lake

Job description

We are a high-growth company transforming how businesses operate by integrating AI, IoT, and cloud-native services into scalable, real-time platforms. As a Platform Data Engineer, you’ll play a critical role in building and maintaining the data infrastructure that powers our products, services, and insights.

You’ll join a multidisciplinary team focused on ingesting, processing, and managing massive streams of sensor and operational data across a wide array of devices—from drones and robots to industrial systems and smart environments.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and maintain scalable, reliable, and high-throughput data ingestion pipelines for structured and semi-structured data.
• Implement robust and secure data lake and SQL-based storage architectures optimized for performance and cost.
• Develop and maintain internal tools and frameworks for data ingestion using Python, Golang, and SQL.
• Build and maintain inference pipelines to support model serving and near real time prediction workflows
• Develop and maintain internal tools and deployment processes to support ML development workflow , including experimentation, testing, deployment and monitoring.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with Cloud, Edge, Product, and AI teams to define data contracts, schemas, and retention policies.
• Use AWS cloud infrastructure (including Argo Workflows, S3, Lambda, Glue, Kinesis, Athena, and RDS) to support end-to-end data workflows.
• Employ Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) practices using Terraform to manage data platform infrastructure.
• Monitor data pipelines for quality, latency, and failures using tools such as CloudWatch, SumoLogic, or DataDog.
• Build and maintain ingestion pipelines that land curated sensor and operational data into Delta tables on Databricks to support ML experimentation and model training.
• Continuously optimize storage, partitioning, and query performance across large-scale datasets.
• Participate in architecture reviews and ensure the platform adheres to security, compliance, and best practice standards.

Skills and Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional experience in software engineering or data engineering.
• Strong programming skills in Python and Golang.
• Deep understanding of SQL and modern data lake architectures (e.g., using Parquet, Iceberg, or Delta Lake).
• Hands-on experience with AWS services including but not limited to: S3, Lambda, Glue, Kinesis, Athena, and RDS.
• Proficiency with Terraform for automating infrastructure deployment and management.
• Hands-on experience with Databricks for ML workflows: MLflow experiment tracking and model registry, Model Serving, and building training datasets in Delta Lake (PySpark/Spark SQL).
• Experience working with real-time or batch data ingestion at scale, and designing fault-tolerant ETL/ELT pipelines.
• Familiarity with DVC for dataset versioning and management.
• Familiarity with event-driven architectures and messaging systems like Kafka or Kinesis.
• Strong debugging and optimization skills across cloud, network, and application layers.
• Excellent collaboration, communication, and documentation skills.

Bonus Points

• Experience working with time-series or IoT sensor data at industrial scale.
• Exposure to gRPC and protobuf-based data contracts.
• Experience supporting ML pipelines and feature stores.
• Working knowledge of Kubernetes concepts.
• Prior startup experience and/or comfort working in fast-paced, iterative environments.