Director of Software Engineering (Data)

salesforce.com, inc.; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 197,000 - 345,000; Full time

Job summary

Salesforce is seeking a Director of Software Engineering to lead our Data Ingestion Platform. You’ll own the technical strategy and architecture for high-volume data ingestion from 100+ enterprise systems into Snowflake and Data360, shaping analytics, ML workflows, and enterprise applications.

You will manage senior data engineers, drive scalable pipelines with Snowflake, Kafka, Spark, and Airflow, and partner with cross-functional teams to deliver reliable, secure data products.

Qualifications

• 15+ years of data engineering experience with focus on data ingestion.
• 8+ years of engineering leadership and people management.
• Proven experience architecting and operating high-volume, high-throughput enterprise data ingestion platforms.
• Deep hands-on experience with Snowflake, including data architecture, performance optimization, security, governance, and cost management.
• Strong expertise with Apache Spark for large-scale distributed data processing.
• Hands-on experience designing lakehouse architectures using Apache Iceberg or comparable open table formats.
• Strong experience with Apache Kafka and event-driven, streaming-data architectures.
• Deep proficiency in SQL and at least one general-purpose programming language, preferably Python.
• Strong understanding of data modeling, distributed systems, schema evolution, data contracts, batch and streaming processing patterns.
• Proficiency with infrastructure as code and CI/CD for data workflows.
• Experience implementing enterprise data quality, metadata management, lineage, observability, access control, and governance practices.
• Track record of establishing engineering standards and delivering reliable platforms across multiple teams.
• Experience leading complex technical programs involving multiple systems, stakeholders, and engineering teams.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder-management skills, with the ability to drive alignment across engineering and business leadership.

Responsibilities

• Define and execute the technical strategy and roadmap for enterprise data ingestion platforms.
• Architect, build, and operate high-volume, high-throughput batch and real-time data ingestion systems.
• Lead the design of scalable data pipelines and ETL/ELT workflows using technologies such as MuleSoft, Informatica, Spark, dbt, Iceberg, Kafka and Airflow.
• Design and optimize data models and storage architectures across Snowflake, Data360 and lakehouse environments.
• Partner with the Data Platform team to establish Apache Iceberg-based patterns for open, scalable, and interoperable data storage.
• Ensure data ingestion platforms meet enterprise requirements for availability, performance, security, observability, data quality, and disaster recovery.
• Drive platform scalability through automation, reusable frameworks, standardized ingestion patterns, and self-service capabilities.
• Establish and enforce engineering best practices, including architecture reviews, testing, code reviews, CI/CD, documentation, and operational readiness.
• Evaluate and champion new data technologies, frameworks, and architectural patterns.
• Maintain a strong balance between strategic technical leadership and hands-on involvement in critical architectural decisions.

Skills

Data engineering

Cloud data platforms

Snowflake

Apache Spark

Apache Kafka

Python

SQL

Data modeling

CI/CD for data workflows

Leadership

Tools

Snowflake

MuleSoft

Informatica

dbt

Iceberg

Kafka

Airflow

Spark

Job description

Software Engineering

Job Details

About Salesforce

Salesforce is the #1 AI CRM, where humans with agents drive customer success together. Here, ambition meets action. Tech meets trust. And innovation isn't a buzzword - it's a way of life. The world of work as we know it is changing and we're looking for Trailblazers who are passionate about bettering business and the world through AI, driving innovation, and keeping Salesforce's core values at the heart of it all.

Ready to level-up your career at the company leading workforce transformation in the agentic era? You're in the right place! Agentforce is the future of AI, and you are the future of Salesforce.

We're hiring a Director of Software Engineering to lead our Data Engineering team. You'll own the technical strategy and execution for enterprise-scale data ingestion platforms that power analytics, operational workflows, ML models, AI agents and business applications across the organization.

This role will lead an established team of senior data engineers and drive the architecture of high-volume, high-throughput data ingestion systems. You'll set engineering direction for data ingestion from 100+ enterprise systems into Snowflake and Data360 leveraging technologies like MuleSoft, Informatica, Spark, dbt, Iceberg, Kafka and Airflow while ensuring our data ingestion platform is scalable, reliable, governed, secure, and easy for internal teams to use.

This is a director-level role with direct people management responsibility for senior data engineers.

What You'll Do

Technical Leadership

• Define and execute the technical strategy and roadmap for enterprise data ingestion platforms.
• Architect, build, and operate high-volume, high-throughput batch and real-time data ingestion systems.
• Lead the design of scalable data pipelines and ETL/ELT workflows using technologies such as MuleSoft, Informatica, Spark, dbt, Iceberg, Kafka and Airflow.
• Design and optimize data models and storage architectures across Snowflake, Data360 and lakehouse environments.
• Partner with the Data Platform team to establish Apache Iceberg-based patterns for open, scalable, and interoperable data storage.
• Ensure data ingestion platforms meet enterprise requirements for availability, performance, security, observability, data quality, and disaster recovery.
• Drive platform scalability through automation, reusable frameworks, standardized ingestion patterns, and self-service capabilities.
• Establish and enforce engineering best practices, including architecture reviews, testing, code reviews, CI/CD, documentation, and operational readiness.
• Evaluate and champion new data technologies, frameworks, and architectural patterns.
• Maintain a strong balance between strategic technical leadership and hands-on involvement in critical architectural decisions.

People Management

• Directly manage senior data engineers, providing mentorship, coaching, and career development support.
• Set clear goals and expectations, conduct regular one-on-one meetings, and lead performance and talent reviews.
• Build a collaborative, inclusive, accountable, and high-performing engineering culture.
• Develop technical leaders and create growth paths for senior and staff-level engineers.
• Partner with recruiting and engineering leadership to grow the team as business needs evolve.
• Establish effective team structures, ownership models, and operating mechanisms.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner with Product, Data Platform, Architecture, Analytics, Data Science, Security, Governance, and business stakeholders to align priorities and technical direction.
• Translate complex business and data requirements into pragmatic technical strategies and execution plans.
• Represent Data Ingestion Platform in roadmap, investment, capacity-planning, and architecture discussions with senior leaders.
• Establish clear service-level objectives and operating processes for support and incident management.
• Collaborate with data producers, consumers, trust and governance teams to improve data contracts, governance, lineage, discoverability, quality, and usability.
• Communicate architectural decisions, tradeoffs, risks, and delivery progress to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

What We're Looking For

• 15+ years of data engineering experience with focus on data ingestion, including significant experience designing cloud-based data warehouse and lakehouse platforms.
• 8+ years of engineering leadership and people management experience, ideally managing senior and staff-level engineers.
• Proven experience architecting and operating high-volume, high-throughput enterprise data ingestion platforms.
• Deep hands-on experience with Snowflake, including data architecture, performance optimization, security, governance, and cost management.
• Strong expertise with Apache Spark for large-scale distributed data processing.
• Hands-on experience designing lakehouse architectures using Apache Iceberg or comparable open table formats.
• Strong experience with Apache Kafka and event-driven, streaming-data architectures.
• Deep proficiency in SQL and at least one general-purpose programming language, preferably Python.
• Strong understanding of data modeling, distributed systems, schema evolution, data contracts, batch and streaming processing patterns.
• Proficiency with infrastructure as code and CI/CD for data workflows.
• Experience implementing enterprise data quality, metadata management, lineage, observability, access control, and governance practices.
• Track record of establishing engineering standards and delivering reliable platforms across multiple teams.
• Experience leading complex technical programs involving multiple systems, stakeholders, and engineering teams.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder-management skills, with the ability to drive alignment across engineering and business leadership.

Nice to Have

• Experience with Salesforce data ecosystems (Data360) within a complex enterprise data ecosystem.
• Experience developing AI agents or agentic workflows for data ingestion, transformation, data quality, metadata management, or platform operations.
• Experience with agentic data ingestion architectures that can discover sources, interpret schemas, generate pipelines, detect failures, or recommend remediation.
• Experience building self-service data platforms, including reusable ingestion frameworks, developer portals, APIs, templates, and paved-road workflows.
• Experience designing platform capabilities that allow teams to onboard data sources safely without ongoing involvement from the core Data Engineering team.

Unleash Your Potential

When you join Salesforce, you'll be limitless in all areas of your life. Our benefits and resources support you to find balance and be your best, and our AI agents accelerate your impact so you can do your best. Together, we'll bring the power of Agentforce to organizations of all sizes and deliver amazing experiences that customers love.

Accommodations

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Posting Statement

Salesforce is an equal opportunity employer and maintains a policy of non-discrimination with all employees and applicants for employment. What does that mean exactly? It means that at Salesforce, we believe in equality for all. And we believe we can lead the path to equality in part by creating a workplace that's inclusive, and free from discrimination. Any employee or potential employee will be assessed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications - without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender expression or identity, transgender status, age, disability, veteran or marital status, political viewpoint, or other classifications protected by law. This policy applies to current and prospective employees, no matter where they are in their Salesforce employment journey. It also applies to recruiting, hiring, job assignment, compensation, promotion, benefits, training, assessment of job performance, discipline, termination, and everything in between. Recruiting, hiring, and promotion decisions at Salesforce are fair and based on merit. The same goes for compensation, benefits, promotions, transfers, reduction in workforce, recall, training, and education.

In the United States, compensation offered will be determined by factors such as location, job level, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Certain roles may be eligible for incentive compensation, equity, and benefits. Salesforce offers a variety of benefits to help you live well including: time off programs, medical, dental, vision, mental health support, paid parental leave, life and disability insurance, 401(k), and an employee stock purchasing program. More details about company benefits can be found at the following link: https://www.salesforcebenefits.com.Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance and the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring, Salesforce will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.At Salesforce, we believe in equitable compensation practices that reflect the dynamic nature of labor markets across various regions.The typical base salary range for this position is $197,300 - $313,700 annually. In select cities within the San Francisco and New York City metropolitan area, the base salary range for this role is $237,700 - $344,700 annually.The range represents base salary only, and does not include company bonus, incentive for sales roles, equity or benefits, as applicable.