Lead Engineer, Integrated Planning System (Seattle, WA - Hybrid)

Starbucks; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 190,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision

Life insurance

401(k) with company match

Bean Stock equity program

Tuition assistance

Paid time off and holidays

Disability benefits

Backup care

Job summary

Starbucks Coffee Company in Seattle is seeking a Lead Engineer for the Integrated Planning System to connect demand signals to supply decisions across the enterprise. You will provide technical leadership for scalable, distributed systems and collaborate with product, program, and data teams to deliver production-ready planning solutions.

You will own end-to-end delivery (data→services→UI), drive architecture around streaming, APIs, data models, and AI-enabled workflows, mentor the team, and

Qualifications

• 7+ years building and operating large-scale distributed systems.
• Experience with Kafka and stream processing (Flink/Spark/Kafka Streams).
• Data engineering: reliable pipelines, stateful processing, schema evolution.
• Backend services/API development (TS/Node, Java/Kotlin, Go).
• NoSQL/SQL datastores (Postgres, Cassandra) with caching/analytics stores.
• Cloud experience in Azure/AWS/GCP.
• AI integration with ML/LLM capabilities; model serving and guardrails.
• Observability, monitoring, alerting; meet SLOs.
• Security: secure-by-default development and least-privilege access.
• Leadership: mentoring and cross-team technical leadership.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end delivery of product capabilities (data → services → UI), from concept to production rollout.
• Lead architecture and technical decisions across streaming/ big data processing, APIs, data modeling, and user-facing experiences.
• Establish an AI-enabled development workflow with prompts/templates and guardrails.
• Design and ship AI-assisted decision support with real-time inference and explainability.
• Own and evolve API contracts with consistent semantics and backward-compatible changes.
• Drive data quality and identity governance for consistent outputs over time.
• Own performance and reliability with latency/throughput targets and SLOs.
• Mentor and level up the team via code reviews and design reviews.
• Execute cross-functionally with partner teams and clear tradeoffs communication.
• Deliver measurable outcomes to improve service levels and reduce costs.

Skills

Distributed systems

Kafka

Backend APIs

Cloud (Azure/AWS/GCP)

AI integration

Observability

Leadership

Tools

Kafka Streams

Flink

Spark

Databricks

Postgres

Cassandra

TypeScript/Node

Java/Kotlin

Go

Azure/AWS/GCP

Job description

Now Brewing – Lead Engineer, Integrated Planning System! #tobeapartner

From the beginning, Starbucks set out to be a different kind of company. One that not only celebrated coffee and rich tradition, but that also brought a feeling of connection. We are known for developing extraordinary leaders who share this passion and are guided by their service to others.

As a Lead Engineer on the Integrated Planning System team, you will help build and evolve Starbucks' planning platform that connects demand signals to supply decisions across the enterprise. You will provide technical leadership for highly scalable, distributed systems, drive architecture decisions, and partner closely with product, program, and data teams to deliver reliable, production-ready solutions that support Starbucks' supply chain and planning operations.

As a Lead Engineer, you will…

• Own end-to-end delivery of product capabilities (data → services → UI), from concept to production rollout.
• Lead architecture and technical decisions across streaming/ big data processing, APIs, data modeling, and user-facing experiences.
• Establish an AI-enabled development workflow across requirements, design, implementation, code review, documentation, and incident/RCA support; create reusable prompts/templates and guardrails for safe, repeatable use.
• Design and ship AI-assisted decision support (real-time inference, explainability, summarization, alerting) with measurable outcomes and clear human-in-the-loop controls.
• Own and evolve API contracts: consistent semantics, validation at boundaries, predictable naming, additive/backward-compatible changes, and a clear deprecation strategy.
• Drive data quality and identity governance: establish reliable master data practices so outputs remain consistent over time.
• Own performance and reliability: define latency/throughput targets, design for backpressure/failure handling, and maintain SLOs for critical user journeys.
• Mentor and level up the team through code reviews, pairing, design reviews, and coaching on system design and AI-assisted engineering best practices.
• Execute cross-functionally: translate business needs into technical plans, align with partner teams , and communicate progress and tradeoffs clearly.
• Deliver measurable outcomes: improve service levels, reduce operational cost, and accelerate decision cycles through better insights and automation.

Required Experience

• Enterprise distributed systems: 7+ years building and operating large-scale, multi-service platforms (high throughput, low latency, fault tolerant) in a complex enterprise environment.
• Streaming + event-driven architecture: strong experience with Kafka (or equivalent) and stream processing (Flink / Spark Structured Streaming / Kafka Streams).
• Data engineering fundamentals: building reliable pipelines, stateful processing, schema evolution, backfills, and idempotent processing patterns. (Apache Spark, Databricks,
• Backend services: building production APIs and services (TypeScript/Node, Java/Kotlin, Go, or similar), caching, and performance tuning.
• Datastores: strong experience with NoSQL and SQL (Postgres, Cassandra or equivalent) plus one or more of distributed caching, document stores, and/or analytics stores; understands indexing, partitioning, and query optimization.
• Cloud: hands‑on in cloud Azure/AWS/GCP (networking basics, IAM, managed services tradeoffs, cost/perf).
• AI integration: experience integrating ML/LLM capabilities into products (model serving, prompt patterns, evaluation, safety/guardrails, monitoring, and feedback loops).
• Observability + reliability: production monitoring, tracing, alerting, incident response, and defining/meeting SLOs.
• Security: secure‑by‑default development, handling sensitive data, least‑privilege access, and auditability.
• Leadership: technical leadership across teams—driving design reviews, mentoring, and delivering outcomes across ambiguous problem spaces.

As a Starbucks partner, you (and your family) will have access to medical, dental, vision, basic and supplemental life insurance, and other voluntary insurance benefits. Partners have access to short‑term and long‑term disability, paid parental leave, family expansion reimbursement, paid vacation from date of hire*, sick time (accrued at 1 hour for every 25 hours worked), eight paid holidays, and two personal days per year. Starbucks also offers eligible partners participation in a 401(k) retirement plan with employer match, a discounted company stock program (S.I.P.), Starbucks equity program (Bean Stock), incentivized emergency savings, and financial well‑being tools. Additionally, Starbucks offers 100% upfront tuition coverage for a first‑time bachelor’s degree through Arizona State University’s online program via the Starbucks College Achievement Plan, student loan management resources, and access to other educational opportunities. You will also have access to backup care and DACA reimbursement. Starbucks will comply with any applicable state and local laws regarding employee leave benefits, including, but not limited to providing time off pursuant to the Colorado Healthy Families and Workplaces Act, and in accordance with its plans and policies. This list is subject to change depending on collective bargaining in locations where partners have a certified bargaining representative. For additional information regarding partner perks and more detailed information about benefits, go to starbucksbenefits.com.

• If you are working in CA, CO, IL, LA, ME, MA, NE, ND or RI, you will accrue vacation up to a maximum of 120 hours (190 in CA) for roles below director and 200 hours (316 in CA) for roles at director or above. For roles in other states, you will be granted vacation time starting at 120 hours annually for roles below director and 200 hours annually for roles director and above. AC

The actual base pay offered to the successful candidate will be based on multiple factors, including but not limited to job‑related knowledge and skills, experience, geographical location, and internal equity. At Starbucks, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at the high end of the range for their role.

We believe we do our best work when we’re onsite four days a week.

Join us and inspire with every cup.

Starbucks Coffee Company is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Qualified applicants with criminal histories will be considered for employment in a manner consistent with all federal, state, and local ordinances. Starbucks Coffee Company is committed to offering reasonable accommodations to job applicants with disabilities. If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, please contact applicantaccommodation or 1(888) 611-2258.