Lead Software Engineer - Databricks

JPMorgan Chase & Co.; Wilmington (DE); On-site; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

JPMorgan Chase & Co. is seeking a Lead Software Engineer-Databricks to drive architecture and delivery of high-throughput data pipelines on Databricks, leveraging Spark, Delta Lake, and Unity Catalog.

You will own cluster strategy, implement CI/CD, and champion secure, scalable data solutions across business functions. The role requires heavy production delivery in data engineering, with strong Python/Java skills and experience in AI-assisted engineering practices for code quality and

Qualifications

• 5+ years of software/data engineering experience with large-scale data systems.

Responsibilities

• Lead architecture and delivery of high-throughput data pipelines on Databricks with Spark.
• Establish and evolve Lakehouse patterns with Delta Lake for scalable data platforms.
• Own Databricks cluster strategy, autoscaling, and configuration.
• Automate pipelines with Databricks Workflows and Airflow, integrating with AWS services.
• Design secure ingestion/transform frameworks and governance using Unity Catalog and AWS Glue Catalog.
• Drive Spark performance tuning to optimize cost and throughput.
• Develop reusable libraries and APIs in Python/Java for data processing.
• Implement CI/CD for data projects using Git, Terraform, and automated releases.
• Promote AI-assisted engineering practices with code reviews, testing, and validation.

Skills

Databricks

Apache Spark

Python

Java

SQL

Data pipelines

CI/CD

Delta Lake

AWS

Terraform

Airflow

Security

Education

Software engineering degree

Tools

Unity Catalog

Databricks Workflows

Job description

Be an integral part of an agile team that’s constantly pushing the envelope to enhance, build, and deliver top-notch technology products.

As a Lead Software Engineer-Databricks at JPMorgan Chase within our Corporate Sector’s Enterprise Technology team, you are an integral part of an agile team that works to enhance, build, and deliver trusted market-leading technology products in a secure, stable, and scalable way. As a core technical contributor, you are responsible for conducting critical technology solutions across multiple technical areas within various business functions in support of the firm’s business objectives.

Job responsibilities

• Lead the architecture and delivery of high-throughput, low-latency data pipelines on Databricks using Apache Spark (Core, SQL, Structured Streaming), driving performance, reliability, and scalability.
• Establish and evolve Lakehouse patterns with Delta Lake (ACID transactions, schema evolution, time travel, Z-ordering, compaction) to ensure performant, maintainable data platforms at scale.
• Own Databricks cluster strategy and configuration, including runtime selection, autoscaling, driver/executor sizing, Spark configurations, init scripts, cluster policies, pools, and instance profiles.
• Orchestrate and automate pipelines and jobs using Databricks Workflows, integrating with AWS eventing and orchestration services as needed.
• Design secure ingestion and transformation frameworks leveraging Databricks services, including Delta or unmanaged table design, ingestion task creation, and Airflow DAGs to produce trusted and refined datasets.
• Enforce data quality, lineage, and governance using Unity Catalog and/or AWS Glue Catalog, embedding expectations and validation directly into pipelines.
• Drive Spark and Databricks performance engineering and tuning (partitioning and file sizing, AQE, broadcast joins, shuffle tuning, caching, spill/memory control, job right-sizing, and liquid clustering/partitioning keys) to optimize cost and throughput.
• Build and maintain reusable libraries, frameworks, and APIs in Python and/or Java, ensuring strong unit, integration, and data validation test coverage.
• Implement CI/CD for data projects using Git-based workflows, Terraform-based infrastructure deployments and environment promotion, and automated releases; champion engineering standards, code reviews, and enterprise-authorized AI-assisted engineering practices (e.g., code review/refactoring, test acceleration, and incident/root-cause analysis) with consistent validation (secure coding, peer review, automated testing) and reuse of proven patterns.
• Drives team adoption of enterprise-authorized AI-assisted engineering practices within the work environment to improve code quality, delivery speed, and operational outcomes (e.g., AI-assisted code review/refactoring, test strategy acceleration, incident/root-cause analysis support), while establishing consistent validation standards (secure coding, peer review, automated testing) and promoting reuse of effective patterns across the team.

Required qualifications, capabilities, and skills

• Applies knowledge of tools within the Software Development Life Cycle toolchain, including enterprise-authorized AI-assisted development and automation capabilities, to improve the value realized by automation.
• Formal training or certification on software engineering concepts and 5+ years applied experience.
• Advanced experience in software engineering and data engineering, including significant production delivery with Apache Spark on Databricks and/or AWS EMR.
• Advanced hands-on Databricks expertise across Delta Lake, Unity Catalog, Workflows, Repos/notebooks, and SQL Warehouses, including cluster configuration and optimization.
• Proven ability to architect, build, and operate reliable ETL/ELT data pipelines (batch and streaming), including schema design/evolution, SLAs, and reliability engineering practices.
• Deep Spark performance tuning skills, with experience diagnosing bottlenecks and optimizing jobs for scalability, cost, and runtime efficiency.
• Strong programming proficiency in Python and/or Java for data processing, platform tooling, and automation.
• Strong SQL and analytics data modeling expertise, including dimensional/star schema design and Lakehouse best practices.
• Demonstrated experience leading effective use of approved AI-assisted software development tools (coding, code review, test acceleration, troubleshooting), including setting team expectations and validation standards for correctness, performance, and security of AI outputs.
• Strong responsible-AI and security-first engineering mindset, including data sensitivity awareness, secure handling of inputs/outputs, roles/instance profiles, secrets management, encryption at rest/in transit, network controls, and adherence to resiliency and security expectations; experience coaching teams on safe, compliant adoption within delivery practices.
• Demonstrated experience leading effective use of approved AI-assisted software development tools (e.g., for coding, code review, test acceleration, troubleshooting) with the ability to set team expectations for validating AI outputs for correctness, performance, and security.
• Strong understanding of responsible AI use in engineering workflows, including data sensitivity considerations, secure handling of inputs/outputs, and adherence to resiliency and security expectations; experience coaching engineers on safe, compliant adoption within delivery practices.

Preferred qualifications, capabilities, and skills

• Experience with Delta Live Tables and advanced governance (catalogs, grants, auditing) in Databricks.
• AWS networking knowledge (VPC, subnets, routing, security groups) and data egress controls.
• Experience with Terraform for Infra deployments
• Cost optimization experience: autoscaling strategies, spot vs on-demand, auto-termination, storage layouts and compaction.
• Familiarity with Airflow, Genie, Streamlit and React
• Observability for data systems (freshness/completeness metrics, lineage, SLAs, alerting).
• Demonstrated leadership in code quality, reviews, testing strategy, CI/CD, and technical mentorship; excellent communication with stakeholders.