Platform Architect: Data Foundations & Scale

WEX; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 210,000 - 320,000; Full time

Job summary

WEX is leading a data-driven transformation with a modern Data-as-a-Service platform. We seek a Principal Staff Software Engineer to architect the DaaS end-to-end, unify data ingestion, modeling, and data products, and drive platform standards across domains.

You will mentor senior engineers, influence executives, and shape scalable, auditable data systems used for analytics, AI, and customer experiences enterprise-wide.

Qualifications

• 12–15+ years of experience in software or platform engineering.
• Experience with distributed systems and large-scale data platforms.
• Ability to set cross-domain architectural standards and influence adoption across multiple teams.
• Strong background in data lifecycle management (versioning, auditability, observability, lineage, reproducibility).
• Deep experience with modern data ecosystems: streaming (Kafka, Flink), batch (Spark, DBT), storage (Iceberg, Delta), orchestration (Airflow, Dagster).
• Exceptional communication and leadership skills.
• Passion for creating platforms that endure: trusted and empowering for analytics, AI, and products enterprise-wide.

Responsibilities

• Architect the DaaS platform end-to-end: define the next generation of the enterprise data stack.
• Establish platform standards for ingestion, modeling, lineage, observability, and access control.
• Guide technical strategy with senior leadership to align data architecture with strategic objectives.
• Design systems for scale, reliability, and trust with auditable data assets.
• Mentor senior staff engineers and architects in distributed systems and platform reliability.
• Drive adoption of modern open-source and cloud-native technologies.
• Collaborate across Data Acquisition, Semantic Modeling, Data Products, and Governance teams.

Skills

Distributed systems

Data acquisition

Semantic modeling

Cross-domain architectural standards

Mentorship

Leadership

Communication

Platform reliability

Tools

Kafka

Flink

Spark

DBT

Iceberg

Delta

Airflow

Dagster

Ray

Job description

WEX is leading a data-driven transformation with a modern Data-as-a-Service platform. We seek a Principal Staff Software Engineer to architect the DaaS end-to-end, unify data ingestion, modeling, and data products, and drive platform standards across domains.

You will mentor senior engineers, influence executives, and shape scalable, auditable data systems used for analytics, AI, and customer experiences enterprise-wide.