Principal Data Platform Engineer: Scale & AI-Driven Impact

Klaviyo; Boston (MA); On-site; USD 244,000 - 366,000; Full time

Job summary

Klaviyo in Boston, MA seeks an experienced Senior IC to own the technical direction and delivery for our data platform, including streaming, batch compute, storage/lakehouse, and governance. You will design and ship scalable systems enabling autonomous experiences.

This is an individual-contributor role; you will influence through architecture, code, and mentorship, aligning with SLOs, cost efficiency, and data quality. You’ll work with analytics/AI teams to unlock faster, safer data workflows.

Qualifications

• 10+ years building and operating distributed data systems.
• Experience defining and upholding SLOs for data freshness, availability, and correctness.
• Ability to design, implement, and optimize data ingestion, streaming, and governance patterns.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement core data platform capabilities (ingestion/CDC, stream processing, batch orchestration, data lake/warehouse).
• Define and uphold SLOs for data freshness, availability and correctness; participate in incident reviews.
• Author ADRs/RFCs, land data contracts, and standardize connectors to accelerate developer velocity.
• Profile and optimize systems for performance and cost; collaborate with FinOps on unit economics.
• Mentor engineers across pillars through design reviews and pairing.
• Use AI to streamline data workflows and improve data quality.

Skills

Distributed data systems

Data ingestion/CDC

Stream processing

SLO design & governance

Tools

Kafka

Flink

Spark

Airflow

Iceberg/Delta/Hudi

Job description

Klaviyo in Boston, MA seeks an experienced Senior IC to own the technical direction and delivery for our data platform, including streaming, batch compute, storage/lakehouse, and governance. You will design and ship scalable systems enabling autonomous experiences.

This is an individual-contributor role; you will influence through architecture, code, and mentorship, aligning with SLOs, cost efficiency, and data quality. You’ll work with analytics/AI teams to unlock faster, safer data workflows.