Principal Engineer, AI-Native Semantic Data Platform

WEX, Inc.; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 201,000 - 250,000; Full time

Job summary

WEX, Inc. is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to shape the semantic data services powering our data-as-a-service platform.

You will define architecture, build semantic models, and drive scalable patterns across business domains while mentoring engineers and collaborating with product, AI, and risk teams. You will operate as a senior technical leader, translating complex business concepts into durable technical solutions and partnering with teams across WEX to solve distributed systems

Qualifications

• Ten years plus in software engineering or data platforms with production systems.
• Deep understanding of modern data architectures and distributed processing.
• Experience with semantic data technologies and knowledge graphs.
• Ability to translate complex business concepts into scalable platform abstractions.
• Proven mentorship and cross-functional collaboration across domains.

Responsibilities

• Define architecture and technical direction for semantic data services.
• Design semantic objects integrating data, context, lineage, and governance.
• Build scalable patterns and frameworks across multiple business lines.
• Lead engineering teams while remaining hands-on with critical components.
• Influence architectural standards without direct authority.

Skills

Distributed systems

Data platforms

Semantic data

Architectural judgment

Mentoring

Hands-on coding

Communication

AI/ML knowledge

Problem solving

Cross-functional collaboration

Tools

Spark

Flink

Kafka

Iceberg

Snowflake

Databricks

Cloud-native data services

Graph databases

Knowledge graphs

Job description

WEX, Inc. is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to shape the semantic data services powering our data-as-a-service platform.

You will define architecture, build semantic models, and drive scalable patterns across business domains while mentoring engineers and collaborating with product, AI, and risk teams. You will operate as a senior technical leader, translating complex business concepts into durable technical solutions and partnering with teams across WEX to solve distributed systems