Principal Engineer, Public Cloud / R&D Core

Cloudera Government Solutions; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Cloudera Government Solutions is seeking a Principal Engineer to join its Public Cloud / R&D Core team. In this high-impact role, you will lead the design and architecture of our cloud data management platform, addressing complex technical challenges with innovative solutions.

The ideal candidate has extensive experience in distributed systems and is fluent in the Java ecosystem. You will also mentor other engineers, ensuring that project standards meet Cloudera’s technical excellence criteria.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in building and scaling robust products.
• Understanding of low-latency, high-throughput systems.
• Ability to translate business requirements into technical solutions.

Responsibilities

• Drive the design and architecture of large-scale cloud services.
• Bridge engineering and stakeholders to resolve high-friction challenges.
• Mentor engineers and drive technical excellence across the team.
• Debug complex interactions between Hadoop components and Cloud-Native architectures.
• Influence the future architecture of the Cloudera Data Platform.

Skills

Distributed Systems Visionary

Java Ecosystem Authority

Architectural Leadership

Problem Solving

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or equivalent

Master's degree

PhD

Job description

At Cloudera, we empower people to transform complex data into clear and actionable insights. With as much data under management as the hyperscalers, we are the preferred data partner for the top companies in almost every industry. Powered by the relentless innovation of the open source community, Cloudera advances digital transformation for the world's largest enterprises.

Business Area

Engineering

Seniority Level

Director

Job Description

At Cloudera, we empower people to transform complex data into clear and actionable insights. With as much data under management as the hyperscalers, we are the preferred data partner for the top companies in almost every industry. Powered by the relentless innovation of the open source community, Cloudera advances digital transformation for the world's largest enterprises.

The Data Platform Pillar is the bedrock of Cloudera's technology, where we design and build the core components that let our customers store, manage, and process data with unmatched scalability, security, and performance.

Join our Public Cloud / R&D Core team as a Principal Engineer, where you’ll be at the forefront of groundbreaking projects that define our multi‑and‑hybrid‑cloud data management capabilities. This is a highly technical role demanding a true technical sovereign of our Data platform ecosystem.

You will be responsible for influencing and building the core foundation of our most critical cluster management data platform components. We are looking for an individual who seeks diverse challenges, pushes the boundaries of distributed systems, and ships code enabling the processing of millions of events – not someone who simply follows a checklist. You will be the key technical leader for the pod, responsible for ensuring that our strategic prototypes meet Cloudera’s global standards for technical excellence, including scalability and resilience.

Responsibilities

• Architectural Leadership: Serve as the primary technical lead, independently driving the design and architecture of complex, large‑scale cloud services that underpin our multi‑cloud and hybrid data management platform. Determine the optimal technical approach to resolve high‑friction challenges and deliver solutions that are highly scalable, resilient, and high‑quality.
• Stakeholder Alignment and Definition: Act as the critical bridge between engineering and stakeholders (internal and external) to diagnose root causes of friction. Translate ambiguous business requirements into precise engineering tasks and concrete architectural blueprints for the development team.
• Technical Authority and Mentorship: Drive technical excellence across the team. Act as the technical authority for Senior and Full‑Stack engineers, conducting rigorous code reviews, enforcing DevSecOps best practices, and guaranteeing all solutions meet "production‑ready" standards.
• Complex Problem Solving: Tackle the most difficult technical challenges and system interactions where existing documentation or standard procedures fall short. Apply advanced engineering principles to debug complex interactions between Hadoop components and modern Cloud‑Native architectures.
• Strategic Influence: Synthesize technical insights derived from strategic initiatives and feed this information back to Cloudera's core Global Engineering teams. Use this deep understanding to directly influence the future architecture and product roadmap of the Cloudera Data Platform (CDP).

Required Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or equivalent and 10+ years of experience, or Master's degree with 6+ years, or PhD with 4+ years.
• Distributed Systems Visionary: 10+ years of building and scaling robust products. You understand the trade‑offs of low‑latency, high‑throughput systems at a fundamental level.
• Java Ecosystem Authority: You don't just write Java; you understand the JVM. You have a deep track record of b