Principal Software Engineer - Data Platform

Harnham; San Francisco (CA); Remote; USD 230,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading company in technology seeks a Principal Software Engineer to spearhead the development of an innovative data platform. This role involves designing cloud-native architectures that enable real-time analytics and AI capabilities. Ideal candidates will bring extensive experience in data engineering, strong leadership skills, and a passion for tackling petabyte-scale challenges with advanced technologies.

Benefits

Medical insurance

Vision insurance

401(k)

Pension plan

Qualifications

• 8+ years in data engineering or platform architecture.
• 5+ years at Principal Engineer level.
• Expertise with Kafka, streaming data systems, and cloud services.

Responsibilities

• Design and build a next-gen data platform.
• Architect systems for scalability, fault tolerance, and low latency.
• Mentor senior engineers and align technical decisions with business strategies.

Skills

Kafka

Data Governance

Cloud-Native Architecture

Data Modeling

Streaming Data Systems

Communication

Collaboration

Leadership

Education

Bachelor's or Master's in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Snowflake

ClickHouse

Iceberg

Job description

Principal Software Engineer - Data Platform

Principal Software Engineer - Data Platform

Principal Software Engineer - Data Platform

San Francisco, CA (Remote Eligible – US Only)

$230K–$280K base + equity

Are you ready to lead the design and build of a world-class data platform from the ground up?

A high-growth, product-led tech company is looking for a Principal Software Engineer to lead the buildout of a modern, scalable data platform from the ground up. If you’re excited about solving massive data challenges and shaping the infrastructure that supports real-time analytics and AI/ML at scale, this role is for you.

As the most senior technical IC on the Data Platform team, you'll partner with leadership across Engineering, Product, Security, and Compliance to design a low-latency, cloud-native data architecture using best-in-class tools like Kafka, Iceberg, ClickHouse, Tinybird, and Snowflake.

Why this role?

• Join a growing Data Platform team
• Own the technical vision and architecture end-to-end
• Tackle petabyte-scale data challenges and real-time streaming use cases
• Work with a cutting-edge tech stack (Kafka, Iceberg, ClickHouse, Snowflake, etc.)
• Drive platform evolution to support AI/ML and company-wide analytics

What You’ll Do

• Design and build a next-gen data platform to power product and internal use cases
• Architect for batch + streaming, scalability, fault tolerance, and low latency
• Lead data modeling, warehousing, governance, and ingestion best practices
• Champion engineering excellence and mentor senior engineers
• Align technical decisions with long-term business strategy
• Optimize for performance, cost, and resiliency in a modern cloud environment

What We’re Looking For

• 8+ years of experience in data engineering or platform architecture
• 5+ years at the Principal Engineer level or equivalent
• Deep expertise with Kafka (and its ecosystem), streaming data systems
• Strong experience with ClickHouse, Iceberg, Snowflake, or similar tools
• Cloud-native architecture expertise (AWS, GCP, or Azure)
• Track record of designing data systems for compliance and governance
• Experience scaling systems to support petabyte-level workloads
• Excellent communication, collaboration, and leadership skills
• Bonus: Experience enabling AI/ML platforms or preparing for IPO-scale growth

Seniority level

• Seniority level

  Mid-Senior level

Employment type

• Employment type

  Full-time

Job function

• Industries

  Technology, Information and Media and Data Infrastructure and Analytics

Referrals increase your chances of interviewing at Harnham by 2x

Inferred from the description for this job

Medical insurance

Vision insurance

401(k)

Pension plan

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