Senior Data Platform Engineer

Selby Jennings; Oakland (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Selby Jennings is seeking a Senior Data Platform Engineer to scale critical data infrastructure and lead large-scale platform initiatives. This hands-on role focuses on owning production platforms and shaping the future of a cloud-based data ecosystem alongside a highly technical team.

The ideal candidate has 8+ years in data/engineering roles, strong Python/SQL skills, and deep experience with Spark, Snowflake, Databricks, and related technologies, plus CI/CD and data reliability expertise.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of data engineering, software engineering, or data platform experience.
• Proven experience building and operating large-scale production data platforms.
• Strong background with cloud-based data infrastructure and modern analytics ecosystems.
• Hands-on experience with Spark, Snowflake, Databricks, Trino, Presto, Iceberg, Delta Lake, or Parquet.
• Deep understanding of data storage design, partitioning strategies, query optimization, file sizing, compaction, and performance tuning.
• Experience improving data quality, observability, lineage, monitoring, and platform reliability.
• Strong Python, SQL, Linux/Unix, and scripting skills.
• Experience working within CI/CD environments and supporting production systems.

Skills

Data engineering

Cloud data infra

Spark

Python

SQL

Linux/Unix

CI/CD

Databricks

Snowflake

Tools

Spark

Snowflake

Databricks

Trino/Presto

Iceberg

Delta Lake

Parquet

Job description

Senior Data Platform Engineer

A high-performance market data vendor company is seeking a Senior Data Platform Engineer to help scale critical data infrastructure and drive large-scale platform initiatives. This is a hands-on opportunity for an experienced engineer who enjoys solving complex data challenges, owning production platforms, and driving key architectural decisions.

The team is looking for someone who can operate independently, improve platform performance and reliability, and help shape the future of a growing cloud-based data ecosystem while working alongside a highly technical group of engineers

What they're looking for:

• 8+ years of data engineering, software engineering, or data platform engineering experience.
• Proven experience building and operating large-scale production data platforms.
• Strong background with cloud-based data infrastructure and modern analytics ecosystems.
• Hands‑on experience with technologies such as Spark, Snowflake, Databricks, Trino, Presto, Iceberg, Delta Lake, or Parquet.
• Deep understanding of data storage design, partitioning strategies, query optimization, file sizing, compaction, and performance tuning.
• Experience improving data quality, observability, lineage, monitoring, and platform reliability.
• Strong Python, SQL, Linux/Unix, and scripting skills.
• Experience working within CI/CD environments and supporting production systems.

Nice to have:

• Experience with AWS data services and cloud-native architectures.
• Exposure to streaming technologies such as Kafka, Flink, or similar platforms.
• Background working with large-scale time‑series, telemetry, financial, trading, or market data environments.
• Experience balancing performance, scalability, correctness, and cost optimization in real-world systems.
• High‑impact engineering work with significant ownership.
• Opportunity to shape a growing data platform from the ground up.