Senior Software Engineer - Data Infrastructure

Plaid; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 270,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

401(k)

Job summary

A tech company specializing in financial services is seeking a Data Infrastructure Engineer to enhance data-driven and machine-learning initiatives. The ideal candidate will have over 5 years of software engineering experience, with a focus on data infrastructure or machine learning systems. Responsibilities include leading projects, mentoring team members, and collaborating across departments. This role offers a competitive salary ranging from $180,000 to $270,000 annually based on location and experience.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of software engineering experience.
• Extensive software engineering experience in Data Infrastructure.
• Strong understanding of ML or Data Infrastructure systems.
• Proficiency in coding, testing, and system design.
• Demonstrated leadership experience in mentoring engineers.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to technical roadmap for data-driven machine learning.
• Lead data infrastructure projects.
• Work with teams to define technical roadmaps.
• Debug and troubleshoot the Data Platform.
• Mentor and lead the team.

Skills

Software engineering experience

Collaboration and communication skills

Project management skills

Coding and testing proficiency

Leadership abilities

Tools

Databricks

Airflow

AWS EMR

Job description

We believe that the way people interact with their finances will drastically improve in the next few years. We’re dedicated to empowering this transformation by building the tools and experiences that thousands of developers use to create their own products. Plaid powers the tools millions of people rely on to live a healthier financial life. We work with thousands of companies like Venmo, SoFi, several of the Fortune 500, and many of the largest banks to make it easy for people to connect their financial accounts to the apps and services they want to use. Plaid’s network covers 12,000 financial institutions across the US, Canada, UK and Europe. Founded in 2013, the company is headquartered in San Francisco with offices in New York, Washington D.C., London and Amsterdam.

Making data driven decisions is key to Plaid's culture. To support that, we need to scale our data systems while maintaining correct and complete data. We provide tooling and guidance to teams across engineering, product, and business and help them explore our data quickly and safely to get the data insights they need, which ultimately helps Plaid serve our customers more effectively. We build the data and machine learning infrastructure to enable Plaid engineers to prototype and iterate on products and features built on top of consumer-permissioned financial data.

Engineers on Data Infrastructure are domain experts in Data Warehouse, Data Lakehouse, Spark, Workflow Orchestration, and Streaming technologies. We scale our existing data pipelines in a performant and cost efficient way while creating the necessary abstractions to make developing on top of this platform extremely simple for other engineers at Plaid.

Responsibilities

• Contribute towards the long‑term technical roadmap for data‑driven and machine‑learning iteration at Plaid
• Lead key data infrastructure projects such as improving ML development golden paths, implementing offline streaming solutions for data freshness, building net new ETL pipeline infrastructure, and evolving data warehouse or data lakehouse capabilities
• Work with stakeholders in other teams and functions to define technical roadmaps for key backend systems and abstractions across Plaid
• Debug, troubleshoot, and reduce operational burden for the Data Platform
• Grow the team via mentorship and leadership, review technical documents and code changes

Qualifications

• 5+ years of software engineering experience
• Extensive hands‑on software engineering experience, with a strong track record of delivering successful projects within the Data Infrastructure or Platform domain at similar or larger companies
• Deep understanding of one of: ML Infrastructure systems (including Feature Stores, Training Infrastructure, Serving Infrastructure, and Model Monitoring) OR Data Infrastructure systems (including Data Warehouses, Data Lakehouses, Apache Spark, Streaming Infrastructure, Workflow Orchestration)
• Strong cross‑functional collaboration, communication, and project management skills, with proven ability to coordinate effectively
• Proficiency in coding, testing, and system design, ensuring reliable and scalable solutions
• Demonstrated leadership abilities, including experience mentoring and guiding junior engineers
• [Nice to have] Experience with Databricks, Airflow, AWS EMR

Salary and Benefits

$180,000 – $270,000 a year

The target base salary for this position ranges from $180,000/year to $270,000/year in Zone 1. The target base salary will vary based on the job's location.

Additional compensation in the form(s) of equity and/or commission are dependent on the position offered. Plaid provides a comprehensive benefit plan, including medical, dental, vision, and 401(k). Pay is based on factors such as (but not limited to) scope and responsibilities of the position, candidate's work experience and skill set, and location. Pay and benefits are subject to change at any time, consistent with the terms of any applicable compensation or benefit plans.

Geographic Zones

• Zone 1 – New York City and San Francisco Bay Area
• Zone 2 – Los Angeles, Seattle, Washington D.C.
• Zone 3 – Austin, Boston, Denver, Houston, Portland, Sacramento, San Diego
• Zone 4 – Raleigh‑Durham and all other U.S. cities

Our mission at Plaid is to unlock financial freedom for everyone. To support that mission, we seek to build a diverse team of driven individuals who care deeply about making the financial ecosystem more equitable. We recognize that strong qualifications can come from both prior work experiences and lived experiences. We encourage you to apply to a role even if your experience doesn't fully match the job description. We are always looking for team members that will bring something unique to Plaid!

Equal Opportunity Employer

Plaid is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and values diversity at our company. We do not discriminate based on race, color, national origin, ethnicity, religion or religious belief, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, sexual stereotypes, age, military or veteran status, disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. We also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state, and local laws. Plaid is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities in our recruiting process. If you need any assistance with your application or interviews due to a disability, please let us know at .

Please review our Candidate Privacy Notice here.