Senior Software Engineer, Data Platform

fal; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Interesting work

Learning & growth

Relocation assistance

Health insurance

Job summary

fal in San Francisco is seeking a Senior Data Engineer to build data infrastructure powering cost, margin, and performance analytics across internal systems and partner APIs.

You’ll design low-latency ingestion paths, instrument core infra, and create durable pipelines to BigQuery, ClickHouse, and other analytics stores, enabling quick, reliable decisions.

Collaborate across infra, data and product teams in a fast-moving startup; onsite work 5x/week in SF with relocation assistance.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in software or data engineering with a production infra focus.
• Strong Python or Go background and SQL proficiency.
• Experience building ingestion pipelines to warehouses (BigQuery, Snowflake, Redshift) and low-latency stores (ClickHouse, Druid, Pinot).
• Solid knowledge of dbt and orchestration tooling (Dagster, Airflow, Prefect).
• Ability to collaborate across infra, product and data teams to translate business questions into durable systems.

Responsibilities

• Instrument core infra to capture signals and land changes safely with the infra team.
• Build ingestion pipelines into BigQuery and a low-latency analytical store.
• Design and operate the ETL backbone powering cost, margin, and usage analytics.
• Stand up a lightweight write path for analytics-grade telemetry.
• Define data contracts and instrumentation standards across teams.

Skills

Python

Go

SQL

dbt

Dagster

Airflow

Prefect

BigQuery

Snowflake

Redshift

ClickHouse

Druid

Pinot

Tools

BigQuery

Snowflake

Redshift

ClickHouse

Druid

Pinot

Dagster

Airflow

Prefect

Job description

As a Senior Data Engineer at fal, you will build the data infrastructure that turns our internal systems and external vendor relationships into a clear picture of cost, margin, and performance. Your work spans both edges of our stack - the production infrastructure that runs every model invocation, and the partner APIs and compute vendors whose costs we need to reason about in near real-time.

This role sits at the intersection of software engineering and data engineering. You'll partner closely with Infra to safely instrument core systems, design a low-latency analytical write path, and stand up the ingestion pipelines that unlock cost, margin, and infrastructure analytics for the entire company. You will be a force multiplier - freeing up product engineers and infra to focus on what they do best while giving the data team the foundations it needs to move fast.

What you'll do

• Instrument fal's core infrastructure to capture CPU, GPU, and request-level signals, working alongside our infra team to land changes safely in critical paths.
• Build ingestion pipelines from partner APIs, compute vendors, and internal services into BigQuery and a new low-latency analytical store (e.g., ClickHouse).
• Design and operate the ETL backbone that powers cost, margin, and usage analytics with durable, observable pipelines.
• Stand up a lightweight, low-latency write path that the data team and product engineers can target directly for analytics-grade telemetry.
• Partner with infra, data and product engineering to define data contracts and instrumentation standards, and act as the connective tissue between operational systems and the analytics layer.

What we are looking for

• 5+ years of experience as a software or data engineer, with a software-engineering-heavy track record (Python, Go, or similar)
• Demonstrated ability to ship code into critical production infrastructure safely, including familiarity with database performance, query patterns, and incident risk.
• Hands-on experience building ingestion pipelines into a warehouse (BigQuery, Snowflake, Redshift) and at least one low-latency analytical store (ClickHouse, Druid, Pinot, or similar)
• Strong SQL and working proficiency in dbt and orchestration tooling (Dagster, Airflow, Prefect)
• Track record of partnering across teams (infra, product engineering, data) and translating business questions into durable systems.
• Bias for action and comfort working in fast-moving, ambiguous environments.

Nice-to-haves

• Experience instrumenting GPU/accelerator workloads or other infrastructure-cost-heavy systems.
• Exposure to FinOps or infrastructure cost modeling at a cloud-native company.
• Experience with developer-facing API products or platforms.
• Early-stage or fast-scaling startup experience.

Location

• Onsite 5x a week in San Francisco, CA

What we offer at fal

• Interesting and challenging work
• A lot of learning and growth opportunities
• We are currently hiring in downtown San Francisco.
• We offer relocation assistance to San Francisco.
• Health, dental, and vision insurance (US)