Senior Staff Engineer

Harnham; California (MO); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading technology organization is seeking a Senior Staff Engineer for their Data Platform team in California. This role will involve leading architectural decisions, scaling existing systems, and driving innovations in real-time data processing. The ideal candidate will have over 8 years of experience in software engineering and proven expertise in large-scale distributed systems. Join a rapidly growing team and make a significant impact in a high-performance environment, while working hybrid with a minimum of three days onsite.

Qualifications

• 8–10+ years of industry experience in software engineering or data platform engineering.
• Proven ownership of large-scale distributed systems or data platforms.
• Experience engineering and modernizing data lake architectures.

Responsibilities

• Own architectural direction and long-term strategy for data platform components.
• Lead the design and development of new platform capabilities.
• Drive scaling, resiliency, and performance improvements.

Skills

Python

SQL

Java or Scala

Kafka or Flink

Distributed systems fundamentals

Job description

Location: Orange County, CA (Hybrid; minimum 3 days onsite)

Compensation: $180,000–$210,000

About the Company

A rapidly growing technology organization developing autonomous systems, advanced hardware platforms, and AI‑powered software solutions across air, sea, and land. The company builds mission‑critical systems used in real‑world, high‑performance environments where reliability and precision are essential.

The team has scaled from ~1,500 to nearly 8,000 employees over the past three years, supported by major long‑term programs. Engineers here work on deeply technical systems with significant operational and industry impact.

About the Role

The Senior Staff Engineer, Data Platform will serve as a technical leader responsible for the architecture, scalability, and reliability of the company’s core data platform. This is a high‑impact, high‑ownership role within a ~30‑person Data organization covering Analytics Engineering, Data Engineering, MDM, and Data Operations.

This position is ideal for experienced engineers who thrive in distributed systems, real‑time data flows, platform design, and cross‑functional technical leadership.

Key Responsibilities

• Own architectural direction and long‑term strategy for major data platform components
• Lead the design and development of new platform capabilities (approx. 70% of the role)
• Drive scaling, resiliency, and performance improvements to existing systems (approx. 30%)
• Architect and implement real‑time telemetry and streaming data pipelines
• Ensure sub‑minute latency delivery for operational and mission‑critical dashboards
• Define best practices for distributed systems, data engineering, and platform reliability
• Lead modernization of the company’s data lake and underlying storage infrastructure
• Develop system health, observability, and reliability frameworks
• Collaborate closely with engineering, analytics, hardware, and operations leaders
• Mentor and guide senior engineers and contribute to the team's technical growth

Expected Impact in the First 6–12 Months

• Remove technical and architectural bottlenecks across the platform
• Increase platform reliability, throughput, and scale
• Deliver new real‑time operational data capabilities to internal stakeholders
• Establish clear ownership and accountability for key platform systems
• Strengthen cross‑functional alignment between software, hardware, and operations teams

Qualifications

Required Experience

• 8–10+ years of industry experience in software engineering or data platform engineering
• Proven ownership of large‑scale distributed systems or data platforms
• Experience engineering and modernizing data lake architectures
• Strong background in backend systems, distributed computing, and platform‑level design

Required Technical Skills

• Python
• SQL
• Java or Scala
• Kafka or Flink
• Strong distributed systems fundamentals and architectural depth

Preferred Experience

• Exposure to hardware or physical system telemetry data
• Infrastructure as Code experience
• Experience working in secure or constrained environments
• Designed or owned architecture for high‑scale data or streaming platforms
• Built internal developer platforms or tooling
• Led reliability, scalability, or performance improvements at system‑level
• Influenced technical decision‑making across teams or organizations

Why This Role Is Important

As a Senior Staff Engineer, you will shape the future of a data platform supporting real‑time operational systems, large‑scale telemetry pipelines, and complex manufacturing workflows. This is an opportunity to lead high‑impact engineering initiatives in a fast‑growing, deeply technical environment.