Staff Data Engineer

DAT Freight Solutions; Denver (CO); Hybrid; USD 134,000 - 175,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, Dental, Vision

Parental Leave

Flexible Vacation Time

401k matching

Employee Stock Purchase Plan

Transit benefit

Job summary

DAT Freight Solutions is seeking a strategic Architecture Lead to guide the evolution of a modern data platform. You will shape scalable distributed systems, apply advanced architectural patterns, and govern the data stack with dbt, Airflow, Snowflake, and Kafka.

You will partner with senior leaders on key data initiatives, drive best practices for development teams, and champion a culture of excellence within a hybrid Colorado-based engineering organization.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of engineering experience with large-scale distributed systems.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or related field.
• Strong knowledge of data platforms, data modeling, and cloud services.

Responsibilities

• Lead design and evolution of a scalable data platform architecture.
• Apply patterns such as Event Driven, CQRS, event sourcing, and Saga.
• Govern data stack methods using dbt, Airflow, Snowflake, and Kafka.
• Collaborate with senior leadership on strategic data projects.

Skills

Distributed systems

dbt

Snowflake

Kafka

AWS

Airflow

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science / Computer Engineering or related

Tools

Terraform

Airflow

Tableau

MySQL

Oracle

Job description

About DAT

DAT Freight & Analytics is an award-winning employer of choice and a next-generation SaaS technology company that has been at the leading edge of freight and logistics innovation for nearly five decades. Founded in 1978, DAT operates the largest freight marketplace in North America - processing 250 million+ load posts annually and maintaining one of the largest repositories of freight market transaction data in the world. On a defined path to $1 billion in revenue, DAT deploys a suite of software solutions, machine learning models, and intelligent automation tools that help brokers, carriers, and shippers price freight accurately, source capacity, reduce risk, and operate more efficiently. With nearly 700 teammates across offices in Denver, CO; Portland, OR; Seattle, WA; Springfield, MO; Toronto, ON; and Bangalore, India, DAT combines the credibility of a multi-decade market leader with the drive of a company that is not done disrupting the industry it helped build. For more information, visit www.DAT.com

Job Application Deadline: 10/31/2026

What You'll Do

Strategic Architecture & Technical Leadership

• Platform Evolution: Lead the design and evolution of our modern data platform architecture, ensuring it remains scalable, available, and performant.
• Pattern Implementation: Apply in-depth knowledge of advanced architectural patterns-such as Event Driven, CQRS, event sourcing, and Saga patterns-to solve complex data challenges.
• Technical Governance: Develop, document, and communicate standard methods and processes to be utilized within our technology stack, including dbt, Airflow, Snowflake, Kafka, and traditional ETL.
• Strategic Collaboration: Act as a key partner to senior leadership on strategic data projects and build strong working relationships with other IT leaders by providing technical acumen and thought leadership.

Data Engineering & Distributed Systems

• Enterprise-Scale Infrastructure: Architect and manage enterprise-scale data platforms while setting best practices for development teams, including security, privacy, monitoring & alerting, and CI/CD.
• Advanced Data Modeling: Implement sophisticated data modeling strategies, including Kimball, Inmon, or Data Vault, and drive the transition toward modern concepts like Data Mesh.
• Complex Problem Solving: Provide solutions for complex business problems, enabling insights that can empower better decision-making across the organization.
• Operational Excellence: Set and enforce best practices for the full software development and technology management life cycle, including coding standards, code reviews, source control management, and testing.

Mentorship & Culture

• Culture of Excellence: Take an active role in fostering a culture of learning and excellence within the engineering organization.
• Influence through Data: Leverage data to prioritize work and influence others across the organization.
• Change Management: Proactively implement change and improvements when seeing opportunities to optimize the platform or processes.

The Skills and Experience You'll Bring

• Experience: 7+ years of relevant professional engineering experience, with a proven track record of building and operating large-scale distributed systems.
• Education: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related technical discipline.

Technical Proficiency

• Data Engineering: Strong data engineering background working with dbt, Snowflake, Kafka, and cloud-based services (AWS S3, EMR, Glue).
• Infrastructure & Tooling: Hands-on experience with Terraform, Airflow, Tableau, MySQL, and Oracle.
• Software Engineering: Deep knowledge of professional software engineering practices for the full technology management life cycle; experience with Agile is preferred.
• Communication: Excellent verbal and written communication skills with an interest in continuous learning and improvement.

Current Technologies Being Used Today

• Data Warehouse: Snowflake, Oracle, MySQL
• Transformation: dbt (data build tool)
• Orchestration: Apache Airflow
• Programming: Python, SQL
• Streaming: Kafka
• Cloud: AWS (S3, EMR, Glue)
• Infrastructure: Terraform

Why DAT?

DAT is an award winning employer of choice.

For starters, we have a hybrid work environment, but we also know what makes a great workplace. We have a time-tested and resolute set of operating values predicated on integrity, mutual respect, open communication, and executing with excellence. These values inform our strategic vision as much as any one of our products does. We've been an employer of choice in the Portland metropolitan area for four decades, and within one year of opening our Denver office, DAT was #26 on Built In Colorado's 100 Best Places to Work In Colorado.

• Medical, Dental, Vision, Life, and AD&D insurance
• Parental Leave
• Flexible Vacation Time (FVT)
• An additional 10 holidays of paid time off per calendar year
• 401k matching (immediately vested)
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan
• Short- and Long-term disability sick leave
• Flexible Spending Accounts
• Health Savings Accounts
• Employee Assistance Program
• Additional programs - Employee Referral, Internal Recognition, and Wellness
• Free TriMet transit pass (Beaverton Office)
• Competitive salary and benefits package
• Work on impactful projects in a cutting-edge environment
• Collaborative and supportive team culture
• Opportunity to make a real difference in the trucking industry
• Employee Resource Groups

For Colorado-based candidates, in compliance with the Colorado Equal Pay for Equal Work Act, the salary range for this role is $134,000.00 - $175,000.00 + target bonus. DAT considers factors such as scope and responsibilities of the position, candidate's work experience, education and training, core skills, internal equity, and market and business elements when extending an offer.

DAT embraces the value of a diverse workforce, and believes it is a core strength of our company that we encourage those values in every DAT employee, at every level of our organization, regardless of tenure or rank. We provide equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, marital status, amnesty, or status as a covered veteran in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local laws.

Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities

The contractor will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. However, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, or (c) consistent with the contractor's legal duty to furnish information. 41 CFR 60-1.35(c)