Staff Data Platform Engineer, Unity Ads

Unity South APAC (SEA, ANZ, IND Subcont.); San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 200,400 - 300,600; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Retirement plans

Wellness programs

Job summary

Unity is seeking a Staff Engineer, Data Platform to design and scale our data infrastructure powering Ads and Unity Commons. You will lead complex platform initiatives spanning distributed systems, data pipelines, and cloud infrastructure, partnering with multiple engineering teams to deliver resilient, self-service capabilities.

The role demands hands-on leadership, deep systems knowledge, and the ability to raise the technical bar across Unity’s data platforms and internal services used

Qualifications

• Experience designing, building, and operating large-scale distributed systems and data platforms.
• Strong backend engineering and system integration capabilities; production operations knowledge.
• Ability to lead pragmatic improvements across complex systems.
• Experience building shared platforms for multiple teams with data-intensive workloads.

Responsibilities

• Own design and evolution of scalable platform services and self-service tooling.
• Work across distributed systems, data pipelines, cloud infra, observability, and reliability.
• Collaborate with Ads, data, infra, and product teams to deliver reusable solutions.
• Provide hands-on technical leadership for cross-functional initiatives.

Skills

Distributed systems design

Backend engineering

Data platforms

Cross-team leadership

System integration

Operational trade-offs

Data-intensive platforms

Education

Bachelor’s degree in CS or related field

Tools

Kubernetes

Apache Kafka

Apache Spark

Apache Flink

Apache Paimon

ArgoCD

Terraform

Job description

Overview

The Staff Engineer, Data Platform at Unity helps build and scale the data infrastructure powering our Ads business and Unity Commons, the internal platform that supports teams across Unity. You will operate at the intersection of large-scale distributed systems, data engineering, and platform architecture, owning and evolving critical data platform capabilities that enable high-throughput, reliable, and trusted data flows across Unity's advertising ecosystem while supporting common internal services used broadly across the company. This is a senior individual-contributor role for an engineer who thrives on solving complex platform problems, raising the technical bar, and building systems that serve many teams at scale. You will partner closely with engineers, product managers, data scientists, infrastructure teams, and downstream data consumers to deliver resilient, extensible, and easy-to-adopt platforms.

Responsibilities

• Own the design, build, and evolution of scalable platform services, backend systems, and self-service tooling used across Unity.
• Work across a broad technical surface area, including distributed systems, data pipelines, cloud infrastructure, observability, reliability, automation, and developer experience.
• Partner with engineering teams across Ads, infrastructure, data, and product to identify shared needs and deliver reusable, high-leverage solutions.
• Provide hands-on technical leadership for ambiguous, cross-functional initiatives that span multiple systems and teams.
• Contribute to platform patterns, technical standards, and engineering best practices to improve consistency and quality across the organization.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience designing, building, and operating large-scale distributed systems, backend services, or data platforms in production environments.
• Strong backend and systems engineering skills, including service design, API design, system integration, debugging, and production operations.
• Deep understanding of distributed systems fundamentals, including scalability, reliability, fault tolerance, performance, consistency, and operational trade-offs.
• Experience building shared platforms, internal systems, or self-service infrastructure that supports multiple engineering teams.
• Ability to quickly understand complex existing systems, identify leverage points, and lead pragmatic improvements.
• Experience with data-intensive platforms or systems, including pipelines, streaming systems, storage layers, or analytics infrastructure.
• Hands-on experience with technologies such as Apache Flink, Apache Paimon, Kafka, Spark, Kubernetes, ArgoCD, or Terraform.
• Experience in advertising technology, gaming, monetization, marketplaces, or high-scale consumer platforms is a plus.

Compensation & Benefits

• Salary range: $200,400.00 - $300,600.00 base salary. This range reflects the anticipated base salary and may be eligible for equity awards and incentive plans. Final offer depends on location, experience, and skill set.
• Relocation support is not available; work visa/immigration sponsorship is not available for this position.
• Benefits vary by country and employment status but typically include health, life, disability insurance, retirement/pension plans, paid time off, parental leave, and wellness programs.

About Unity

Unity is the world’s leading game engine and platform, serving billions of users across mobile, PC, console, XR, and Web games. We enable teams across industries to design, simulate, and collaborate in 3D. Unity is an equal opportunity employer and values diversity and inclusion. If you require accommodations during the interview process, please let us know. For privacy information, review our Prospect and Applicant Privacy Policies.