Staff Software Engineer – Data Acquisition

WEX Inc.; Maine; Hybrid; USD 141,000 - 173,000; Full time

Job summary

WEX Inc. is seeking a Staff Software Engineer for the Data Acquisition Team to own the technical direction of the data ingestion platform. The role is remote, but candidates must reside within 30 miles of Portland, ME; Boston, MA; Chicago, IL; Dallas, TX; San Francisco Bay Area, CA; or Seattle, WA.

You will stay hands-on while guiding architecture decisions, building reusable ingestion connectors, and mentoring engineers across teams to ensure data quality, reliability, and cost effectiveness.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of software engineering experience including delivery of production distributed systems or data platforms.
• Strong programming skills in Python, Java, Scala, or another systems-focused language.
• Experience with data integration and ingestion pipelines; knowledge of bringing data from source systems to downstream consumers.
• Solid grasp of engineering fundamentals: version control, modular design, testing, and performance tuning.
• Experience designing and operating production integrations that handle schema evolution, failure recovery, observability, and secure access.
• Ability to lead architecture decisions, explain tradeoffs, resolve dependencies, and guide production adoption.
• Practical experience using AI-assisted engineering tools for design, coding, testing, or documentation, with validation of outputs.

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain high-performance data acquisition pipelines across systems and vendors.
• Lead design and delivery of a modular ingestion platform with reusable connectors.
• Establish metadata/configuration patterns to support Data Acquisition as a Service.
• Incorporate schema validation, reconciliation, and audit logging into shared components.
• Support safe retries, backfills, and schema evolution to protect data integrity.
• Design batch, CDC, and streaming ingestion patterns meeting freshness/recovery targets.
• Evaluate performance, source-system impact, and operating costs of ingestion tech.
• Ensure traceability, data lineage, and security through governance integrations.
• Lead reviews, maintain specs and architecture decisions, and mentor engineers.

Job description

About the Role

This is a remote position; however, the candidate must reside within 30 miles of one of the following locations: Portland, ME; Boston, MA; Chicago, IL; Dallas, TX; San Francisco Bay Area, CA; and Seattle/WA.

The Data Acquisition Team is the entry point to WEX's Data-as-a-Service (DaaS) platform - responsible for ingesting, validating, and orchestrating raw data from dozens of internal systems and third-party providers. As a Staff Software Engineer, you will own the technical direction and delivery of core data acquisition platform capabilities. You will remain hands-on while leading architecture decisions, developing reusable ingestion services, and guiding engineers across teams. Your work will support batch, change data capture (CDC), and event-driven ingestion, with clear expectations for data quality, reliability, security, and cost. WEX is undergoing a data platform transformation—and this team builds the foundation. Every pipeline you create contributes directly to powering analytics, automation, and product intelligence across all business domains. If you’re passionate about scaling data platforms from the ground up, this is your chance to help shape how WEX ingests and leverages its most valuable asset: data.

What You’ll Do

Build and maintain high-performance data acquisition pipelines that integrate with a variety of systems across WEX and third-party vendors.

Lead the design and delivery of a modular ingestion platform with reusable connectors and configuration-driven onboarding.

Establish metadata and configuration patterns that reduce source-specific development and support Data Acquisition as a Service.

Build schema validation, completeness checks, reconciliation, duplicate prevention, and audit logging into shared ingestion components.

Support safe retries, replay, backfills, and schema evolution so failures can be recovered without losing or incorrectly duplicating data.

Design batch, CDC, and streaming ingestion patterns that meet agreed freshness, throughput, and recovery requirements.

Evaluate performance, source-system impact, and operating cost when selecting and extending ingestion technologies.

Ensure traceability, lineage, and security through integration with control plane and governance systems.

Lead design and code reviews, maintain technical specifications and architectural decisions, and mentor engineers in reusable platform design.

Establish automated testing and CI/CD practices for ingestion code, connector configuration, and infrastructure, with validation before production deployment.

Partner with the established production support process on complex escalations, root-cause analysis, and preventive engineering improvements.

What You Bring

Required: B.Sc. in Computer Science, Engineering, or related technical field; M.Sc. a plus but not required. 8+ years of software engineering experience, including delivery of production distributed systems or data platforms and demonstrated technical leadership across team boundaries. Strong programming skills in Python, Java, Scala, or another systems-focused language. Experience with data integration and ingestion pipelines—you understand what it means to bring data in from source systems, transform it, and deliver it reliably downstream. Solid grasp of engineering fundamentals, including version control, modular design, testing, and performance tuning. Demonstrated experience designing and operating production integrations that handle schema evolution, failure recovery, observability, and secure access. Ability to lead architecture decisions, explain engineering tradeoffs, resolve dependencies across teams, and guide implementation through production adoption. Practical experience using AI-assisted engineering tools for design, coding, testing, or documentation, with validation of generated outputs for correctness, security, and maintainability. A collaborative mindset—comfortable working across domains, products, and infrastructure layers. A strong sense of ownership and accountability—you care deeply about building systems that last.

Preferred: Experience building reusable connectors, metadata-driven ingestion services, or configuration-driven onboarding capabilities.

What Success Looks Like

During your first year, you will work with engineering and product leadership to establish baselines and agree on outcomes such as: Reducing onboarding lead time and manual effort through shared connectors and configuration-driven patterns. Increasing adoption of reusable ingestion capabilities across sources and teams. Meeting agreed completeness and freshness criteria, with reliable reconciliation and recovery. Improving deployment quality and reducing recurring failures through automated testing and actionable observability.

The base pay range represents the anticipated low and high end of the pay range for this position. Actual pay rates will vary and will be based on various factors, such as your qualifications, skills, competencies, and proficiency for the role. Base pay is one component of WEX's total compensation package. Most sales positions are eligible for commission under the terms of an applicable plan. Non-sales roles are typically eligible for a quarterly or annual bonus based on their role and applicable plan.

WEX's comprehensive and market competitive benefits are designed to support your personal and professional well-being. Benefits include health, dental and vision insurances, retirement savings plan, paid time off, health savings account, flexible spending accounts, life insurance, disability insurance, tuition reimbursement, and more.

Pay Range: $140,600.00 - $173,100.00

WEX is a global commerce platform that helps businesses solve for operational complexities like employee benefits, managing and mobilizing fleets, and streamlining payments. With over 6,500 employees, we work with large and small companies in more than 200 countries and territories, and can tailor our services to meet the unique needs of their businesses. We hire people who share our passion for continuous innovation and client service that is unparalleled in the industry. Offering comprehensive and market competitive benefits, our offerings are designed to support your personal and professional well-being.

WEX is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, race, color, age, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, protected veteran status, disability or other protected status.

WEX promotes a drug-free workplace. Qualified individuals with a disability have the right to request a reasonable accommodation. If you require a reasonable accommodation as a result of your disability at any point in the job application process, please submit your request through our Reasonable Accommodation Request Form. This form is for accommodation requests only and cannot be used to inquire about the status of applications.