Job Description
Senior / Staff Data Platform Engineer Location: Costa Mesa, CA (Hybrid — minimum 3 days onsite) Employment Type: Full-Time Clearance Requirement: U.S. Citizen or Green Card holder only About the Role This role is responsible for building and scaling the core data platform that powers mission‑critical hardware and manufacturing operations. The work is highly technical, systems‑oriented, and focused on real‑time data processing, large‑scale reliability, and high‑impact architectural ownership . This is not an analytics role — it is a foundational engineering position owning the infrastructure that supports real‑world, high‑throughput hardware systems. What You’ll Work On This year’s major initiatives include: Standing up a large‑scale manufacturing facility in Ohio Surfacing real‑time health metrics across production lines Delivering sub‑minute latency telemetry to factory floor displays Ensuring high‑reliability systems that must not go down The scope includes: Data lake architecture & modernization Real‑time streaming pipelines Orchestration frameworks Backend services built on the data platform Secure deployments in constrained or controlled environments The role requires balancing big‑picture architecture with practical engineering tradeoffs across multiple environments. Ownership & Impact Lead architecture and implementation of platform services Influence platform roadmap and long‑term strategy Own reliability, observability, SLAs, and system performance Serve as a senior technical partner to unlock engineering scale At Staff level: full platform ownership and technical leadership What the Day‑to‑Day Looks Like ~60% hands‑on development ~40% architecture, design reviews, cross‑team alignment, and planning 6–12 Month Success Measures Reduced bottlenecks in architectural decision‑making Improved reliability and scalability across the data platform Successful deployment of real‑time manufacturing telemetry Clear ownership of critical platform components Strong technical partnership across engineering teams Biggest Technical Challenge This role must help eliminate key architectural bottlenecks by becoming a trusted technical owner who accelerates decision‑making and platform evolution. Candidate Profile Experience Level Senior: 6+ years Staff: 8–10+ years Blend of software engineering + data platform development Experience evolving and operating data lakes Technical Skills (Must‑Have) Python SQL Java or Scala Spark Kafka or Flink Strong systems fundamentals and distributed architecture expertise Nice‑to‑Have Experience in secure or restricted environments Infrastructure-as-Code experience Exposure to hardware or physical system data Top Signals of Fit Built internal platforms or tooling Owned streaming system design and implementation Made architectural decisions at platform scale Improved reliability, performance, or scalability Compensation Senior Level: ~$170,000–$180,000 base Staff Level: Typically $200k+ base depending on experience No bonus Equity in the form of RSUs (4-year grant, 1-year cliff) Relocation support available depending on distance Interview Process SQL Screening (Virtual) Optional Culture Conversation (Virtual) Onsite Interviews: Data Modeling System Design / “Horsepower” Python Pairing Cross‑functional Technical Partner Interview