Sr. Data Platform Engineer

Hybrid role 3X a week in office in Elk Grove, CA; no remote capabilities

Position Summary: 

The Senior Data Platform Engineer is a technical expert responsible for designing, implementing, and supporting scalable data solutions using modern big data technologies. In this full-time role, you will work closely with data architects, analysts, and business stakeholders to build, optimize, and maintain data pipelines and platforms that drive analytics, reporting, and machine learning. You will ensure the reliability, performance, and security of production data systems, and play a key role in troubleshooting, monitoring, and continuous improvement.

Position Responsibilities - Other duties may be assigned:

• Design, develop, and maintain robust data pipelines for ingesting, transforming, and storing large volumes of structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data.
• Implement data workflows and ETL processes using technologies such as Spark, Delta Lake, and cloud-native tools.
• Support the production use of big data platforms (e.g., Databricks, Snowflake, Google Cloud Platform), ensuring high availability, scalability, and performance.
• Monitor, troubleshoot, and resolve issues in production data systems, including job failures, performance bottlenecks, and data quality concerns.
• Collaborate with data architects to translate business requirements into technical solutions, ensuring alignment with architectural standards and best practices.
• Optimize SQL queries, Spark jobs, and data processing workloads for efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
• Implement and maintain data governance, security, and compliance measures, including access controls, data masking, and audit logging.
• Integrate data workflows into CI/CD pipelines, automate deployment processes, and manage source control using Git and related DevOps tools.
• Document data pipelines, workflows, and operational procedures to support knowledge sharing and maintainability.
• Stay current with emerging big data technologies and recommend improvements to enhance reliability, scalability, and efficiency.

Position Requirements: 

• 7+ years of experience in data engineering or related roles, with hands-on experience building and supporting production data pipelines.
• Strong proficiency with big data platforms (e.g., Databricks, Snowflake, Google Cloud Platform) and the Spark ecosystem.
• Experience with data lakehouse and warehouse architectures, including Delta Lake or similar technologies.
• Senior Data Engineer with deep expertise in Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) systems and advanced chunking strategies for optimizing semantic search and LLM integration, delivering scalable solutions for enterprise knowledge retrieval and contextual AI applications.
• Advanced skills in PySpark, Python, SQL, and related data processing frameworks.
• Experience with cloud storage, messaging/streaming technologies (e.g., Apache Kafka, cloud Pub/Sub), and vector databases.
• Proven ability to optimize ETL jobs, tune cluster configurations, and troubleshoot production issues.
• Familiarity with data governance tools, catalog solutions, and security best practices.
• Experience integrating data workflows into CI/CD pipelines and using DevOps tools (e.g., Git, Jenkins, Terraform).
• Strong problem-solving skills, attention to detail, and ability to work independently or as part of a team.
• Excellent communication skills to collaborate with cross-functional teams and document technical solutions.
• Experience working in an Agile environment.

Tools & Technologies

• Big Data Platforms: Spark, Delta Lake, SQL engines, MLflow (or similar model tracking tools), relational databases. 
• Data Governance: Data catalog and access control solutions.
• Programming & Data Processing: PySpark, Python, SQL.
• Cloud Services: Experience with cloud storage, messaging/streaming technologies, vector databases and BigQuery.
• DevOps & CI/CD: Git for version control, Jenkins, and infrastructure-as-code tools (e.g., Terraform) are a plus.
• Other Tools: Project and workflow management tools (e.g., JIRA, Confluence), BI/analytics tools (e.g., Power BI, Looker Studio).

Preferred

• Certifications in major big data platforms (e.g., Databricks, Snowflake, Google Cloud Platform) are advantageous.
• Exposure to related big data and streaming tools such as Apache Kafka, cloud messaging services, Apache Airflow, and BI/analytics tools is a plus.
• Google Professional Cloud Architect or better – Preferred, but not required 
• Azure Solutions Architect Expert – Preferred, but not required

The salary range for this position is $119,000 – $208,000. When extending an offer of employment, ALLDATA considers factors such as (but not limited to) the scope and responsibilities of the position, the candidate's work experience, education/training, key skills, internal peer equity, federal, state, and local laws, company financials, as well as external market and organizational considerations.  ALLDATA values and is committed to diversity, equity and inclusion.