Senior Data Engineer

As a Senior Data Engineer, you design and maintain the systems that move data from where it's generated to where it's used. You build ETL/ELT pipelines, design data warehouse schemas, optimize query performance, and ensure data is reliable, timely, and accessible. The senior title means you're making architectural decisions about the data platform, not just writing individual transformations.

Your users are other technical people — data analysts, data scientists, and application developers who depend on your infrastructure. Your day might involve debugging a failing pipeline, designing a new data model for a product launch, reviewing pull requests on dbt models, or evaluating whether to migrate from Redshift to Snowflake. You need strong SQL and Python skills, deep understanding of distributed systems, and the patience to troubleshoot data quality issues that could originate anywhere upstream.

The tension is between building for today and building for scale. Stakeholders want data now, but quick solutions create tech debt that slows you down later. You're constantly deciding when to build a proper solution versus when a good-enough approach keeps the business moving while you plan the right architecture.