Senior Data Engineer

📋 Description

• • As a Senior Data Engineer at Wave Financial Inc., you will play a pivotal role in shaping and scaling our data infrastructure, directly contributing to our mission of empowering small businesses to thrive. Reporting to the Manager, Data Engineering, you will be instrumental in building and deploying cutting-edge tools and infrastructure that underpin the efforts of our Data Products and Insights, and Innovation teams, as well as the broader business.
• • This is a highly technical role for a curious, self-starter driven by a passion for solving complex problems. You will thrive in an environment where you can juggle multiple domains and stakeholders, collaborating effectively across all levels of the Data and AI team and various engineering departments. Your primary focus will be on developing robust data solutions, scaling our data infrastructure, and advancing Wave's transformation into a truly data-centric organization.
• • You will be a key player in a complicated product environment, requiring strong communication skills to bridge the gap between technical intricacies and non-technical audiences with varying levels of data maturity. At Wave, you'll find ample opportunities for growth and development by building scalable data infrastructure, enhancing our modern data stack, and contributing to high-impact projects that drive insights and innovation throughout the company.
• • **Be a Builder:** You will be responsible for the end-to-end design, build, and deployment of critical components of our modern data platform. This includes implementing CDC-based ingestion using Debezium and Kafka, developing a centralized Hudi-based data lake, and constructing a variety of data pipelines encompassing batch, incremental, and streaming processing.
• • **Drive Modernization with Continuity:** You will ensure the stability and reliability of our existing Amazon Redshift data warehouse and legacy Python ELT pipelines, while simultaneously accelerating the transition to a brand-new Databricks-based analytics and processing environment. This new platform, integrated with dbt, will progressively supersede our current data ecosystem.
• • **Balance Innovation with Operational Excellence:** A core aspect of this role involves building fault-tolerant, scalable, and cost-efficient data systems. You will continuously strive to improve observability, performance, and reliability across both our legacy and modern data platforms, ensuring seamless operations.
• • **Collaborate to Deliver Impact:** You will work closely with cross-functional partners to meticulously plan and roll out essential data infrastructure and processing pipelines. These will be designed to support a wide array of use cases, including advanced analytics, machine learning, and emerging Generative AI initiatives. Your efforts will directly enable teams across Wave by ensuring data and insights are delivered accurately and on time.
• • **Thrive in Ambiguity and Take Ownership:** We are looking for a self-motivated individual who is comfortable working autonomously. You will be expected to identify opportunities for optimizing pipelines and improving data workflows, even when faced with tight timelines and evolving requirements. Proactive problem-solving and a strong sense of ownership are paramount.
• • **Keep the Platform Reliable:** This role includes on-call responsibilities. You will respond to PagerDuty alerts, troubleshoot incidents with speed and precision, and proactively implement monitoring and alerting strategies to minimize future incidents and maintain high availability of our critical data systems.
• • **Be a Strong Communicator:** Colleagues will rely on you for your technical guidance and expertise. Your ability to clearly articulate complex technical concepts to diverse audiences and actively listen to feedback will be crucial in building trust and resolving issues efficiently.
• • **Be Customer-Minded:** You will be tasked with assessing existing systems, enhancing data accessibility for internal teams, and delivering practical, impactful solutions. Your work will directly enable internal teams to generate actionable insights and, in turn, enhance the experience of our external customers.
• • **Contribute to a Data-Centric Culture:** By building robust data solutions and fostering collaboration, you will be a key driver in Wave's evolution into a data-centric organization, where data empowers decision-making at all levels.