Senior Software Engineer, Data Platform

📋 Description

• • As a Senior Software Engineer on the Data Platform team at Skydio, you will be a foundational member instrumental in shaping the future of data-driven decision-making and the development of cutting-edge data-centric products. Your role will be pivotal in building and scaling the sophisticated systems responsible for collecting, transforming, and storing vast amounts of data generated by tens of thousands of autonomous drones. This data will fuel critical insights that enhance the intelligence, safety, and overall capability of our revolutionary vehicles.
• • This is a unique opportunity to define and architect Skydio's data infrastructure from the ground up. You will champion the adoption and effective utilization of modern data tooling, including Databricks and Palantir Foundry, and play a key role in democratizing AI-assisted analytics across all departments within the company. This is far from a back-office data role; you will be immersed in complex challenges at the intersection of autonomous flight, artificial intelligence, and massive-scale telemetry data, transforming raw flight data into actionable intelligence that drives tangible, real-world impact.
• • You will be instrumental in building predictive models designed to forecast potential hardware failures, such as propeller or battery issues, before they occur. These models will automatically trigger appropriate mitigation steps, enhancing drone reliability and operational uptime.
• • You will contribute to the creation of detailed 3D maps that visualize cellular and radio connectivity across operational airspace. This will empower customers with crucial information to understand where their drones can fly safely and reliably, optimizing mission planning and execution.
• • You will develop and evolve the company-wide data lakehouse, ensuring it is secure, scalable, and exceptionally fast. This central repository will serve as the backbone for all analytics, dashboards, and machine learning initiatives, providing a unified and high-performance data environment.
• • You will be at the forefront of creating and integrating AI-driven data tools. These tools will enable any employee at Skydio, regardless of their technical background, to explore data, uncover valuable insights, and build data pipelines tailored to their specific use cases, fostering a truly self-serve data culture.
• • Your impact will be measured by your ability to design and scale the data infrastructure that reliably and efficiently ingests live telemetry from tens of thousands of autonomous drones. You will ensure this infrastructure can support the next generation of flight intelligence with unparalleled scale.
• • You will build and continuously evolve our Databricks and Palantir Foundry environments, empowering every Skydian to query data, define jobs, and construct dashboards. This will transform raw telemetry into accessible and actionable insights that drive business value.
• • You will develop sophisticated data systems that make Skydio's products inherently data-driven. This includes creating predictive analytics for hardware failure anticipation, developing 3D connectivity mapping solutions, and performing in-depth flight telemetry analysis to continuously sharpen drone performance.
• • You will champion the integration of AI-powered tools for data analysis, transformation, and pipeline generation. This initiative aims to significantly lower the technical barrier to data access and empower teams to build and innovate with data more effectively.
• • You will foster a strong data-driven culture by defining and enforcing best practices for data quality, lineage, and governance. Your efforts will ensure Skydio's data lakehouse remains secure, performant, and cost-effective, even as it scales.
• • You will collaborate closely with cross-functional teams, including autonomy, manufacturing, and operations, to unify data flow across the entire company. This will enable faster, smarter decision-making and unlock end-to-end AI-driven insights.
• • You will take a leadership role in mentoring junior data engineers, analysts, and stakeholders across Skydio. Your guidance will be crucial in promoting better architectural decisions, more reliable data models, and a shared culture of engineering excellence.
• • You will ensure the reliability of our data platform by implementing robust monitoring and observability solutions and actively participating in the on-call rotation for critical data systems, guaranteeing high availability and swift issue resolution.