Principal SWE, Data Lake Engineering

$189,000 - $251,000/Yr

WEX - Chicago, IL

Full-time - Senior

Chicago, IL

Credit Intermediation and Related Activities

About the position

The Data Lake Engineering team at WEX builds a unified, scalable data platform supporting AI and machine learning applications across the company. They collaborate with departments like Data & Analytics, Security, and Risk to enhance data accessibility, scalability, and innovation, aiming to drive WEX's tech transformation and support a growing customer base. The Principal Software Engineer (SWE) will lead the technical architecture and development of WEX's Data Lake platform. Reporting to the VP of Data Lake and AI Engineering, they'll ensure quality, security, and scalability while integrating with company-wide platforms. The ideal candidate brings deep expertise in data lake environments and hands-on leadership skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead and drive the development of technology and platform for the company's Data Lake needs, ensuring functional richness, reliability, performance, and flexibility.
• Help design the architecture and lead the implementation of the Data Lake platform and services.
• Challenge the status quo and drive for better technical solutions to effectively serve all needs in the broad risk area of WEX.
• Guide the team to leverage data and/or AI technology or tools in design and development for high productivity and better solution quality.
• Partner with other senior engineers to understand business needs and develop technical solutions.
• Collaborate with information security teams to ensure data security and privacy.
• Work with solutions architecture and LOB product and engineering organizations on integrations of the Data Lake Platform.
• Engage with external partners and vendors to evaluate technologies and services.
• Create, prioritize, communicate, manage, and execute roadmaps, project plans, and commitments.
• Report on the status of development, quality, operations, and system performance.
• Drive the technical vision and strategy of Data Lake to serve business needs.
• Set high standards and provide technical guidance and mentorship to engineering teams.
• Set clear, measurable quality goals for the group.
• Partner with security and SRE organizations to ensure continuous improvement.
• Take financial responsibility for the team.
• Hold the team accountable for delivering quality results using defined OKRs.
• Advise Senior Leadership on complex situations impacting the organization.
• Provide strategic thought leadership on business initiatives.

Requirements

• 15-20 years of software design and development experience at a large scale.
• Strong software development skills in chosen programming language, with readiness to learn Java and Python.
• Broad understanding of Data Lakehouse formats like Apache Hudi, Apache Iceberg, or Delta Lake.
• Demonstrable experience in Spark programming.
• Experience with Spark on DBT with AWS Glue or Apache Polaris.
• Broad understanding of cloud architecture tools and services, such as S3, EMR, Kubernetes, and Lambda functions.
• Deep technical hands-on experience in architecture design, development, deployment, and production operation.
• Rich experience in Big Data and large scale data platforms, especially in Data Lake.
• Highly experienced in CI/CD automation.
• Excellent analytical skills and capability in identifying and resolving complex problems.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related field; a higher degree is a plus.

Nice-to-haves

• Experience in payment organizations.
• A mentor to individual contributors of different seniority levels.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong philosophy of continuous improvement.

Benefits

• Health insurance
• Dental insurance
• Vision insurance
• Retirement savings plan
• Paid time off
• Health savings account
• Flexible spending accounts
• Life insurance
• Disability insurance
• Tuition reimbursement
• Quarterly or annual bonus based on role