Data Engineer, Platform Engineering

Job Description

At Stack Overflow, our mission is to empower the world’s developers. Every day, millions of developers come to us to get answers to their programming questions, collaborate better with their teams, and find their next dream job. As the world continues to transform with technology as a leading force, we’re driven to make Stack Overflow a place where everyone who codes feels welcome to learn, share their knowledge, and build their careers.

The Data Platform team at Stack Overflow builds and maintains the data processing and analytic pipelines that democratize access to data across our organization. Your cross-functional team will optimize flow and collection of all of our product and business data, enabling data at scale for Stack Overflow. You’ll ensure that our data delivery architecture is optimized and consistent, enabling software engineers, database architects, data analysts, and data scientists to do their best work. Data engineers have several key responsibilities:

• Create and maintain optimal data pipeline architecture to extract, transform, and load data from a wide variety of data sources using SQL and Azure “big data” technologies
• Assemble large, complex data sets that meet functional / non-functional business requirements
• Identify, design, and implement internal process improvements: automating manual processes, optimizing data delivery, re-designing infrastructure for greater scalability, etc.
• Keep our data separated and secure across national boundaries through multiple data centers and Azure regions
• Create data tools for analytics and data scientist team members that assist them in building and optimizing our product into an innovative industry leader

Skills and Requirements

We expect to see:

• 5+ years experience building and optimizing “big data” pipelines, architectures, and data sets
• 5+ years working SQL knowledge and experience working with relational databases, query authoring (SQL), as well as working familiarity with a variety of database platforms
• Strong analytic skills related to working with unstructured data sets
• 5+ years experience building processes supporting data transformation, data structures, metadata, dependencies, and workload management
• A track record of leading and mentoring less experienced developers. You are eager to teach others and invested in the growth of your team.
• Self-motivating, self-directing, and a great communicator (written and oral). You thrive in an environment that grants you a lot of autonomy to explore creative solutions.
• Excellent problem solving skills. You excel at analyzing and solving problems using technology.
• Living and working within GMT-7:00 (US) to GMT+2:00 (Europe) time zones.

We like to see (but not required):

• Experience with Microsoft technologies and Azure cloud services for building and operating data pipelines
• Experience working remotely and/or working with teams that are distributed geographically.
• Experience with Agile methodologies such as Scrum, XP, or Kanban. Certification is a plus, but not a requirement.
• An active Stack Overflow profile, open source code, example projects that you're proud of (whether open source or worked on at a previous job), or any other evidence of your passion for building great software.
• Knowledge of how Stack Overflow works from our blog, podcasts, and other public artifacts. Ideas about how to evolve the platform and increase our impact on the developer community are even better.
• Experience with leveraging cloud-native technologies and techniques to build product ecosystems

Work Environment

We’re a remote-friendly team. Whether you work remotely or work out of our New York office (re-opening September 2021 at the earliest due to COVID-19), you’ll be part of a remote work culture that emphasizes online communication (Slack, GitHub, Hangouts, Zoom, Stack Overflow for Teams). While we’re generally very flexible on working hours, living and working within GMT-7:00 to GMT+2:00 time zones (US through Europe) is required for scheduling and interaction with your team. We also believe in strong work-life balance and are focused on making sure you have a positive work experience, in-office or remotely.

What you’ll get in return:

In the United States, benefits include:

• Competitive salary between $128K and $173K USD
• 20 days paid vacation
• Generous parental leave (12-16 weeks at 100% pay), family care leave, and unlimited sick days
• Stock options
• Completely free health insurance (no copay, no premiums)
• Gym membership reimbursement
• Employees will never be poked with a sharp stick

Employment is conditioned upon successful completion of a background check and upon having the appropriate legal right to work.

Diverse teams build better products.

Legally, we need you to know this:

Stack Exchange, Inc. does not discriminate in employment matters on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, military service eligibility, veteran status, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, or any other protected class. We support workplace diversity.

But we want to add this:

We strongly believe that diversity of experience contributes to a broader collective perspective that will consistently lead to a better company and better products. We are working hard to increase the diversity of our team wherever we can and we actively encourage everyone to consider becoming a part of it.