Member of the Technical Staff - Data Platform

The shape of it

In the posting’s own words

We're looking for a Staff level Engineer to lead the design and development of a next-generation Data Platform at Vercel. This is a unique opportunity to architect a foundational system that will power data across our products and business, supporting everything from real-time analytics to AI/ML initiatives.

What it asks for · 8

• 8+ years of experience in data engineering, data architecture, or related roles, with at least 5 years at the Principal Engineer level.
• Proven track record designing and operating large-scale data infrastructures at high scale in a complex, fast-paced environment, with experience across Kafka and its ecosystem (e.g., Kafka Streams, Confluent Platform), ClickHouse, Tinybird, Snowflake, and broader big data frameworks.
• Proficiency in cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and associated big data services.
• Strong background in data governance and security, and adept at ensuring compliance with regulatory standards and protecting sensitive information.
• Outstanding communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to influence technical and non-technical stakeholders across varying organizational levels.
• A leadership mindset, with demonstrated ability to mentor teams, drive consensus, and advocate for best practices across the organization.
• A Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field is preferred.
• Industry recognition or notable contributions in data engineering (e.g., published works, open-source contributions) is a plus.

What the job covers

• Design and implement a next-generation data platform that supports diverse requirements, including batch and real-time integrations, advanced analytics, and multiple data types, leveraging Kafka, Kafka-based tooling, and additional streaming technologies to power real-time data movement and processing.
• Work with engineering, product, and senior leadership teams across Vercel to architect solutions that address business needs, aligning technical strategies with product goals and ensuring seamless data availability and usability.
• Define and maintain guidelines for data ingestion, creation, enrichment, and storage, while overseeing data modeling, ETL processes, and data warehousing (ClickHouse, Tinybird, Snowflake) to achieve low-latency analytics and scalable storage.
• Develop end-to-end solutions across the tech stack, setting the example for engineering excellence, and provide mentorship and direction that fosters continuous improvement and innovation in the team.
• Partner with Security, Compliance, and Legal teams to ensure adherence to data protection standards, and champion high availability and fault tolerance through comprehensive monitoring, alerting, and incident response practices.
• Drive architectural decisions and roadmap planning that ensure efficiency, scalability, and high performance, and evaluate build-vs-buy trade-offs, integrating vendor solutions where appropriate.
• Collaborate with data scientists and machine learning teams to evolve infrastructure that supports advanced analytics and AI initiatives, serving as a key contributor to strategy, tooling, and platform enhancements for ML-related workloads.
• Act as a key decision-maker for discovering, vetting, and selecting data architectures and technologies critical to Vercel's success, and establish multi-phase strategic roadmaps that align with overall business objectives and drive data platform maturity.

Degree language

• A Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field is preferred.

Tools and skills named

Words the posting leans on

• data24×
• engineering7×
• platform6×
• product5×
• analytics4×
• drive4×
• kafka4×
• business3×
• clickhouse tinybird3×
• data engineering3×
• data platform3×
• design3×
• engineer3×
• organization3×
• real-time3×
• scalable3×

Counted from the posting after the mission statement and the legal notices are set aside. The ones near the top are the ones a screener is looking for.

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