Staff Software Engineer, Metadata

Fivetran
AMER, CA
Remote

Who this role is best for

Data infrastructure professionals with distributed system expertise will find this staff-level role in metadata engineering at Fivetran a strong fit, especially given the remote work arrangement and the team's focus on technical leadership.

Best fit for

  • Candidates with 8+ years of experience in distributed systems and a history of leading complex projects
    — “8+ years of software engineering experience with a track record of leading complex, team-scope technical work to completion
  • Individuals who have designed and managed metadata or lineage systems in cloud environments
    — “Experience architecting metadata, catalog, lineage, or discovery/search systems
  • Engineers with a strong grasp of cloud platforms and containerization who can lead technical design
    — “Hands-on experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure), containerization (Docker, Kubernetes), and managing dev infrastructure

Things to consider

  • The role requires on-call responsibilities and incident follow-through, which may impact availability expectations.
    — “Participate periodically in the on-call rotation

How to stand out

  • Highlight your experience in owning and optimizing subsystems in distributed systems.
    — “Deep expertise designing and owning subsystems in distributed, cloud-based systems
  • Showcase your ability to lead multi-engineer initiatives and raise team code quality.
    — “Demonstrated ability to set technical direction for a team and drive multi-engineer initiatives across an area of ownership
  • Emphasize your track record in coordinating complex projects across teams.
    — “Lead the design and delivery of complex, team-level projects across the Metadata services, coordinating development across multiple engineers
  • Demonstrate your fluency with AI tools in development and SDLC processes.
    — “Fluent in using AI code assistants and coding agents to generate and investigate code, and conversational AI (e.g. Claude, ChatGPT) to author, review, and synthesize SDLC artifacts
  • Include examples of your work with GraphQL APIs and high-throughput data services.
    — “Experience with GraphQL APIs and high-throughput, multi-tenant data services
Pace · Fast PacedCollaboration · HighAutonomy · MediumDecision Impact · TeamLevel · Mid Level

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • Lead complex, team-level projects
  • Design and develop architecture of new subsystems
  • Set and uphold design, architecture, and coding best practices
Typical background
Experience in backend developmentExperience with cloud services

Skills & requirements

Required

PythonGraphQLPostgreSQLSnowflakeKafkaKubernetesDockerAWSGCPDatadog

Preferred

AI ToolingAgents

Stack & domain

PythonGraphQLPostgreSQLSnowflakeKafkaKubernetesDockerAWSGCPDatadog

About the role

Original posting from Fivetran

From Fivetran’s founding until now, our mission has remained the same: to make access to data as simple and reliable as electricity. With Fivetran, customer data arrives in their warehouses, canonical and ready to query, with no engineering or maintenance required. We’re proud that more organizations continue to leverage our technology every day to become truly data-driven.

Fivetran and dbt Labs are bringing together two industry-leading companies with a shared mission: helping organizations unlock the full value of their data.

Together, we’re delivering the data infrastructure layer that helps organizations move, transform, and trust their data — from the moment data moves, through every transformation, to the context teams and AI systems rely on.

Fivetran helps organizations automate data movement across the systems, clouds, engines, and tools they rely on. dbt Labs pioneered analytics engineering, helping teams transform data into reliable, governed insights. Together, we support thousands of organizations as they build a trusted foundation for analytics, AI, and better business decisions.

As we bring our teams and technology together, we’re building on the strengths of both companies while continuing to deliver the products and experiences our customers know and trust. It’s an exciting time to join us: we’re creating a company with the scale, talent, and technology to help more organizations put their data to work with greater speed, confidence, and impact.

During this transition period, you may see references to both Fivetran and dbt Labs throughout our recruiting process as we integrate our teams, systems, and career sites.

About the Role

Fivetran and dbt Labs are building data pipelines to power the modern data stack for thousands of companies.

We're looking for a staff software engineer to be a technical leader on our Metadata team, which owns the metadata layer of the dbt platform — the discovery API, catalog, lineage, and run history services that let customers understand, trust, and act on what their data is doing.

As a Staff Software Engineer, you'll contribute to the technical direction for the team. You'll own the architecture of major subsystems, lead complex projects that span multiple engineers, and raise the bar for design and code quality across the team. You'll spend your time on the hardest technical problems, and multiply the team through design reviews, coaching, and mentorship.

This is a full-time, fully remote position.

Technologies You'll Use

Python, GraphQL, Postgres, Snowflake, Kafka, Kubernetes, Docker, AWS, GCP, Datadog

What You'll Do

Lead the design and delivery of complex, team-level projects across the Metadata services, coordinating development across multiple engineers

Independently design and develop the architecture of new subsystems, and own team-level subsystems end to end

Use AI tooling and agents — across development and SDLC artifacts such as TDDs, PRDs, post-mortems, and test plans

Review and approve technical designs, ensuring they meet a high quality bar, and identify design deficiencies before they ship

Drive technical initiatives across the team's responsibility areas — discovery API, catalog, lineage, and run history

Set and uphold design, architecture, and coding best practices, and hold teammates accountable for code quality

Coach and mentor engineers, demonstrably improving the quality of code across the team

Write technical specs, document common components, and keep the team accountable for necessary project documentation

Fix and optimize critical parts of the codebase, drive incident follow-through, and advance the reliability and performance of the services you own

Participate periodically in the on-call rotation

Skills We're Looking For

8+ years of software engineering experience with a track record of leading complex, team-scope technical work to completion

Deep expertise designing and owning subsystems in distributed, cloud-based systems

Demonstrated ability to set technical direction for a team and drive multi-engineer initiatives across an area of ownership

Excellent design and architecture judgment; identifies design flaws in existing systems and proposes sound solutions with clear trade-offs

Writes exemplary, well-tested code that serves as a model for others, and reliably estimates and delivers sprint to sprint

Strong track record of raising quality through code review, coaching peers, and enforcing accepted engineering practices

Experience partnering with QE on test strategy and owning operational health — incidents, post-mortems, reliability, and performance

Proficiency in a modern backend or systems language such as Python, Java, C++, or C#

Hands-on experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure), containerization (Docker, Kubernetes), and managing dev infrastructure

Fluent in using AI code assistants and coding agents to generate and investigate code, and conversational AI (e.g. Claude, ChatGPT) to author, review, and synthesize SDLC artifacts — and able to model those practices for a team

Bonus Skills

Experience in data processing (ETL, ELT) and/or cloud-based data platforms

Experience architecting metadata, catalog, lineage, or discovery/search systems

Experience with GraphQL APIs and high-throughput, multi-tenant data services

Familiarity with the analytics engineering workflow and the dbt ecosystem

The compensation range displayed on this job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hire compensation for the target position and level, and may include sales incentives or target bonuses depending on the role.  Our compensation ranges are determined by role, level, and location. Our job titles may span more than one career level. Within the range, individual compensation is determined by additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, relevant education or training, business need, market demands. The compensation range is subject to change and may be modified in the future. Your recruiter can share more about the specific compensation range for your location during the hiring process.

Oakland Pay Range$162,157.50—$198,877.25 USD 

Perks and Benefits

100% employer-paid medical insurance*

Generous paid time-off policy (PTO), plus paid sick time, inclusive parental leave policy, holidays (including a year end Global Week of Rest), and volunteer days off

RSU stock grants*

Professional development and training opportunities

Company virtual happy hours, free food, and fun team-building activities

Monthly cell phone stipend

Access to an innovative mental health support platform that offers personalized care and resources in areas such as: therapy, coaching, and self-guided mindfulness exercises for all covered employees and their covered dependents.

*May vary by country and worker type - please reach out to your recruiter for more information

Click here to learn more about Fivetran's Benefits by Region.

We’re honored to be valued at over $5.6 billion, but more importantly, we’re proud of our core values of Get Stuck In, Do the Right Thing, and One Team, One Dream. Read about us in Forbes.     

Fivetran brings together high-quality talent across the globe to make data access as easy and reliable as electricity for our customers. We value and recognize that our customers benefit from having innovative teams made of people from many backgrounds, experiences, and identities. Fivetran promotes diversity, equity, inclusion & belonging through attracting, recruiting, developing, and retaining a diverse workforce, not only because it is the right thing to do, but because it helps us build a world-class company to better serve our customers, our people and our communities.

To learn more about Fivetran’s culture and what it’s like to be part of the team, click here and enjoy our video.

To learn more about our candidate privacy policy, you can read our statement here.

We are committed to ensuring that all candidates have an equal opportunity to participate in our interview process. If you require accommodations at any stage of the process due to a disability, medical condition, or any other circumstance, please don't hesitate to submit your request by filling out this form. We will work with you to provide reasonable accommodations to facilitate your participation and ensure a fair and accessible interview experience. Your request and any information provided will be kept confidential and will not impact your candidacy. We look forward to hearing from you and accommodating your needs to the best of our ability.

Source: Fivetran careers

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