Principal Software Engineer - Data

External

Wex · San Francisco, CA

Full-timeOn-siteToday

AirflowData ModelingdbtDesign SystemsKafkaLeadership

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About the role

WEX is transforming into a data-driven enterprise through its modern Data-as-a-Service (DaaS) platform . At the core of this strategy is a need for world-class technical leadership-engineers who can see across domains, design foundational systems, and set the architectural direction for years to come. As a Principal Staff Software Engineer , you will play a pivotal role in shaping WEX's DaaS platform end-to-end. You will drive the unification of data acquisition, semantic modeling, and data products , ensuring they operate together as a coherent, scalable, and trusted foundation for analytics, AI, and customer-facing experiences. This is not just a technical role-it is a platform architect and multiplier role , where you'll be responsible for defining cross-cutting patterns, guiding teams across domains, and raising the technical bar across WEX's data ecosystem . If you're motivated by solving platform problems at global scale, influencing enterprise direction, and leaving behind systems that endure, this is your role.

Responsibilities

Architect the DaaS platform end-to-end : Define the next generation of WEX's enterprise data stack spanning ingestion, semantic data modeling, metadata, and product delivery.

Establish platform standards : Set reusable frameworks for ingestion, modeling, lineage, observability, and access control that accelerate adoption across domains.

Guide technical strategy at scale : Partner with senior engineering, product, and business leaders to align data architecture with WEX's strategic objectives.

Solve for scale, reliability, and trust : Design systems that handle billions of records , guarantee semantic consistency , and deliver auditable, governed data assets .

Mentor and multiply : Coach senior staff engineers and architects, instilling best practices in distributed systems, platform reliability, and semantic clarity.

Drive innovation : Explore and incorporate modern open-source and cloud-native technologies (e.g., Spark, Iceberg, Kafka, Delta, DBT, Ray, ML-ready data services).

Be the bridge : Collaborate across Data Acquisition, Semantic Modeling, Data Products, and Governance teams to ensure WEX's data is trusted, consistent, and usable across every business domain.

What You Bring

12-15+ years of experience in software or platform engineering, with a proven track record of building and scaling large-scale data platforms .

Expertise in distributed systems, data acquisition, and semantic modeling , with architectural ownership of systems processing tens of millions to billions of records per day .

Demonstrated ability to set cross-domain architectural standards and influence adoption across multiple engineering teams.

Strong background in data lifecycle management (versioning, auditability, observability, lineage, reproducibility).

Deep experience with modern data ecosystems : streaming (Kafka, Flink), batch (Spark, DBT), storage (Iceberg, Delta), orchestration (Airflow, Dagster), and APIs.

Exceptional communication and leadership skills-you can inspire engineers , influence executives, and build consensus across technical and business stakeholders.

A passion for creating platforms that endure : trusted, consistent, and empowering for analytics, AI, and products enterprise-wide.

Pay Range: $200,600.00 - $250,400.00

Principal Software Engineer - Data

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