Sr. Staff Engineer - Data Engineering

At Early Warning, we’ve powered and protected the U.S. financial system for over thirty years with cutting-edge solutions like Zelle®, Paze℠, and so much more. As a trusted name in payments, we partner with thousands of institutions to increase access to financial services and protect transactions for hundreds of millions of consumers and small businesses.

Positions located in Scottsdale, San Francisco, Chicago, or New York follow a hybrid work model to allow for a more collaborative working environment.

Candidates responding to this posting must independently possess the eligibility to work in the United States, for any employer, at the date of hire. This position is ineligible for employment Visa sponsorship.

Overall Purpose

This position is a senior technical leadership role responsible for the development, testing, deployment, and long-term health of complex, large-scale data engineering solutions. The role drives data platform and architecture decisions across teams and contributes to the company’s overall technology and data strategy.

Essential Functions

• Partner with software engineering, product, and architecture teams to shape data engineering approaches and share knowledge across the organization.

• Own the data and technical strategy for broad or complex requirements, taking forward-looking approaches that extend beyond a single team and address large, open-ended problems.

• Define and influence department-wide data architecture, design patterns, and code standards.

• Review and validate the effectiveness, quality, and scalability of code produced by multiple teams.

• Be accountable for resolving technical conflicts within and across teams.

• Drive technical architecture, design, prototyping, and implementation in support of product needs and overall technology and data strategy.

• Represent engineering in cross-functional forums; present clear, well-reasoned technical arguments and influence alignment and outcomes.

• Collaborate with product managers, designers, and engineering groups to conceptualize and build new data-driven features.

• Actively own data platforms, pipelines, or systems and define their long-term health, while improving the reliability and scalability of surrounding systems.

• Assist Support and Operations teams in identifying and resolving production issues.

• Develop and implement tests and validation mechanisms to ensure data quality, performance, and scalability.

• Mentor and develop other engineers and serve as a technical leader on cross-functional initiatives.

• Proactively identify opportunities to improve engineering standards, tooling, and processes.

• Support the company’s commitment to risk management and the protection of the integrity, availability, and confidentiality of systems and data.

Minimum Qualifications

• Education and/or experience typically obtained through a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a related technical field.

• Twelve or more years of relevant professional experience.

• Nine or more years of experience designing and developing complex data-intensive systems, including data platforms, distributed systems, SaaS, and cloud-based solutions.

• Two or more years of experience building end-to-end data management platforms, including data modeling, data governance, BI/reporting, and ML lifecycle support.

• Five or more years of experience with ETL or data pipeline development (e.g., Ab Initio, Talend, Informatica, or comparable tools) and BI/reporting solutions (e.g., Tableau, Business Objects, Grafana, or similar tools).

• Experience working with advanced analytics or ML workloads using tools such as Python, PySpark, or Spark.

• Hands-on experience with Docker and containerized workloads.

• Experience designing and developing scalable, highly available systems.

• Experience with event-driven architectures and messaging frameworks (e.g., Pub/Sub, Kafka, RabbitMQ).

• Hands-on experience with cloud infrastructure platforms (GCP, AWS, Azure, or equivalent).

• Strong knowledge of mature engineering practices, including CI/CD, automated testing, secure coding, SDLC best practices, Agile methodologies, and DevOps practices.

• Demonstrated experience delivering business-critical, production-grade systems.

• Proven ability to influence and collaborate across multiple teams and departments.

• Background and drug screen.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s or PhD in Computer Science or a related field.

• Understanding of ML frameworks or platforms such as TensorFlow, SageMaker, or Scikit-learn.

• Experience with big data platforms and object storage (e.g., Cloudera, S3).

• Experience with relational and enterprise database platforms (e.g., Oracle, SQL Server).

• Strong programming experience in Python and PySpark; familiarity with R is a plus.

• Knowledge of Aerospike, Scality S3, or Elasticsearch.

• Experience with monitoring and alerting systems (e.g., AppDynamics).

• Knowledge of ACH/EFT and real-time payment networks (RTP, FedNow).

• FinTech domain experience.

• Kubernetes experience.

Physical Requirements

Working conditions consist of a normal office environment. Work is primarily sedentary and requires extensive use of a computer and involves sitting for periods of approximately four hours. Work may require occasional standing, walking, kneeling and reaching. Must be able to lift 10 pounds occasionally and/or negligible amount of force frequently. Requires visual acuity and dexterity to view, prepare, and manipulate documents and office equipment including personal computers. Requires the ability to communicate with internal and/or external customers.

Employee must be able to perform essential functions and physical requirements of position with or without reasonable accommodation.

The above job description is not intended to be an all-inclusive list of duties and standards of the position.

Early Warning Services is an affirmative action and equal opportunity employer.

The base pay scale for this position in:
Phoenix, AZ/ Chicago, IL in USD per year is: $175,000 - $225,000.
San Francisco, CA in USD per year is: $210,000 - $270,000.
Additionally, candidates are eligible for a discretionary incentive plan and benefits.

This pay scale is subject to change and is not necessarily reflective of actual compensation that may be earned, nor a promise of any specific pay for any specific candidate, which is always dependent on legitimate factors considered at the time of job offer. Early Warning Services takes into consideration a variety of factors when determining a competitive salary offer, including, but not limited to, the job scope, market rates and geographic location of a position, candidate’s education, experience, training, and specialized skills or certification(s) in relation to the job requirements and compared with internal equity (peers). The business actively supports and reviews wage equity to ensure that pay decisions are not based on gender, race, national origin, or any other protected classes.

Some of the Ways We Prioritize Your Health and Happiness 

• Healthcare Coverage – Competitive medical (PPO/HDHP), dental, and vision plans as well as company contributions to your Health Savings Account (HSA) or pre-tax savings through flexible spending accounts (FSA) for commuting, health & dependent care expenses.
• 401(k) Retirement Plan – Featuring a 100% Company Safe Harbor Match on your first 6% deferral immediately upon eligibility.
• Paid Time Off – Unlimited Time Off for Exempt (salaried) employees, as well as generous PTO for Non-Exempt (hourly) employees, plus 11 paid company holidays and a paid volunteer day.
• 12 weeks of Paid Parental Leave
• Maven Family Planning – provides support through your Parenting journey including egg freezing, fertility, adoption, surrogacy, pregnancy, postpartum, early pediatrics, and returning to work.

And SO much more! We continue to enhance our program, so be sure to check our Benefits page here for the latest. Our team can share more during the interview process!

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

Early Warning Services, LLC (“Early Warning”) considers for employment, hires, retains and promotes qualified candidates on the basis of ability, potential, and valid qualifications without regard to race, religious creed, religion, color, sex, sexual orientation, genetic information, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, protected veteran or disability status or any factor prohibited by law, and as such affirms in policy and practice to support and promote equal employment opportunity and affirmative action, in accordance with all applicable federal, state, and municipal laws. The company also prohibits discrimination on other bases such as medical condition, marital status or any other factor that is irrelevant to the performance of our employees.