Principal Data Engineer / Technical Lead

Company: Unqork

Location: Remote-First Community

About Unqork:
Unqork empowers enterprises to accelerate growth by rapidly building, testing, and running AI-native applications. Trusted by the world’s largest organizations in highly regulated industries, Unqork applications reduce technical debt and enhance security over time. Our customers include Goldman Sachs, Marsh, BlackRock, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

About the Role:
We are seeking an experienced Principal Data Engineer/Technical Lead who is passionate about implementation and capable of writing high-quality code. You will serve as a dynamic player-coach for our core data engineering squad, designing and building services, abstraction layers, and middleware that transform application data needs into high-performance database operations. You will directly impact system performance and latency issues while fostering an inclusive, high-performing engineering culture.

Key Responsibilities:

• Player-Coach: Provide technical direction, architectural guidance, and daily mentorship to a team of 3-5 engineers. Conduct code reviews and foster professional growth.
• Data Access Layers (DAL): Design and implement sophisticated DALs and custom ODMs to translate queries into high-performance MongoDB operations.
• Middleware Development: Build and maintain middleware to ensure Unqork’s core business logic is storage-agnostic.
• MongoDB Ecosystem: Architect and scale a multi-tenant, secure MongoDB ecosystem, ensuring high availability and optimizing query performance.
• Hybrid Data Architectures: Plan and architect hybrid data architectures for operational, transactional, and analytical systems.
• Microservices Development: Use Node.js and JavaScript to build robust microservices (GraphQL) that integrate data patterns into the Unqork no-code runtime.
• Schema Design: Design schemas and declarative models for non-technical users, ensuring data integrity and system performance.
• Data Pipelines: Architect real-time and batch data pipelines using Apache Kafka and Spark.
• Standardization: Partner with Platform and Backend engineers to standardize data interaction patterns for high-scale, API-driven performance.
• Product Influence: Partner with Product Management to influence the product roadmap and translate business requirements into technical specifications.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science; Master’s or above preferred.
• 10+ years of experience in backend, data, or platform engineering, with a proven track record of solving complex latency and implementation challenges for systems supporting millions of users.
• 2+ years of experience in a Technical Lead or Player-Coach capacity, mentoring engineers while remaining hands-on.
• Deep, hands-on proficiency with SQL database systems (PostgreSQL), search systems (e.g., Elastic), AND MongoDB/Atlas (aggregation pipelines, data modeling, sharding, replica sets, query performance tuning).
• Strong experience building Data Access Layers (DAL), custom ODMs, or query translation engines.
• High proficiency in Node.js or other major backend languages (Python, Java, Go) for event-driven architectures.
• Direct experience implementing Redis (caching/TTL) and Atlas Search (Lucene).
• Advanced knowledge of cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and distributed systems, including containerization (Docker/Kubernetes).
• Familiarity with SQL-to-NoSQL translation patterns and building internal developer platforms or metadata-driven systems (no-code/low-code).
• An AI-forward mindset: avid user of AI tools and passionate about exploring AI for workflow automation and creativity.

Compensation & Hiring Ranges:

• Tier 1 (NY Metro, Seattle Metro, SF Bay Area): $238,600 - $298,300
• Tier 2 (All other US/Territory locations): $219,700 - $274,700
• Compensation is market-driven and depends on factors like location, role, skillset, experience, and peer salaries.
• May be eligible for target incentive and company equity (stock options).

Benefits & Perks:

• Work from home with a remote-first community.
• Unlimited PTO (with encouragement to use it).
• Student loan payback program.
• 100% employer-covered medical, dental, and vision options for you and dependents.
• Flexible Spending Account (FSA).
• Monthly stipend for WFH setup, vacation, development, and more.
• Employer-sponsored 401(k) with contribution match.
• Subsidized ClassPass Membership.
• Generous Paid Parental Leave.