Principal Engineer, Cloud Data Infrastructure

What you'll do

• Set the technology roadmap and architectural direction for Venmo’s data platform infrastructure.
• Provide deep technical leadership for mission-critical databases, data pipelines, and messaging systems.
• Stay hands-on with code to deliver performance improvements and scalability for high-volume payment processing.
• Pioneer AI-first engineering practices and integrate AI/ML workflows into data platform infrastructure.
• Advise senior executives on multi-year business strategies and complex technical trade-offs.
• Mentor senior and staff-level engineers to enhance the performance of the engineering organization.
• Manage "build vs. buy" decisions to determine when to adopt industry standards versus developing novel solutions.
• Drive DevOps excellence through infrastructure as code, CI/CD for data systems, and automation-first operations.

What we're looking for

• 10+ years of relevant experience and a Bachelor’s degree or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• 15+ years of professional experience in software engineering or data platform roles (preferred).
• 5+ years of experience building and operating large-scale distributed systems in production cloud environments, preferably AWS.
• Deep hands-on technical expertise in relational and NoSQL databases, distributed caching, and message queue architectures.
• Strong DevOps background including infrastructure as code, CI/CD for data systems, and automation-first operational practices.
• Demonstrated experience with AI-first development practices and applying AI tooling to accelerate engineering productivity.
• Proven track record of delivering performance improvements and scalability for consumer-facing applications serving tens of millions of users.
• Background in financial technology, payments processing, or regulated industries (preferred).