Principal Data Engineer

At Early Warning, we’ve powered and protected the U.S. financial system for over thirty years with cutting‑edge solutions like Zelle® and Paze℠. 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 environment.

Candidates must independently possess the eligibility to work in the United States. This position does not provide visa sponsorship.

Overall Purpose

This hands‑on, individual‑contributor technical leader sets standards for excellence in quality across multiple teams. The role partners with cross‑functional teams, advises on initiatives, stays current with new technologies, and brings best practices into the engineering organization.

Essential Functions

• Partner with product management to craft product strategy, create product descriptions and align to technology roadmaps.
• Act as a senior point of expertise on Data Engineering, Data Science, Business Intelligence, software engineering issues, industry trends and emerging technologies. Serve as a role model, coach and mentor team members.
• Own technical product design and architecture.
• Create and deliver presentations to small‑to‑medium groups.
• Work closely with customers to understand their needs and build partnerships to improve Early Warning products.
• Collaborate with software engineering, product, and architecture teams to shape engineering approaches and share knowledge.
• Develop, scope and drive a departmental‑wide technical vision.
• Build cross‑functional relationships to influence and motivate others; serve as an internal catalyst for progressive, strategic change.
• Support the company’s commitment to risk management and protect the integrity and confidentiality of systems and data.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science or a related technical field.
• 15+ years of experience designing and developing complex software projects, with at least 8 years in the FinTech domain.
• Experience leading cross‑functional teams to create technical solutions.
• Effective communicator with exceptional public‑speaking skills; comfortable presenting to all levels of the organization.
• Knowledge of SDLC best practices, Agile/Scrum/LEAN, and DevOps practices.
• Proven track record designing and building end‑to‑end systems (full‑stack development).
• Hands‑on experience with at least one of the following technologies:
• Java RESTful Web Services (Java, J2EE, JUnit, Tomcat)
• Microservices architecture
• Spring Boot / Spring Core
• Messaging frameworks such as Kafka, Tibco EMS, or JMS
• Oracle PL/SQL / SQL Server
• JavaScript and frameworks (jQuery, AngularJS)
• Big Data (Cloudera / S3), AI/ML and BI reporting, Python
• Hands‑on experience with test automation across unit, component, integration and functional tests.
• Proven experience in OOA/OOD.
• Experience with CI/CD pipeline implementation (Git, Chef, Maven, Jenkins, etc.).
• Solid understanding of cloud platforms such as AWS, Google Cloud or MS Azure.
• Experience with code repositories (Git, SVN), bug‑tracking tools (Jira, Bugzilla) and wikis (Confluence).
• Background and drug screen (required).

Preferred Qualifications

• M.S. or Ph.D. in Computer Science or another technical field.
• Knowledge of Splunk, Altiris & Zabbix.
• Hands‑on experience with AWS Cloud 2.0.
• Experience with various database design and architectures.
• Expertise in Terraform and/or other cloud orchestration technologies.
• Experience with monitoring & alerting systems such as AppDynamics.
• Experience with other programming languages (C#, Ruby, Python, PHP).
• Knowledge of ACH/EFT.
• Knowledge of real‑time payment networks (RTP, FedNow).
• Experience with DataRobot, H2O, SageMaker.

Physical Requirements

Work occurs in a normal office environment. The role is primarily sedentary, requiring extensive computer usage and periods of sitting for approximately four hours. Occasional standing, walking, kneeling and reaching may be required.

Lifting up to 10 pounds occasionally is acceptable. The role requires visual acuity and dexterity to view, prepare and manipulate documents and office equipment, and to communicate with internal and external customers.

Base Pay Scale For This Position

San Francisco, CA: $207,000 – $276,000 USD per year.

Benefits

• Health coverage – competitive medical (PPO/HDHP), dental, and vision plans with HSA or FSA contributions.
• 401(k) retirement plan – 100% company match on first 6% deferral upon eligibility.
• Paid Time Off – flexible time off for exempt employees, generous PTO for non‑exempt employees, 11 paid company holidays, and a paid volunteer day.
• 12 weeks of paid parental leave.
• Maven Family Planning support throughout the parenting journey (egg freezing, fertility, adoption, surrogacy, pregnancy, postpartum, early pediatrics and returning to work).

Equal Opportunity Employer

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

Anti‑Discrimination Statement

Early Warning Services, LLC (“Early Warning”) considers and hires 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. The company also prohibits discrimination on other bases such as medical condition, marital status or any other factor that is irrelevant to performance. We affirm a policy and practice to support and promote equal employment opportunity and affirmative action in accordance with all applicable federal, state, and municipal laws.

San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance

We will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.