Staff Software Engineer, Data Platform

SoFi is seeking an experienced and motivated Staff Software Engineer to be part of our Data Platform group within the Data Enablement division. The mission of the Data Enablement division is to activate data throughout SoFi, enabling the creation of personalized and delightful experiences for our customers. 

As a Staff Software engineer, you will help achieve the vision and strategy to build foundational and critical data platform products which are highly leveraged across SoFi for analytical, reporting, AI/ML use-cases that will drive teams to perform self serve analytics, gain insights and increase data driven decisions for all of sofi products

About the Role: 

• This role is for a talented, enthusiastic, detail-oriented and experienced Software Engineer with a proven track record of taking on big challenges in an agile way.
• You’ll be at the heart of SoFi’s data platform, acting as a leader and a force multiplier for critical initiatives across Semantic Layer, BI analytics, AI usecases, Operational experience enhancements expanding crucial knowledge in the team.
• You’ll act as a subject matter expert for data platform capabilities that can be leveraged across SoFi for analytical, reporting, ML/AI self-service use-cases.
• This role requires you to live at the cross section of data and software engineering collaborating between Product, Design, and Engineering, so you’ll be involved in the entire product lifecycle from ideation to building, deploying, and continuously improving.
• The ideal candidate is both forward-thinking and hands-on, and has a strong sense of ownership and delivery.
• You’ll mentor technical team members in best practices for Snowflake, Databricks, Airflow, dbt, and AWS data services, promoting a culture of technical distinction and innovation.
• Plus, you’ll be working alongside a team of talented engineers.

What you’ll do: 

• Drive technical architecture, design decisions and cross-functional discussions for the SoFi Data platform products
• Lead and oversee the full SDLC, from project requirements to deployment following ​​best practices and uphold coding standards.
• Generate ideas for new initiatives and technologies, and deliver timely results in a fast-paced and sometimes ambiguous environment.
• Build and optimize Operational experience for systems and processes and be part of an on-call team rotation to support the SoFi Data Platform capabilities 
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to understand requirements, influence best practices upstream and down, and deliver solutions that meet business needs. 
• Effectively communicate complex technical concepts and trade offs mapping industry patterns and best practices to solve novel problems for technical/non-technical stakeholders verbally and in well written documentation. 
• Monitor project performance against defined milestones and goals.
• Provide technical leadership, mentorship and strategic guidance to the team, fostering a culture of continuous learning, innovation, and excellence. 
• Contribute to hiring and training efforts to build a skilled and motivated engineering workforce.

What You'll Need: 

• A bachelor’s degree in computer science, Data Science, Engineering, or a related field. 
• Over 10 years of hands-on experience in software/data engineering with a proven track record of successfully building data systems and platforms. 
• Strong programming skills ideally on a modern stack including but not limited to Python, SQL 
• Experience in a collaborative coding environment, refining designs together, navigating code reviews, and managing pull requests.
• Broad proficiency in database platforms and significant experience with cloud data warehouse platforms such as Snowflake, and familiarity with others like Redshift, or Google BigQuery
• Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities, with the capability to simplify complex issues into actionable plans with a detail-oriented approach to your work. 
• Thorough knowledge and passion around system design and data architecture principles
• Experience with data tools like Snowflake/GitLab/AWS/Airflow/DBT /Tableau, Power BI etc
• Experience in building/deploying resources using Infrastructure as Code - IaC tools (like Terraform)
• Knowledge in analytics, metrics, and monitoring integrations.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to effectively convey technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.

Nice to Haves:

• Experience integrating Large Language Models (LLM) into products
• Good understanding of AI and its usage
• Experience in a highly regulated and governed sector, though the Fintech industry is advantageous.