Associate Principal Architect (Data and Analytics Platform)

Exelixis•Alameda, CA

12d•$182,000 - $259,000•Onsite

About The Position

The Associate Principal Engineer – Cloud Platform will support the design and creation of cloud-based products and services to meet the technology needs of Exelixis. This position will help define and design our cloud platform, which includes cloud automation tools and standards, CI/CD pipelines, DevOps tooling and AWS account provisioning automation. This position will also work with application support teams to re-define the interface between our cloud platform products and application installation and configuration processes.

Requirements

Master's degree in a relevant field and 9 years of experience; or Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field and 11 years of related experience; or Equivalent combination of education or years of experience.
At least 10 years of experience in cloud infrastructure and/or enterprise data platforms in a highly available and production environment.
Advanced level knowledge of Amazon Web Services (AWS), especially with services related to data storage, data processing, analytics, security, and compute.
Advanced level knowledge with infrastructure as code (IaC) tools, especially Terraform.
Intermediate level knowledge with cloud and infrastructure automation.
Intermediate level knowledge of modern development and deployment practices of continuous integration and continuous deployment.
Strong knowledge of Databricks, modern lakehouse architecture, governance, metadata, and data quality principles.
Strong working knowledge of Python, SQL, Spark, and dbt.
Strong ability to design scalable, governed, and reusable data platform capabilities that support analytics and AI.
Proven experience in lakehouse architectures on AWS data technologies (Glue, Lake Formation, Redshift, Athena) and Databricks.
Expertise in programming languages such as dbt, Python, Spark SQL, and SQL.
Knowledge of AWS services, including IAM.
Experience in Apache Spark, AWS Glue, Databricks, Apache Iceberg, and Delta Tables.

Nice To Haves

Technical certification may be required.
Experience working in a SOX and FDA regulated environment is a plus.
Life sciences experience is a strong plus.
Professional AWS and Databricks certifications are highly valued and relevant.

Responsibilities

Helps define and evolve the enterprise data and analytics platform strategy and roadmap, with a focus on governed data access, reusable data products, self-service enablement, and AI readiness.
Refine end-to-end development processes, from ideation through CI/CD, security scanning, and production monitoring.
Work on unusually complex technical problems and provide solutions which are highly innovative and ingenious.
Develops and applies complex and often long-term strategies on specific projects.
Act as the technical expert to be sought for guidance on new technology direction.
Lead the architecture and delivery of core data platform capabilities, including ingestion, transformation, metadata, governed access, data quality, and analytics-ready data layers.
Ensure platform capabilities are built for long-term scale, reuse, governance, and AI enablement from day one.
Translates overall direction and strategy and communicates across organizational levels, to influence executives when needed.
Leads strategic initiatives and ensure successful executions.
Act as organization spokesperson on advanced projects and/or programs.
Acts as advisor to management and customers on advanced technical research studies and applications.
Interacts with senior external personnel on significant technical matters often requiring coordination between organizations.
Partners closely with platform engineering, governance, security, and domain teams to define platform standards and scalable implementation patterns.
Helps align business, data, and technical stakeholders around a common platform vision and architecture.
Own the oversight of documentation of infrastructure and work instructions for systems and applications.
Develop approaches and implement solutions to mitigate future incidents.
Ensure that completed work delivers long-term value and enhances platform performance to maintain maximum functionality.
Make decisions regarding access, permissions, and security controls across systems.
Establish standards for metadata, data quality, governance, and platform reliability that improve trust, auditability, and enterprise reuse.
Ensure that governance, compliance, and security are built into the platform architecture and operating model.
Serve as the SME for general engineering issues and platform strategy.
Mentor and coach engineers across the team, fostering technical excellence.
Keep abreast of industry trends and evaluate platform needs for future growth.
Bring strong ownership, clarity of thought, and architectural judgment to platform design and decision-making.