Principal Data Engineer

Realtor.com Careers•Austin, TX

4h•Hybrid

About The Position

Realtor.com®, recognized as the No. 1 site trusted by real estate professionals, has been a leader in online real estate for over 25 years. The company connects buyers, sellers, and renters with trusted insights and expert guidance to help them find their perfect home, making a significant impact on the real estate industry and simplifying the home-buying process for consumers. The mission is to empower more people to find their way home by breaking barriers, making connections, and building confidence through expert guidance. This exciting opportunity is for a motivated and energetic Principal Data Engineer to shape and lead the technical strategy, driving growth and innovation within the Data community. The ideal candidate is a hands-on technical leader with deep experience in building modern real-time data platforms that prioritize data governance, security, compliance, and efficient data management for optimal performance and cost. This role involves serving as a technical leader across multiple squads, driving a data roadmap aligned with business needs, and ensuring teams meet their OKRs by scaling technology. Initially, the focus will be on maturing the data pipeline's paved path with best-in-class tooling. As the role evolves, responsibilities will include designing advanced data architectures, collaborating with stakeholders to understand data needs, and ensuring a scalable, future-ready data infrastructure. The Principal Data Engineer will make strategic recommendations, drive technical decision-making across empowered teams, and foster a collaborative and innovative environment within the Data community, focusing on excellence in people and products. This position offers the opportunity to mentor engineers, cultivate continuous improvement, and contribute to engineering initiatives, ultimately shaping the future of the data platform and impacting the company's success.

Requirements

Hands-on technical leader with deep experience in building modern real-time data platforms that prioritize data governance, security, compliance, and efficient data management for optimal performance and cost
Proven track record of successfully delivering on data strategies and roadmaps
Deep experience building modern, real-time data platforms, demonstrated through successful implementations
Expert knowledge of SQL, data structures, algorithms, and schema design best practices
12+ years of architectural and design experience
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science/Engineering or related field

Nice To Haves

Master's degree preferred

Responsibilities

Shape and lead the technical strategy for the Data community
Serve as a technical leader across multiple squads
Drive a roadmap that aligns Data strategy with business needs
Ensure teams consistently work towards their OKRs, focusing on scaling technology
Focus on maturing the data pipeline’s paved path, ensuring best-in-class tooling
Design advanced data architectures
Collaborate with stakeholders to gain a deep understanding of the organization’s data needs
Ensure a scalable, future-ready data infrastructure
Make strategic recommendations and drive technical decision-making across empowered teams
Foster a collaborative and innovative environment within the Data community
Mentor talented engineers
Cultivate continuous improvement
Contribute to engineering initiatives
Own the end-to-end architecture of the entire data landscape
Design and implement enterprise-grade data models and architectures
Act as a strategic partner to the business, finding gaps and proposing proactive, reasonable solutions
Make critical technical decisions across multiple squads, ensuring data governance, security, and real-time capabilities are future-proofed for enterprise scale
Champion data best practices
Develop and design modern, scalable enterprise Data and AI architectures and models, including ingestion strategies
Balance existing systems with innovative solutions
Establish robust data governance, security, and compliance policies
Optimize data for efficient management, analysis, and significant cost control
Demonstrate strong learning agility and leadership in data cost initiatives
Drive the development and execution of a data roadmap, directly aligning data initiatives with core business objectives
Dive into complex technical details to understand challenges, debug issues, and provide expert guidance to engineers