Principal Engineer, Data Platform Architecture

Zendesk • CA

76d • $214,000 - $320,000

About The Position

Zendesk’s mission is to make Customer Experience better—for every brand, every customer, every day. Data and analytics are at the core of this vision. The Zendesk Data Platform (ZDP) empowers more than 125,000 global brands with actionable insights, driving internal analytics and forming the launchpad for our customer-facing analytics solutions. We are seeking an exceptional Principal Engineer – Data Platform Architecture to own and shape the architecture of ZDP, ensuring it is performant, reliable, secure, and cost-optimized at scale. In this role, you will set technical direction for the ingestion, management, and consumption of data on our cloud-scale OLAP platforms, consult widely across teams, and lead the design for our next generation of Snowflake-based data infrastructure. This is a hands-on technical leadership position. You will architect high-impact data systems, advise on strategic trade-offs, and work alongside data, analytics, and product engineering groups to ensure world-class outcomes for Zendesk and our customers.

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience in large-scale data engineering or analytics infrastructure roles.
• At least 3 years at principal or staff-level solution architecture.
• Deep hands-on expertise with Snowflake, including architecture, implementation, performance optimization, and advanced features.
• Extensive practical knowledge of OLAP warehousing concepts and modern data modeling strategies.
• Strong architectural judgment across ETL/ELT, batch and streaming, real-time pipelines, and data access patterns.
• Demonstrated ability to lead technical design reviews and drive technical alignment across multiple engineering teams.
• Experience optimizing for multi-instance architectures.
• Fluency in SQL and data engineering languages (Python, Java or similar).
• Ability to navigate and influence in a complex, matrixed organization.
• Familiarity with regulatory frameworks and audit/compliance implications for enterprise data platforms.

Nice To Haves

• Hands-on architectural leadership migrating or evolving enterprise-scale data platforms to cloud-native OLAP solutions.
• Experience integrating Snowflake with event-driven architectures.
• Prior experience with customer-facing analytics products and platform integration challenges.
• Contributions to internal or external data platform communities and thought leadership.

Responsibilities

• Own the end-to-end architecture of the Zendesk Data Platform.
• Ensure that ZDP supports strategic business needs while meeting standards for scalability, reliability, and cost-effectiveness.
• Lead solution architecture for data ingestion, transformation, governance, and delivery.
• Serve as a technical authority on Snowflake, including advanced features such as Snowpark, Snowpipe, Cortex etc.
• Advise product and engineering leads on data modeling, access policies, and query optimization strategies.
• Establish engineering best practices for cost monitoring, performance tuning, security, and regulatory compliance.
• Guide teams in making architectural trade-offs between compute frameworks.
• Act as a cross-functional consultant, communicating complex architecture to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Ensure that all architectural decisions align with requirements for privacy, auditability, governance, and Zendesk’s standards for operational excellence.
• Provide mentorship to staff and senior engineers.

Benefits

• The US annualized base salary range for this position is $214,000.00-$320,000.00.
• This position may also be eligible for bonus, benefits, or related incentives.
• Hybrid working model allowing flexibility to work remotely part of the week.
• Commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior