Principal Software Engineer, Tech Lead - Databricks Platform

Cardlytics

4d

About The Position

Cardlytics is seeking a Principal Software Engineer, Tech Lead - Databricks Platform to join the team, reporting to the Director Cloud & Data Infrastructure. We are looking for an experienced technical leader to own and evolve our Databricks environment end-to-end on AWS. In this role, you will make administrative, design, and tactical decisions that shape how Analysts, ML Engineers, and Business stakeholders interact with data at Cardlytics. You will combine deep Databricks expertise with the ability to lead a small team, define platform standards, and act as the primary technical partner for diverse user groups across the organization.

Requirements

• 7+ years of experience in data engineering or data platform roles, with at least 2 years in a technical lead or architecture capacity.
• Deep, hands-on expertise with the Databricks platform: Delta Lake, Spark (PySpark), Databricks SQL, Unity Catalog, Workflows, and cluster management on AWS.
• Proven experience designing and delivering Lakehouse architectures and large-scale ELT/ETL pipelines in production environments.
• Proficiency in Infrastructure as Code tools, preferably Terraform.
• Demonstrated experience supporting diverse stakeholder groups including Analysts, ML Engineers, and non-technical Business users.
• Strong understanding of data governance, data modeling, and cloud security best practices.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to translate technical concepts for non-technical audiences.

Responsibilities

• Platform Administration: Own day-to-day administration of the Databricks environment on AWS, including workspace configuration, cluster policies, user and group management, access controls, and cost governance.
• Architecture & Design: Design and evolve the Cardlytics Databricks architecture; establish reference architectures and standards for batch, streaming, and ML workloads.
• Governance & Security: Drive adoption of Unity Catalog for centralized RBAC, column-level security, data lineage, and metadata management; implement and maintain security best practices including encryption and audit logging.
• Performance & Reliability: Monitor platform health, define SLAs, and lead performance tuning for Spark jobs, Delta tables, and SQL warehouses; own incident response and root-cause analysis.
• User Enablement: Serve as the primary technical partner for Analysts, ML Engineers, and Business users; develop self-service guides, onboarding materials, and best-practice documentation to reduce friction across all user groups.
• Infrastructure as Code: Own the CI/CD strategy for Databricks deployments using Terraform, GitHub Actions, and Databricks Asset Bundles; enforce DevOps practices across the team.
• Leadership: Lead and mentor a small team of data/platform engineers; provide technical direction, drive engineering excellence, and manage the Databricks vendor relationship.

Benefits

• Flexible paid time off plus company holidays
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance begins on your first day
• 401(k) retirement plan with company match, plan also includes a student loan debt repayment option
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan
• Educational assistance for continuing education
• Lifestyle Spending Account for physical, emotional, and financial wellness (like gym memberships, home down payments, art classes, park passes, and more!)
• Complimentary Calm app subscriptions to support employee mental health and wellbeing

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal
• Education Level: No Education Listed
• Number of Employees: 101-250 employees