Staff Data and AI Platform Engineer

Workiva Inc.•Remote - CO, CO

1d•$129,000 - $210,000•Remote

About The Position

The Staff Data and AI Platform Engineer at Workiva serves as the technical authority for the Enterprise data platform. You'll own design, reliability, security, and cost efficiency of account-level infrastructure (warehouses, RBAC, replication, governance, platform standards) while enabling domain teams to build and operate dbt Mesh projects safely at scale. You'll set technical direction, translate ambiguous challenges into clear standards and architectural decisions, and raise the engineering bar across data and analytics. You'll proactively evaluate emerging technologies (including AI/ML data substrate integration), shape the multi-year data platform roadmap, and drive buy/build/adopt decisions with leadership. Key partnerships include GRC on FedRAMP and data-boundary controls, Atlan for enterprise cataloging, and AI/ML platform teams on AI application foundations. You'll align stakeholders across Data Engineering, Analytics Engineering, Data Science, ML Platform, AI Product, BI, Security, Data Ops, and business partners—influencing technical direction without direct authority.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Math, Finance, Statistics, or related discipline (or equivalent practical experience)
8+ years in data or platform engineering, including 3+ years owning Snowflake account/platform operations at enterprise scale
Demonstrated architectural judgment balancing standardization, domain autonomy, cost, security, performance, and buy/build/adopt decisions at enterprise scale
RBAC model design, service-user provisioning, SSO/Okta integration for Snowflake
Semantic layer design on Snowflake (semantic views, verified queries, metadata for human/AI consumers)
MCP server or equivalent AI data gateway infrastructure for LLM-powered workflows
Analytical agent evaluation frameworks: accuracy testing, hallucination detection, coverage validation
Data governance: row/column masking, secure views, data cataloging (Atlan), compliance-boundary design (FedRAMP, SOX)
Advanced SQL query design and tuning for performance, cost, and accuracy in Snowflake
AWS data services (S3 staging, IAM, Secrets Manager) supporting Snowflake workloads
Python or scripting for platform automation and provisioning
dbt (Core or Cloud) and dbt Mesh or multi-project data mesh patterns
BI/analytics tools (QuickSight, Omni, Sigma, Tableau); experience evaluating or migrating BI tooling
Orchestration/ingestion tools (Airflow, Fivetran, Workato, or similar)
Performance and cost optimization: warehouse tuning, query analysis, resource monitors, query tags
Agile/Sprint environment experience
Excellent verbal/written communication; ability to translate platform strategy for business, technical, and executive audiences
Proven ability to influence technical direction and drive alignment across teams without direct authority
Strong planning and prioritization to manage strategic roadmap, operational work, and emerging tech evaluations concurrently
Comfort navigating ambiguity, defining structure, and driving decisions with incomplete information under organizational complexity
Experience leading or contributing to cross-functional initiatives
SaaS or subscription-based business experience
Track record scaling enterprise data platforms across multiple business domains

Nice To Haves

SnowPro Core, Advanced, or Architect certification

Responsibilities

Define multi-year data platform architecture vision and roadmap; present tradeoffs and sequencing to DnA and engineering leadership
Serve as technical decision-maker for platform-wide architectural choices: buy/build/adopt, technology evaluation, and cross-domain standard-setting
Evaluate and pilot emerging data platform technologies; run POCs and develop architectural recommendations
Drive alignment across Data Engineering, Analytics Engineering, AI/ML Platform, Security, and Data Ops
Mentor data and analytics engineers; define engineering standards, review designs/PRs, and grow platform competency
Define and maintain Snowflake platform standards: naming conventions, schema/database layout, warehouse tiers, role hierarchy, environment promotion patterns
Own RBAC permission model: analyst/engineer roles, service-user provisioning, solution-owner access patterns, least-privilege via Okta and App Cafe
Design and evolve dbt Mesh and data mesh boundaries across business domains (Finance, Marketing Ops, CPX, others)
Configure and operate Snowflake account infrastructure: warehouses, resource monitors, query tags, replication, account parameters, Iceberg, External Access Integration, compute pools
Own integration with Atlan for enterprise data cataloging, lineage, and metadata lakehouse governance
Define integration standards for orchestration (Airflow), ingestion (Fivetran), data sharing, and ELT tooling with guardrails for domain teams
Design Snowflake data architecture patterns for AI/agentic workflows: structured/semi-structured data access for LLM pipelines, context retrieval, feature store integrations, Snowflake Cortex or external model frameworks
Build and operate MCP (Model Context Protocol) server infrastructure exposing Snowflake data to AI agents/LLM workflows, defining access patterns, routing logic, and guardrails
Own analytical agent evaluation framework: tooling, standards, and automated testing for agent accuracy, hallucination risk, and coverage across governed data domains
Partner with GRC and Security on FedRAMP boundary controls, data sanitization, field-level masking, and security reviews for new schemas/integrations
Drive operational discipline via query-tag attribution, warehouse sizing strategy, and showback alignment with business departments
Enable multi-model data consumption (BI, business/AI applications, analysts, developers) through Snowflake connectivity, performance tuning, and access patterns within guardrails
Define standards for reverse-ETL and operational workloads (Salesforce, OpenAir, Workato, Fivetran, similar); delegate execution to domain teams within guardrails