Staff Data Engineer

Upside

Staff Data Engineer leading design and implementation of data products for Upside's analytics platform. Collaborating cross-functionally to elevate data quality and impact.

Posted 5/6/2026full-timeWashington, D.C. • District of Columbia, Washington • 🇺🇸 United StatesLead💰 $215,000 - $250,000 per yearWebsite

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

AWSPythonSQL

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Drive the design and implementation of foundational data products and analytics platform capabilities that power Upside’s most critical product and business use cases.
Lead cross-functional workstreams, shape patterns and architecture across teams, and elevate the overall quality and impact of data work at Upside.
Design and deliver highly complex, domain-critical data products used by analysts, data scientists, and product teams to unlock new product features, ML models, and strategic decisions.
Architect scalable, extensible patterns for modeling, orchestration, and data transformation—balancing flexibility, reusability, and cost-efficiency.
Own platform evolution projects such as migrating the data platform to Snowflake Semantic Views, extending Cortex, or improving orchestration tooling for analytics workflows.
Lead technical planning and delivery across cross-functional teams, breaking down complex data initiatives into scoped, sequenced workstreams implemented by you and others.
Drive platform adoption and best practices, mentoring other engineers, building internal documentation and tooling, and raising the overall bar for analytics engineering across the company.
Influence upstream and downstream teams, partnering with engineering, product, data science, and business stakeholders to align on requirements and deliver end-to-end solutions.
Represent Analytics Engineering in technical design forums and contribute to roadmap discussions that shape the future of data at Upside.

Requirements

What you’ll need

Have 6+ years of experience in data or analytics engineering, with a track record of owning complex, business-critical data systems end to end.
Have deep expertise in SQL and Python, particularly for transforming, testing, and orchestrating very large datasets.
Are fluent with platforms like AWS, Snowflake, dbt, and Dagster, and can design extensible patterns to be used across teams.
Experience with DevOps practices (e.g., CI/CD for data), data governance, or FinOps (cost-conscious design).
Can break down ambiguous, cross-functional data problems and lead the implementation from design to deployment, collaborating across technical and non-technical teams.
Proactively identify opportunities to improve the analytics platform and are comfortable designing and implementing impactful, reusable solutions.
Communicate clearly across audiences, from engineers and analysts to product managers and business leaders.
Understand how to balance business value, maintainability, and platform standards in your design decisions.
Are excited about the opportunity to mentor others, set standards, and leave systems better than you found them.

Benefits

Comp & perks

Medical, dental, and vision coverage starting on Day 1
Equity (ISOs)
401(k) program
Family planning programs + paid parental leave
Physical fitness and wellness memberships
Emotional and mental health support programs
Unlimited PTO + 10 paid federal holidays + our annual, week-long Winter Break
Flexible work environment
Lunch reimbursement for in-office employees
Employee Resource Groups
Learning and Development stipend
Transparent culture
Amazing mission!

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills & Tools

data engineeringanalytics engineeringSQLPythondata transformationdata orchestrationDevOps practicesdata governanceFinOpsdata systems

Soft Skills

leadershipcommunicationcollaborationmentoringproblem-solvingcross-functional teamworkdesign thinkingstrategic decision-makingdocumentationinfluence