Staff+ Engineer - Foundational Data Plane
AtlanAbout the role
Data is at the core of modern business, yet many teams struggle with its overwhelming volume and complexity. At Atlan, we’re changing that. As the world’s first active metadata platform, we help organisations transform data chaos into clarity and seamless collaboration.
From Fortune 500 leaders to hyper-growth startups, from automotive innovators redefining mobility to healthcare organisations saving lives, and from Wall Street powerhouses to Silicon Valley trailblazers — we empower ambitious teams across industries to unlock the full potential of their data.
Recognised as leaders by Gartner and Forrester and backed by Insight Partners, Atlan is at the forefront of reimagining how humans and data work together. Joining us means becoming part of a movement to shape a future where data drives extraordinary outcomes.
Meet the Team
Atlan is building the context layer for AI agents and applications - transforming how data platforms power the next generation of AI.
Our team works on systems handling billions of assets, serving 100K+ users, with 99.99% availability targets.
We're looking for a Staff, Sr. Staff, or Principal Engineer to help architect and scale the foundational data plane that makes it easy to build apps, agents, and solutions for the AI era.
What You’ll Do
This is a high-agency role where you'll define technical direction, drive multi-quarter initiatives, and pioneer AI-native development practices.
Design and build platform services—APIs, infrastructure components, runtime systems, and ingestion frameworks—at enterprise scale
Architect the context store that transforms lakehouse infrastructure into AI-ready systems with multimodal capabilities (structured, unstructured, vector, graph)
Solve complex multi-tenant isolation and scaling problems for enterprise SaaS
Design data contracts governing ingestion, validation, processing, routing, storage, and serving across heterogeneous systems
Own critical shared infrastructure including lakehouse (Iceberg/Polaris), vector stores, graph databases, and OLTP systems
Drive technical standards through RFCs, architecture reviews, and documentation
Mentor senior engineers and influence architecture decisions across teams
Write production code using AI-assisted development tools (Claude Code, Cursor)
Debug distributed systems issues across Kubernetes, workflow orchestration, and microservices
What Makes You a Match?
Who You Are
You embrace AI-native development and want to pioneer new engineering workflows
You have high agency and take ownership of ambiguous problems
You're a strong async communicator who can influence without authority
You're comfortable with fast-changing priorities in a scale-up environment
You act as a force multiplier—elevating the technical bar for those around you
Must Haves
8+ years in platform engineering, infrastructure, or backend systems at a SaaS company
Experience building enterprise-scale distributed systems at scale
Deep expertise in multi-tenant architectures and tenant isolation strategies
Strong Kubernetes, containerization, and cloud infrastructure skills (AWS/GCP/Azure)
Hands-on experience with distributed systems patterns—service mesh, event-driven architecture, orchestration
Track record of driving multi-quarter technical initiatives from concept through production at scale
Deep Expertise in One or More of the following
Lakehouse architectures
Vector stores
Graph databases
Streaming systems
Nice to Have
Experience designing contract-driven or schema-first data platforms
Familiarity with Temporal or similar workflow orchestration systems
Data quality frameworks, observability systems, and cost attribution at scale
Experience supporting enterprise workloads with strict compliance requirements
CI/CD pipeline design and GitOps practices
Your Roadmap to Success
Your first 30-days
Get very comfortable with all the modules they work in
A small PR solution for a Source bug
Get their permissions, familiarize with CI/CD process, quality analysis, testing process, and monitoring
Your first 90-days
Gained ownership of a small module
Contributed to at least 3-4 customer issues
Workflow monitoring
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