Zendesk
Senior Staff Data Engineer – Zendesk
Join our Enterprise Data & Analytics (EDA) team as a Senior Staff Data Engineer, leading the design, development, and scaling of our enterprise data platform. You’ll work in a collaborative Agile environment using the latest engineering best practices with involvement in all aspects of the software development lifecycle.
Responsibilities
Lead data engineering projects at scale across multiple teams.
Plan and deliver complex, multi‑team or system, long‑term projects, including those with external dependencies.
Own large, mission‑critical systems or multiple complex, team‑level projects, overseeing all aspects from design through implementation and operation.
Collaborate across functions to research and brainstorm solutions for technical challenges.
Design and build end‑to‑end analytics solutions that provide practical insights into customer 360, finance, product, sales, and other key business domains; conduct R&D, PoC, and vendor evaluation.
Establish engineering best practices and mentor engineers, fostering a culture of technical excellence and continuous learning.
Identify, design, and implement internal process improvements – automating manual processes and optimizing data delivery.
Qualifications
10+ years of experience in data engineering, data architecture, or distributed systems, with at least 5 years in technical leadership roles.
7+ years of data engineering experience building, working & maintaining scalable data platforms.
4+ years of hands‑on Snowflake experience, including designing and managing data warehouses, optimizing performance and costs, migrating data from other systems, and implementing best practices for scalability and efficiency.
5+ years of experience with Cloud columnar databases (Snowflake, Google BigQuery, etc.).
3+ years of production experience with dbt and modern ELT pipelines.
Extensive experience with Airflow, Snowflake, Fivetran, DBT, AWS, GitHub Actions, Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform.
Hands‑on experience with AWS services (S3, Glue, EMR, Athena, Snowpipe, Kubernetes, Terraform).
Understanding of data governance, security controls, and access management.
Solid experience in observability, alerting, and incident management for data systems.
Ability to work optimally in a multifaceted, occasionally interrupt‑driven environment that includes geographically spread teams and customers.
Intermediate experience with Python, Go, Java, Scala (primarily Python).
Excellent communication skills to collaborate with executives, data scientists, analysts, and engineers.
Ability to work closely with data scientists, analysts, and stakeholders to translate business requirements into technical solutions.
Proven ability to mentor staff and senior engineers, raising the technical bar across teams.
Compensation and Benefits The US annualized base salary range for this position is $183,000.00–$275,000.00. The position may also be eligible for bonus, benefits, or related incentives. Hybrid work model – part office, part remote; local office attendance required part‑of‑the‑week.
Data Stack
ELT: MySQL CDC, Kafka, Snowflake, Fivetran, dbt Core & dbt Cloud, Astronomer, Alation, Monte Carlo.
BI: Tableau, Looker.
Infrastructure: AWS, Kubernetes, Terraform, GitHub Actions.
EEO Statement Zendesk believes in offering our people a fulfilling and inclusive experience. We are an equal‑opportunity employer and a AA/EEO/Veterans/Disabled employer. Individuals seeking employment are considered without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, medical condition, ancestry, disability, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. If you are based in the United States and would like more information about your EEO rights under the law, please click here. Zendesk endeavors to make reasonable accommodations for applicants with disabilities and disabled veterans pursuant to applicable federal and state law. If you are an individual with a disability and require a reasonable accommodation to submit this application, complete any pre‑employment testing, or otherwise participate in the employee selection process, please send an e‑mail to peopleandplaces@zendesk.com with your specific accommodation request.
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Responsibilities
Lead data engineering projects at scale across multiple teams.
Plan and deliver complex, multi‑team or system, long‑term projects, including those with external dependencies.
Own large, mission‑critical systems or multiple complex, team‑level projects, overseeing all aspects from design through implementation and operation.
Collaborate across functions to research and brainstorm solutions for technical challenges.
Design and build end‑to‑end analytics solutions that provide practical insights into customer 360, finance, product, sales, and other key business domains; conduct R&D, PoC, and vendor evaluation.
Establish engineering best practices and mentor engineers, fostering a culture of technical excellence and continuous learning.
Identify, design, and implement internal process improvements – automating manual processes and optimizing data delivery.
Qualifications
10+ years of experience in data engineering, data architecture, or distributed systems, with at least 5 years in technical leadership roles.
7+ years of data engineering experience building, working & maintaining scalable data platforms.
4+ years of hands‑on Snowflake experience, including designing and managing data warehouses, optimizing performance and costs, migrating data from other systems, and implementing best practices for scalability and efficiency.
5+ years of experience with Cloud columnar databases (Snowflake, Google BigQuery, etc.).
3+ years of production experience with dbt and modern ELT pipelines.
Extensive experience with Airflow, Snowflake, Fivetran, DBT, AWS, GitHub Actions, Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform.
Hands‑on experience with AWS services (S3, Glue, EMR, Athena, Snowpipe, Kubernetes, Terraform).
Understanding of data governance, security controls, and access management.
Solid experience in observability, alerting, and incident management for data systems.
Ability to work optimally in a multifaceted, occasionally interrupt‑driven environment that includes geographically spread teams and customers.
Intermediate experience with Python, Go, Java, Scala (primarily Python).
Excellent communication skills to collaborate with executives, data scientists, analysts, and engineers.
Ability to work closely with data scientists, analysts, and stakeholders to translate business requirements into technical solutions.
Proven ability to mentor staff and senior engineers, raising the technical bar across teams.
Compensation and Benefits The US annualized base salary range for this position is $183,000.00–$275,000.00. The position may also be eligible for bonus, benefits, or related incentives. Hybrid work model – part office, part remote; local office attendance required part‑of‑the‑week.
Data Stack
ELT: MySQL CDC, Kafka, Snowflake, Fivetran, dbt Core & dbt Cloud, Astronomer, Alation, Monte Carlo.
BI: Tableau, Looker.
Infrastructure: AWS, Kubernetes, Terraform, GitHub Actions.
EEO Statement Zendesk believes in offering our people a fulfilling and inclusive experience. We are an equal‑opportunity employer and a AA/EEO/Veterans/Disabled employer. Individuals seeking employment are considered without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, medical condition, ancestry, disability, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. If you are based in the United States and would like more information about your EEO rights under the law, please click here. Zendesk endeavors to make reasonable accommodations for applicants with disabilities and disabled veterans pursuant to applicable federal and state law. If you are an individual with a disability and require a reasonable accommodation to submit this application, complete any pre‑employment testing, or otherwise participate in the employee selection process, please send an e‑mail to peopleandplaces@zendesk.com with your specific accommodation request.
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