# Staff Data Engineer

**Company:** [Onxmaps](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/onxmaps)
**Location:** Bozeman, MT, Missoula, MT, Austin, TX, Charlotte, NC, Denver, CO, Kalispell, MT, Minneapolis, MN, Portland, OR, Salt Lake City, UT, Seattle, WA
**Role:** Data Engineering
**Salary:** $175k – $218k/yr
**Experience:** 12+ years
**Skills:** Apache Iceberg, Delta Lake, Hudi, Python, SQL, Airflow, GCP, AWS, Azure, Openmetadata, Lakehouse, Data Governance, Metadata, Iceberg, Distributed Systems
**Posted:** 2026-02-23

> Designs and evolves scalable Iceberg-based lakehouse architecture, metadata governance, and security controls for analytics, product, and AI systems. Requires 12+ years experience with Python, SQL, Airflow, and major cloud platforms.

## Job Description

## Responsibilities

### Technical Leadership & Architecture
- Design and evolve the Iceberg-based lakehouse architecture to balance scalability, cost, performance, and maintainability.
- Define and promote standards for table design, partitioning, schema evolution, optimization, and data layout.
- Lead architectural efforts spanning batch, streaming, and event-driven data processing where they deliver business value.
- Drive the design and delivery of complex, cross-team initiatives, enabling teams to move independently within established architectural guidance.
- Evaluate and integrate technologies (build vs. buy).

### Metadata, Governance & Open Standards
- Define how datasets, pipelines, features, and models are described, related, and governed using shared metadata.
- Lead the adoption and integration of open-source metadata and catalog tools (e.g., OpenMetadata).
- Establish metadata standards that enable self-service analytics, governance, and AI readiness.
- Partner with BI and Analytics to ensure domain models are clearly documented and aligned to business language.
- Collaborate with Data Science to ensure model inputs, features, and outputs are traceable, explainable, and reusable.

### Security, Access Control & Compliance
- Design and evolve security and access-control models for Apache Iceberg, including table-, column-, and row-level controls.
- Partner with Security and Platform teams to embed policy enforcement directly into data access paths.
- Drive metadata-driven authorization patterns that scale across tools and user groups.
- Ensure privacy, compliance, and regulatory requirements are incorporated into platform design.
- Balance strong security guarantees with usability to support safe self-service.

### Platform Reliability & Operations
- Build and maintain automation for compaction, retention, lifecycle management, and cost controls.
- Establish observability standards that connect pipeline health, data quality, and reliability metrics.
- Provide architectural oversight during critical incidents and drive long-term 'Keep the Lights On' (KTLO) reduction.
- Recommend tooling and process improvements based on industry standards and operational experience.

### Organizational Impact & Collaboration
- Align technical work with business priorities by understanding how data supports onX products and customer outcomes.
- Communicate complex technical concepts clearly to engineers, product partners, and leadership.
- Lead and participate in architecture and design reviews, setting a high bar for technical rigor.
- Foster strong cross-team collaboration across Data Engineering, Platform, Security, Analytics, and Data Science.
- Mentor senior and mid-level engineers, raising the technical bar across the team.

## Requirements

### Required
- **Bachelor’s degree** in Computer Science or equivalent experience.
- Deep industry experience (typically **12+ years**) building and operating large-scale data systems.
- Deep expertise in distributed data systems and data architecture.
- Strong experience with **Apache Iceberg** and similar table formats (**Delta Lake**, **Hudi**).
- Proven experience designing secure and governed data platforms.
- Expertise in **Python**, **SQL**, and orchestration patterns (e.g., **Airflow**).
- Experience working with data ecosystems, including metadata, catalog, or governance tooling.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills.
- Permanent U.S. work authorization.

### Cloud & Platform Experience
- Deep experience in at least one major cloud environment (**GCP**, **AWS**, or **Azure**).
- Familiarity with cloud-native data services such as query engines, stream/batch processing systems, and object storage–based lakehouses.
- Comfort with infrastructure-as-code and automated platform management.

## Compensation
- Base salary: **$175,000 - $218,000** upon hire (varies based on experience, skills, certifications, and education).
- Full-time employees eligible for common share options (vesting schedule) and potential annual bonus of **10%** based on company performance.

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