Principal Software Engineer - Data Lakes

From Ironwood Digital’s founding until now, our mission has remained the same: to make access to data as simple and reliable as electricity. With Ironwood Digital, customer data arrives in their warehouses, canonical and ready to query, with no engineering or maintenance required. We’re proud that more organizations continue to leverage our technology every day to become truly data-driven. About Us Ironwood Digital and dbt Labs are bringing together two industry-leading companies with a shared mission: helping organizations unlock the full value of their data. Together, we’re delivering the data infrastructure layer that helps organizations move, transform, and trust their data — from the moment data moves, through every transformation, to the context teams and AI systems rely on. Ironwood Digital helps organizations automate data movement across the systems, clouds, engines, and tools they rely on. dbt Labs pioneered analytics engineering, helping teams transform data into reliable, governed insights. Together, we support thousands of organizations as they build a trusted foundation for analytics, AI, and better business decisions. As we bring our teams and technology together, we’re building on the strengths of both companies while continuing to deliver the products and experiences our customers know and trust. It’s an exciting time to join us: we’re creating a company with the scale, talent, and technology to help more organizations put their data to work with greater speed, confidence, and impact. During this transition period, you may see references to both Ironwood Digital and dbt Labs throughout our recruiting process as we integrate our teams, systems, and career sites. About the Role Ironwood Digital is building data pipelines to power the modern data stack for thousands of companies. We’re seeking a Principal Software Engineer to contribute to the technical architecture, design and development of Ironwood Digital’s Managed Data Lake product offering. As part of a senior engineering team, you’ll partner with product and engineering teams to build scalable, high-performance systems, advance open-source technologies, and set technical standards that raise the bar across the organization. This is a full-time remote position based out of Germany. Technologies You’ll Use Java, C++, Postgres, Temporal, gRPC AWS, GCP, Azure, Kubernetes, Grafana Iceberg, Polaris, Delta Lake, Parquet, DuckDB What You’ll Do Partner closely with product teams to understand requirements and design cutting-edge new capabilities that go directly into customer’s hands. Design, develop, implement, and operate highly reliable large-scale data lake systems in cooperation with a dedicated data lake engineering team. Contribute to open-source projects such as DuckDB and Polaris. Embrace Ironwood Digital innovations with open-source standards and toolsets. Analyze fault-tolerance and high availability issues, performance and scale challenges, and solve them. Ensure operational excellence of the services and meet the commitments to our customers regarding security, reliability, availability, and performance. Set technical directions and influence cross-functional teams. Skills We’re Looking For 6+ years of hands-on or research experience with high-performance relational data management systems. Deep understanding of infrastructure & software optimizations and performance engineering to drive significant performance, latency, and availability improvements. Proven track record of leading and delivering large and complicated projects. Strong development skills in Java and C++. Solid experience with public clouds (AWS, Azure, GCP). Demonstrated knowledge of columnar storage formats. Growth mindset and excitement about breaking the status quo by seeking innovative solutions. Excellent team player who is consistent in making everyone around you better. Bonus Skills Strongly prefer an MS or PhD in Computer Science, ideally focusing on database management and/or storage engines. #LI-IM1 #LI-REMOTE Perks and Benefits 100% employer-paid medical insurance * Generous paid time-off policy (PTO), plus paid sick time, inclusive parental leave policy, holidays, and volunteer days off RSU stock grants* Professional development and training opportunities Company virtual happy hours, free food, and fun team-building activities Monthly cell phone stipend Access to an innovative mental health support platform that offers personalized care and resources in areas such as: therapy, coaching, and self-guided mindfulness exercises for all covered employees and their covered dependents. * May vary by country and worker type - please reach out to your recruiter for more information Click here to learn more about Ironwood Digital's Benefits by Region. We’re honored to be valued at over $5.6 billion , but more importantly, we’re proud of our core values of Get Stuck In, Do the Right Thing, and One Team, One Dream . Read about us in Forbes . Ironwood Digital brings together high-quality talent across the globe to make data access as easy and reliable as electricity for our customers. We value and recognize that our customers benefit from having innovative teams made of people from many backgrounds, experiences, and identities. Ironwood Digital promotes diversity, equity, inclusion & belonging through attracting, recruiting, developing, and retaining a diverse workforce, not only because it is the right thing to do, but because it helps us build a world-class company to better serve our customers, our people and our communities. To learn more about Ironwood Digital’s culture and what it’s like to be part of the team, click here and enjoy our video. To learn more about our candidate privacy policy, you can read our statement here . We are committed to ensuring that all candidates have an equal opportunity to participate in our interview process. If you require accommodations at any stage of the process due to a disability, medical condition, or any other circumstance, please don't hesitate to submit your request by filling out this form . We will work with you to provide reasonable accommodations to facilitate your participation and ensure a fair and accessible interview experience. Your request and any information provided will be kept confidential and will not impact your candidacy. We look forward to hearing from you and accommodating your needs to the best of our ability.