Principal Software Engineer - Data Platform

About the role

The Data Platform Team is part of the Data Organization and is responsible for designing and building modern scalable, secure and reliable data platforms and data pipelines. With the data platforms, we will be able to serve the product/customer data needs, improve operational efficiency and increase revenue.

What you'll be doing

• Building secure and scalable data platforms that support our product/customer needs and power data driven decision making.
• Writing high quality and robustly tested code, mostly in Java and Python.
• Understanding business/data needs and growth to build the right solutions.
• Documenting your work to support our rapidly-scaling company.
• Interfacing with internal business stakeholders and technology partners to support day to day operations and create new data products.

What we are looking for

• 12+ years experience building high volume and low latency data platform and data pipelines using distributed event technology, e.g. Pubsub, Kafka, Kinesis, etc., and data storage system, e.g. Spanner/Postgres, BigQuery, Cassandra, data lakes, etc.
• Preferred experience with BigQuery and Snowflake.
• Able to model and design modern data structures in SQL/NoSQL databases
• A history of writing scalable, performant and maintainable code
• Experience with Java >= 11 or Python >= 3.7
• Proficiency using AI-powered development tools (e.g., Claude Code) across the full software development lifecycle - including design, prototyping, development, testing, and iteration. A demonstrated passion for AI-driven development, a commitment to continuously advancing AI skills, and a drive to push the boundaries of productivity and engineering outcomes.

Bonus skills

• Experience with cloud platforms such as GCP or AWS
• Docker and Kubernetes
• Able to model and design modern data structured in data lakes and data warehouses
• A background in the fin-tech space

Highnote benefits

• Flexible Paid Time Off
• 100% healthcare coverage + 75% coverage for dependents
• 401k program
• Paid Parental Leave: Up to 16 weeks paid leave for the birth parent, and up to 6 weeks paid leave for the non-birth parent
• Equity in Highnote
• Stipend to build out your home office; internet reimbursement
• At Highnote we have built a total rewards philosophy that includes fair, equitable, geo-based compensation that is performance and potential based. Our compensation packages are competitive based on robust market research and are a combination of a cash salary, equity, and benefits. In compliance with the Equal Pay for Equal Work Act, the annual salary range for applicants is $190,000-$240,000.

• Please note that positions located in San Francisco are hybrid and include core working days of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday in office.
• We provide flexible work options based on distance from our downtown SF office.
• Highnote believes in the power of face-to-face, personal connection.
• As a result, we prioritize in-person candidates.

• Highnote is a diverse and inclusive company committed to growing a diverse and inclusive team.
• We invite people from all backgrounds and identities to apply.
• Additionally, we encourage everyone to share which pronouns you wish for us to use when addressing you (i.e.: she/her, he/him, they/them, etc).