Principal Software Engineer-Leading Emergent Engineering Taskforce

Business Area:

Seniority Level:

Job Description: 

At Cloudera, we empower people to transform complex data into clear and actionable insights. With as much data under management as the hyperscalers, we're the preferred data partner for the top companies in almost every industry.  Powered by the relentless innovation of the open source community, Cloudera advances digital transformation for the world’s largest enterprises.

The Leading Emergent Engineering Taskforce (LEET) is a new, agile operational unit designed to execute on Cloudera’s most critical strategic initiatives. Operating as an "empowered pod," we bridge the gap between abstract requirements and real-world execution, tackling both complex customer integrations and high-impact internal engineering projects. We move with the velocity of a startup while leveraging the massive scale of the Cloudera Data Platform.

As a Staff Software Engineer, you will serve as the Technical Anchor for the taskforce, partnering directly with a hands-on Manager. While the Manager sets the strategic direction, you will own the resolution of critical issues and broad design matters. You will tackle unusually complex projects and evaluate intangible factors to define the architectural design of the distributed systems we build. You are the primary guardian of technical excellence for the pod, ensuring our strategic prototypes are scalable, resilient, and aligned with Cloudera’s global standards.

As the Staff Software Engineer you will:

• Lead Architectural Design: Independently drive the technical design of massive-scale distributed systems using Java, Spark, Kafka, Iceberg, and more. You will act as a primary lead in design to determine the best technical approach to solve high-friction problems.

• Bridge the Gap: Engage with internal and external stakeholders to diagnose the root cause of friction. You will translate ambiguous business requirements into concrete engineering tasks and architectural blueprints for the team.

• Drive Technical Excellence: Mentor the team’s Senior and Full-Stack engineers. You are their technical authority—conducting code reviews, enforcing DevSecOps practices, and ensuring that our solutions are "production-ready."

• Solve the "Unusually Complex": Tackle the most difficult technical challenges where standard documentation fails, applying advanced principles to debug complex interactions between Hadoop components and modern Cloud-Native architectures.

• Influence the Product Roadmap: Synthesise technical insights gained from our strategic initiatives and feed them back to Cloudera’s core Global Engineering teams to influence the future architecture of the CDP platform.

We’re excited about you if you have:

• Experience: 10+ years of software engineering experience with a focus on building distributed systems and data platforms.

• Core Tech Mastery: Deep, hands-on expertise with big data ecosystems (HDFS, Hive, YARN) and modern compute engines (Spark, Flink, Kafka).

• Distributed Systems Depth: A deep understanding of technical architecture, including concurrency, multithreading, and distributed consistency challenges.

• Language Proficiency: Expert-level fluency in Java is a minimum requirement. Proficiency in Python, Scala and Rust is a plus.

• Strategic Design Leadership: Proven ability to author complex design documents and act as the primary lead in design discussions. You have a track record of designing solutions from the ground up that solve unusually complex problems where standard documentation does not exist.

• Cloud-Native Fluency: Familiarity with Kubernetes and Cloud-Native orchestration.

• A "Learning Mindset": The ability to learn new technologies on the fly in a continuous learning environment.

You may also have:

• Experience with Apache Iceberg and Lakehouse architectures.

• Familiarity with the Cloudera technologies.

• Background in high-end technical consulting, where you had to drive change in the face of ambiguity.

What you can expect from us:

• Generous PTO Policy 

• Support work life balance with Unplugged Days

• Flexible WFH Policy 

• Mental & Physical Wellness programs 

• Phone and Internet Reimbursement program 

• Access to Continued Career Development 

• Comprehensive Benefits and Competitive Packages 

• Paid Volunteer Time

• Employee Resource Groups

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