Lead/Principal Scala/Python Engineer

Our client is a is a location data and technology platform company that empower customers to achieve better outcomes - from helping a city manage its infrastructure or a business optimize its assets to guiding drivers to their destination safely. They create solutions that fuel innovation, provide opportunity and foster inclusion to improve people's lives. If you are inspired by an open world and driven to create positive change, join us!

As a Senior Backened Engineer in the Map Data Processing group you will develop smart Map Data processing tools for the state-of-the-art Mapping Technologies. You will work self-sustained in an agile team. Your responsibility will cover developing, extending and maintaining tool and services that processes map data for global navigational database. For that you will be translating product strategies into technology strategies, leading the long-term architectural direction and helping design and build industry-grade customer-facing geo-data-intensive products. You will work closely with other engineering & operations teams, internal users of tool chains your team develops and partner with product managers and the larger map operations business units.

Project Overview:

Join our engineering organization to build the next generation of automated map data processing for a global provider of location and mapping solutions used in automotive and mobility.

You will be one of the founding engineers on Platform — a system that takes road data from multiple sources (GPS traces, traffic signs, open map data), detects errors in the map, and either auto-corrects them or flags them for human review. The platform produces quality signals and road attribute corrections that feed directly into navigation and autonomous driving products.

This is a project-starter role. We are looking for someone who can define technical direction, shape architecture from scratch, align stakeholders across teams, and raise the engineering bar — not someone who joins and executes tasks. The primary language on this team is Scala or Python — strong technical leads in either are welcome.

What you'll work on:

Architecture and design of distributed data pipelines for large-scale road dataset processing

Error detection, confidence-based auto-fix logic, and manual review workflows for map attributes

Data validation, quality gates, and traceability across the pipeline

Cross-team technical leadership, architectural decision-making, and mentoring

Cloud-native execution environments (infrastructure automation, CI/CD, operational readiness)

Technologies:

• Scala / Python (primary - one or the other)
• Apache Spark
• Kafka
• Akka
• Apache Airflow
• SQL / PostgreSQL
• AWS (Step Functions, ECS, Lambda, EMR)
• Java
• CI/CD (GitHub / GitLab)

Requirements:

• 10+ years building backend systems with Scala or Python as your primary language (confirmed production depth - not just listed in skills)
• Distributed data processing - Apache Spark or equivalent at production scale (Flink, Akka, Kafka Streams); required regardless of primary language
• Kafka - event-driven architecture, producers/consumers, production usage
• AWS - practical experience with Step Functions, ECS, Lambda, or EMR
• Strong SQL and data modeling — ideally PostgreSQL (schema design, query optimization, indexes)
• System architecture: ability to design, evaluate, and evolve system-level architecture from scratch
• Cross-team technical leadership, stakeholder alignment, mentoring culture
• Strong LLD: modular architecture, clean abstractions, separation of concerns
• API design: RESTful services, backward compatibility, versioning
• Testing strategy: unit, integration, E2E — deliberate approach to coverage and reliability
• Monitoring & observability: logging, metrics, alerting, dashboards in production systems
• Solid knowledge of data structures, OOP, and design patterns
• CI/CD pipelines (GitHub / GitLab) and engineering best practices
• English: Upper Intermediate+ (written and spoken)

Responsibilities:

• Define system architecture and drive technical direction for backend services and data processing pipelines
• Design and implement distributed processing solutions at scale — batch and near-real-time
• Own delivery end-to-end: from design through testing, performance optimization, and production readiness
• Define and enforce testing strategy (Unit, Integration, E2E) across the team
• Set up and maintain monitoring, dashboards, and observability for production systems
• Drive code quality standards via reviews, CI/CD practices, and engineering best practices
• Lead estimations, planning, and iterative delivery in an Agile/Scrum process
• Mentor engineers, share knowledge, and build strong engineering culture within the team