Senior Data Engineer (all genders) ☠️
Are you a Senior Data Engineer who likes to provide data and insights and gets excited by a strong team culture? You might be just who we’re looking for!
Summary
Team: Data Platform Team
Position: Senior Data Engineer
Location/Remote-Work: The work style is hybrid: You can work from home, but you should live in the broader Hamburg area to be able to occasionally attend team meetings on-site.
Languages: German and English (B1 is the minimum level for both)
Status: Actively hiring
Who We’re Looking For
We’re searching for a Senior Data Engineer, to supplement our data platform team. You'll architect, build, and maintain data pipelines and overall data infrastructure that power critical business decisions across a scaled, leading company in the US package delivery market. Ideally you have 5+ years of experience in data engineering and enjoy lifting the maturity of a data stack more than pure maintenance work. Sounds like a fit? Perfect! Here's where your knowledge will come in handy:
- Experience with at least one modern Data Intelligence Platform stack like Databricks or Snowflake.
- Profound background in software engineering (Python or TypeScript).
- Proven track record of delivering reliable, scalable, and maintainable data solutions in production.
- Strong background in one cloud ecosystem like AWS (this is our choice), GCP, or Azure.
- Proficient in SQL for crafting ETL queries and optimizing performance.
- Hands-on experience building pipelines using ELT/ETL tools (Fivetran, Airbyte, etc.) and workflow orchestration services.
- Strong collaboration skills and the ability to drive alignment across teams in multiple countries.
Nice-to-have:
- Skilled with Infrastructure-as-Code like Terraform or AWS CDK and CI/CD practices using GitLab.
- Extensive Databricks expertise, including Databricks SQL & PySpark optimization, Delta Lake, Delta Live Tables.
- Basic data modeling experience (Star Schema, Data Vault, One Big Table, etc.).
- Experience with data observability (logging, metrics, quality checks) and data testing frameworks (Great Expectations, Soda, dbt tests).
- Awareness of data security, compliance, and governance best practices.
- Able to monitor and optimize data platform costs (FinOps).
- Enjoys mentoring and knowledge sharing across the team.
You can check out our full tech stack in our Tech Radar.
Since we work in cross-functional teams, mastering every area is not necessary. What matters most is that you share our values and are a good fit with our crew. We value personal development and provide the space for it. Strong English language skills are essential, as we regularly communicate with colleagues in the US and write documentation in English. At work, we communicate mostly in German, but we can all speak English. If you speak pirate that wouldn’t hurt either – YYYAAAARRRRrrrrrr!
The Team and Domains
We're currently forming another platform team (in line with Team Topologies) where you will set your anchor. Your expertise will have a company-wide impact on our crew, like the product managers and the marketing and analytics team. In addition to ongoing work, this team will tackle projects in the following areas:
- Expanding and maintaining our data integration platform
- Partnering with Product Engineering to streamline data ingestion into the main application
- Designing and implementing new data layers with Analytics Engineers and Data Analysts
- Enhancing our Data Catalog to improve documentation and support LLM-powered reporting
- Developing LLM-based data products in Databricks to optimize CX workflows and improve customer interactions
Who we are
Since our founding in 2014, we’ve been disrupting the package shipping market in the US with our software.
Our mission is to make the complex parcel shipping process as simple, user-friendly, and affordable as possible. We operate in multiple locations in the US and serve the American market exclusively. However, the development of our web app has always had its home base in Hamburg-Ottensen.
Together with our overseas colleagues, we work daily to deliver the best possible product for our users. This is what we're valued for, and it’s the wind in our sails.
Our Values & Culture
As an owner-managed company with a crisis-proof product in a growth-oriented market, we can combine high-quality standards, attention to detail, and an attractive working environment with great conditions. We believe creativity and room for personal ideas provide the optimal environment for innovation, progress, and quality. Trust and helpfulness, combined with many opportunities to take on responsibility, enable personal growth. This means working with little hierarchy and a pull, not push, approach to tasks.
This agile, self-organized way of working requires a high level of personal responsibility and enthusiasm for close teamwork. We give each other quick feedback and aren’t afraid of conflict, but always find fair, solution-oriented consensus. In doing so, we learn a lot from each other, and value diversity as opportunity.
To ensure long-term collaboration, we do everything possible to make family and work compatible.
What Doesn’t Fit
You won’t be happy here if you expect complete, end-to-end processes like in large corporations. On our ship, some things are still not perfectly tied down, but we work together to improve systematically. You’ll also be unhappy if you’re a lone wolf, apathetic, or expect to be told exactly what to do. And if you happen to be a macho, fascist, or conspiracy theorist, you’ll be quickly keelhauled!
Anything Else?
We haven’t listed the usual perks like free fruit, beer, foosball, or ball pits. If you’d like those, let’s chat. We either already have them or can make them happen! We offer the following:
- You decide whether to work remotely or on-site at our Hamburg-Ottensen office
- We’re only hiring in Hamburg and surrounding areas, as we occasionally meet in person for special events
- Part-time work is possible
- 30 days of vacation
- Flexible working hours
- You can take it as a given that you'll be allocated time and money for your professional development
- Regarding development environments: we use a lot of macOS, but also ARRRrrrch Linux and Ubuntu. Windows isn’t supported and isn’t planned. You’ll work with a MacBook or ThinkPad. Most of us use PHPStorm, Vim, or VS Code for development.
Next Steps
If you think you’d be a good fit for our team, feel free to reach out via anheuern@pirateship.com
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