Staff Software Engineer- Developer Experience

Join Nextdata and Shape the Future of Data!
Nextdata is on a mission to make data mesh principles a reality at enterprise scale. Founded by Zhamak Dehghani, the creator of the Data Mesh, we're pioneering a data-mesh-native platform—Nextdata OS—that enables developers to share data responsibly through data product containers. We're transforming how data is created, shared, discovered, and used, making it more connected, faster, and fairer than ever before.
About the Role
As a Staff Software Engineer- Developer Experience, you will play a pivotal role in shaping how developers interact with Nextdata OS, making it seamless and intuitive to build and consume data products. You will design and build Python-centric APIs, libraries, and tools that abstract the complexity of data product development while enabling powerful integrations with technologies like Spark, Flink, and pandas. Your work will extend to optimizing notebook environments like Jupyter to enhance workflows for data engineers, data scientists, and ML practitioners, empowering them to create high-quality, decentralized data products efficiently.
Your impact will be felt across our developer community and within Nextdata itself. By creating intuitive frameworks, reusable abstractions, and robust tooling, you’ll set the standard for how developers interact with decentralized data systems. You’ll collaborate with internal teams and the open-source community to refine and showcase best practices, ensuring Nextdata OS is a platform developers love to use. Your contributions will directly influence the adoption of data mesh principles at scale, driving innovation and unlocking new possibilities for organizations worldwide.

Your Impact

• Design Developer Tools: Build intuitive Python libraries, APIs, and frameworks that simplify the creation and consumption of data products on Nextdata OS.
• Optimize Notebook Environments: Enhance and extend Jupyter notebooks and similar tools to provide a seamless, developer-friendly experience for data engineers and scientists.
• Build Showcase Data Products: Collaborate with internal teams to create data products that demonstrate best practices and highlight the capabilities of Nextdata OS.
• Abstract Complexity: Develop reusable abstractions and workflows to support a wide range of technologies, including Spark, Flink, and pandas, ensuring platform and language agnosticism.
• Collaborate Across Teams: Partner with data engineers, data scientists, and product teams to understand developer needs and refine the platform experience.
• Lead Open Source Contributions: Contribute to and collaborate with the open-source community to ensure tools and libraries meet the highest standards of usability and adoption.
• Enable Streaming Workflows: Work on enabling and optimizing streaming data products, integrating with technologies like Spark Streaming and Flink.
• Document and Advocate: Create clear documentation, tutorials, and best practices to empower developers to effectively use Nextdata OS.
• Iterate with Feedback: Continuously improve tools and workflows based on feedback from internal and external developers to ensure a delightful experience.
• Champion Developer Experience: Advocate for user-centric design and workflows that prioritize efficiency, clarity, and simplicity for developers.

What We're Looking For

• 10+ Years of Experience: Proven track record in software engineering with a focus on developer experience, data engineering, or data science, including building tools and frameworks for technical users.
• Expert Python Skills: Deep understanding of Python, including advanced features like decorators, context managers, metaprogramming, and performance optimization. Experience building libraries and frameworks used by other developers is essential.
• ML and Data Engineering Expertise: Hands-on experience with machine learning workflows and data engineering pipelines using tools such as PySpark, pandas, and Flink. Familiarity with streaming data technologies is a strong plus.
• Notebook Development Experience: Significant experience with Jupyter notebooks or similar tools, including customizing and extending them to support complex developer workflows.
• Open Source Contributions: Demonstrated history of contributing to or leading open-source projects, particularly in the Python ecosystem, with an emphasis on developer-focused tools.
• Developer Experience Design: Proven ability to design intuitive and seamless developer workflows, tools, and APIs that abstract complexity while maintaining flexibility.
• Multi-Language Environments: Familiarity with creating tools and frameworks that support polyglot environments and integrate with diverse technology stacks.
• Distributed Systems Knowledge: Experience building and working with systems at scale, including familiarity with cloud-native technologies and data platforms like Spark, Snowflake, and Databricks.
• Strong Collaboration Skills: Ability to collaborate across teams and functions, working closely with data engineers, scientists, and platform developers to deliver impactful tools and features.
• Startup Experience: Comfortable in a fast-paced, early-stage startup environment, with a hands-on approach to problem-solving and a proactive mindset.

Nice to Haves

• Experience with Data Mesh Concepts: Familiarity with data mesh principles or interest in learning from the creator of data mesh.
• SaaS/PaaS Experience: Familiarity with building cloud-based data solutions or working in a fast-paced startup environment.

Our Benefits

• We offer a competitive salary and equity, giving you ownership in the company’s future.
• Premium health, vision, and dental insurance coverage for you and your dependents.
• Unlimited paid time off for flexibility and balance.
• $2,000 for your home workspace setup and a company laptop to get started.

About Us
At Nextdata, we believe that decentralization is the key to unlocking the true potential of data. Our flagship product, Nextdata OS, is a data-mesh-native platform designed to tackle the challenges of decentralizing data at enterprise scale. We're pioneering a new way for developers to work with data, enabling them to share it responsibly through data product containers and empowering AI, machine learning, and analytics with decentralized, responsible, and equitable data ownership that transcends organizational, technological, and trust boundaries.
Our vision is to transform the experience of creating, sharing, discovering, and using data by adhering to data mesh principles, making this process more connected, faster, and fairer than ever before. We recognize that the world of data is complex and ever-changing: data models become outdated rapidly; data is owned across different trust boundaries; it's stored on various platforms; used in multiple modes; and data can't protect itself. Previous centralized approaches to data collection, modeling, and governance are not only ineffective but can also be unfair. That's why our technology empowers data developers, users, and owners with a delightful experience, treating data products as first-class primitives with built-in trust—we're reimagining the world of data.