Senior Platform Software Engineer, Transport

About Us

dbt Labs is the pioneer of analytics engineering, helping data teams transform raw data into reliable, actionable insights. Since 2016, we’ve grown from an open source project into the leading analytics engineering platform, now used by over 90,000 teams every week, driving data transformations and AI use cases.

As of February 2025, we’ve surpassed $100 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) and serve more than 5,400 dbt Platform customers, including AstraZeneca, Sky, Nasdaq, Volvo, JetBlue, and SafetyCulture.

We’re backed by top-tier investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, and Altimeter. At our core, we believe in empowering data practitioners:

• Reliable, high-quality data is the fuel that propels AI-powered data engineering.
• AI is changing data work, fast. dbt’s data control plane keeps data engineers ahead of that curve.
• We empower engineers to deliver reliable, governed data faster, cheaper, and at scale.

dbt Labs is now synonymous with analytics engineering, defining the modern data stack and serving as the data control plane for enterprise teams around the world. And we’re just getting started.. We’re growing fast and building a team of passionate, curious people across the globe. Learn more about what makes us special by checking out our values.

dbt Labs is building a resilient and scalable cloud future on a state-of-the-art multi-cell architecture, and the Transport team is at the core of this evolution. We design, build, and operate the foundational platform that allows our services to run in an isolated, highly available, and globally distributed fashion — spanning infrastructure automation, cloud networking, and customer migration tooling. As a Senior Platform Software Engineer, you'll have an outsized impact on every dbt Labs customer, tackling complex distributed systems problems while collaborating across product engineering, security, and infrastructure teams. This is a hands-on role where whatever you work on touches all of dbt Cloud and all of our customers at the same time.

In this role, you can expect to:

• Join a senior, distributed team: Become part of a closely-knit group of senior engineers at the intersection of application and infrastructure, working asynchronously with ongoing communication in public Slack channels.
• Architect and build platform infrastructure: Design, build, and operate foundational components of our multi-cell platform, including service routing, cloud networking, and the control plane for managing account lifecycles.
• Drive seamless migrations: Develop and automate the tooling to migrate customer accounts from legacy environments to the new multi-cell architecture at scale.
• Develop scalable backend services: Write robust, high-quality backend services and infrastructure code, primarily in Go and Python, with opportunities to work with Rust.
• Tackle cloud networking challenges: Collaborate on network architecture design, including VPC management, load balancing, DNS, PrivateLink, and service mesh configurations to support single-tenant and multi-tenant deployments.
• Automate for scale: Design and implement automation using tools like Argo Workflows, Kubernetes, and Terraform to enhance the reliability, efficiency, and scalability of our platform.
• Collaborate and mentor: Work closely with product engineering teams, security, and customer support to unblock feature conformance, define technical direction, and mentor other engineers.
• Own and troubleshoot: Take strong ownership of distributed systems, troubleshoot complex issues across application and network layers, and participate in an on-call rotation to maintain high availability.

You are a good fit if you have:

• Worked asynchronously as part of a fully-remote, distributed team
• Are an experienced backend or platform engineer, proficient in languages like Go or Python, with a history of building large-scale distributed systems.
• Have deep expertise in modern cloud infrastructure, including extensive hands-on experience with a major cloud provider (AWS, GCP, or Azure), containerization (Docker, Kubernetes), and Infrastructure as Code (Terraform).
• Thrive at the intersection of product and infrastructure, with a passion for building internal platforms and automation that enhance developer productivity and platform reliability.
• Bring familiarity with cloud networking concepts, including load balancing, DNS, VPCs, proxies, and service mesh technologies — or have a strong desire to learn and grow in this domain.
• Take strong ownership of your work from end-to-end, demonstrating a systematic, customer-focused approach to problem-solving and a track record of contributing to complex technical projects.
• Are a proactive and collaborative communicator, skilled at articulating technical concepts to both technical and non-technical partners and working effectively across team boundaries.

You'll have an edge if you have:

• Direct experience with cell-based or multi-tenant architectures, particularly with building tooling for large-scale account migrations.
• A proven track record of building internal developer platforms or self-service infrastructure that empowers other engineers.
• Hands-on experience with cloud networking tools such as nginx, Istio, Envoy, AWS Transit Gateway, PrivateLink, or Kubernetes CNI/service mesh implementations.
• Deep expertise in multi-cloud strategies, including tools for cross-cloud management and cost optimization.
• Advanced proficiency with our core technologies, including extensive professional experience with both Go and Python, and an interest in or exposure to Rust.
• Advanced industry certifications (e.g., AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional, AWS Advanced Networking Specialty, Certified Kubernetes Administrator) or contributions to open-source cloud-native projects.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience, particularly in platform, infrastructure, or backend roles supporting SaaS applications.
• A Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related technical field is preferred, though equivalent practical experience or bootcamp completion with relevant work history will be considered.

Compensation & Benefits

Salary: We offer competitive compensation packages commensurate with experience, including salary, equity, and where applicable, performance-based pay. Our Talent Acquisition Team can answer questions around dbt Labs' total rewards during your interview process. In select locations (including Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, New York Metro, San Francisco, DC Metro, Seattle, Austin), an alternate range may apply, as specified below.

• The typical starting salary range for this role is: $147,000 - $178,000 USD
• The typical starting salary range for this role in the select locations listed is: $163,000 - $198,000 US

Equity Stake

Benefits - dbt Labs offers:

• Unlimited vacation (and yes we use it!)
• 401k w/3% guaranteed contribution
• Excellent healthcare
• Paid Parental Leave
• Wellness stipend
• Home office stipend, and more!
• Equity or comparable benefits may be offered depending on the legal limitations

Our Hiring Process (All Video Interviews)

• Interview with a Talent Acquisition Partner (30 Mins)
• Technical Interview with Hiring Manager (60 Mins)
• Team Interviews with Cross Collaborators ( 4 rounds, 45 Mins each)
• Final Values Interview (30 Mins)

dbt Labs is an equal opportunity employer, committed to building an inclusive team that welcomes diverse perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences. Even if your experience doesn’t perfectly align with the job description, we encourage you to apply—we value potential just as much as a perfect resume.

Want to learn more about our focus on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at dbt Labs? Check out our DEI page.

_dbt Labs reserves the right to amend or withdraw the posting at any time. For employees outside the United States, dbt Labs offers a competitive benefits package. RSUs or comparable benefits may be offered depending on the legal or country limitations.

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