Data Platform Engineer

About The Company

Kargo is a leading innovator in the advertising industry, dedicated to creating impactful moments of connection between brands and consumers to foster business growth. Our dynamic teams work tirelessly to push the boundaries of what agentic AI, connected TV (CTV), eCommerce, social media, and mobile platforms can achieve in delivering unique and engaging ad experiences across some of the world's most premium platforms. With a creative science approach, we continuously develop and innovate solutions that outperform industry benchmarks and exceed client expectations. Kargo's rapid growth has established a global presence, with offices in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas, Sydney, Auckland, London, and Waterford, Ireland.

About The Role

We are seeking a highly skilled and motivated founding engineer to join our Data Platform team. This pivotal role involves shaping the technical standards and building the foundational software that will enable and enforce data governance, quality, and accessibility across the entire organization. As a key contributor, you will work directly with the Senior Director of Data Engineering to develop a unified platform that allows advertisers to run campaigns seamlessly across CTV, web, mobile apps, and social media through a self-serve model. Your responsibilities will include designing and implementing a comprehensive data control plane, developing tools and libraries to streamline data product deployment, and establishing observability standards to ensure data reliability and quality. This role offers a unique opportunity to influence the future of Kargo’s data infrastructure, grow a talented team, and drive innovation in data engineering practices that support automation, scalability, and data-driven decision-making.

Qualifications

• Proven experience building loosely coupled production services, APIs, and SDKs in Python used by multiple teams.
• Experience developing metadata-driven platforms that integrate with catalogs, lineage tracking, and automatic checks for contracts and data quality.
• Strong background in building observability solutions that provide meaningful signals for monitoring and troubleshooting.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to advocate for architecture standards and mentor team members.
• Extensive experience with AWS cloud services, Terraform, and Kubernetes for scalable infrastructure deployment.
• Familiarity with data governance, schema management, and automated data certification processes.
• Understanding of data pipelines, particularly moving from batch to streaming architectures, and knowledge of cost tradeoffs involved.
• Hands-on experience with Spark, Iceberg at scale, and Snowflake in a production environment.
• Background in ad tech or domains with high-volume event data and multiple consumers.
• Experience developing tooling and data structures suitable for AI agent operation is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Design and develop the data control plane to provide a centralized view and governance over data products, including schemas, lineage, ownership, and quality metrics.
• Create standardized libraries, SDKs, templates, and CI/CD pipelines to facilitate the rapid and consistent deployment of data products across teams.
• Implement enforcement layers such as schema registries, contract validators, and automated certification processes to uphold data standards.
• Ensure all data products are observable by default, with metrics on freshness, volume, schema conformance, and quality integrated into existing monitoring systems.
• Define and set the technical direction for the data platform, including architecture, roadmap, and strategic build versus buy decisions.
• Lead design reviews and collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure the platform remains modular, scalable, and aligned with organizational needs.
• Grow and mentor the data platform team, fostering a culture of innovation, best practices, and continuous improvement.
• Engage with stakeholders to understand their data needs and translate them into scalable, reliable solutions.

Benefits

• Competitive salary and comprehensive benefits package.
• Opportunities for professional growth and development within a rapidly expanding company.
• Work in a collaborative environment with talented professionals across multiple locations.
• Access to cutting-edge tools and technologies in data engineering and cloud infrastructure.
• Flexible work arrangements and a supportive company culture focused on innovation and inclusion.

Equal Opportunity

Kargo is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, or any other protected status under applicable law.