Data Platform Tech Lead (Architect) at Instrumental, Inc. – Palo Alto, California

Manufacturing advanced electronics requires understanding millions of signals generated across complex assembly processes. Instrumental builds systems that capture and analyze those signals — images, test results, and process data — enabling engineers to discover failures, identify root causes, and deploy production controls that improve yield and product maturity. Leading companies such as NVIDIA, Cisco, and Meta rely on Instrumental to accelerate new product development and scale manufacturing across global factories. Instrumental has become mission-critical for manufacturers building and scaling the next generation of AI infrastructure hardware.
Instrumental is hiring a Data Platform Tech Lead/Architect to be responsible for building a cloud-native, highly performing, scalable, and reliable data platform to ingest manufacturing data, support AI/ML, and enable analytics.
We’re Looking for Someone Who:

• Has played a lead role in building a modern data platform on public cloud infrastructure and deploying it at scale.
• Is technically strong – well-versed in distributed systems, queuing, data pipelines, modern big-data technologies, and hands-on with languages like Go, Java, or Scala.
• Can drive platform evolution to support AI/ML and company-wide analytics.
• Is intelligent and knowledgeable, collaborates well, and understands the business side of requirements. Able to articulate engineering decisions and trade-offs to both technical and non-technical audiences.

Qualifications:

• 5+ years of experience in building large-scale distributed cloud data platforms.
• BS/MS/PhD degree in Computer Science or related majors.
• Strong proficiency in at least one of the programming languages, such as Go (preferred), Java, Rust, or Scala.
• Deep understanding of message queuing, batch, and stream processing.
• Extensive experience in data modeling, data lake, and various database technologies (Postgres, MongoDB, Iceberg, ClickHouse), and indexing/caching (ElasticSearch, Redis).
• Cloud-native architecture expertise (AWS preferred).
• Experience leading architectural efforts for performance-sensitive systems (latency-critical services, multi-tenancy, large-scale indexing pipelines).
• Track record of driving projects from conception to completion by collaborating with cross-functional stakeholders, mentoring, and leading engineering teams.
• AI first mindset - Augment your productivity with AI whenever you see fit.
• Fast learner. Eager to absorb new emerging technologies.
• High energy. Can thrive in a fast-paced environment with a can-do attitude.

Bonus Qualifications:

• Startup experience building, scaling, and evolving data platforms for IPO-scale growth.
• Has built data platforms for highly specialized industries, including manufacturing, cybersecurity, and security trading.

We’re a growing team that works collaboratively, supports each other, and is energized by having an impact. We value passion and the ability to learn – you’re encouraged to apply even if your experience doesn’t match the job description precisely!
The following is a representative annual base salary range for this position within the Bay Area: $205-310k. In addition, job level and salary opportunities are evaluated during our interview process – we review each applicant's experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities.
Instrumental is proud to offer a highly-rated variety of benefits, including health, vision, dental, commuter plans, and parental leave.