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

Instrumental technology is used by the world’s most admired electronics brands, such as NVIDIA, Cisco, and Meta, to accelerate new product development and improve production yields. Our technology leverages AI to process data generated on the manufacturing floor, automating failure identification and resolution, improving yield, quality, and time-to-market. In the past few quarters, our technology has become mission-critical for AI server manufacturers. We’re rapidly growing our global presence to enable deeper integrations into our customers’ complex manufacturing environments.
The data platform tech lead / architect is responsible for building a cloud native, highly performing, scalable and reliable data platform to ingest manufacturing data, support AL/ML and analytics.
We’re Looking for Someone Who:

• Has played a lead role building a modern data platform on a public cloud infrastructure and have it deployed commercially 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, 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 such as manufacturing, cybersecurity, and security trading.

We’re a growing team that works collaboratively, supports each other, and is energized by having 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: $205k-$364k. In addition, job level and salary opportunities are evaluated through our interview process – we review the experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities of each applicant.
Instrumental is proud to offer a highly-rated variety of benefits, including health, vision, dental, commuter plans, and parental leave.