Principal Engineer – Data Platform

Principal Engineer – Data Platform Berlin, Germany (Hybrid – 2 Days Onsite) Competitive Salary + Excellent Benefits We're working with a major international organisation investing heavily in the evolution of its enterprise data platforms, and we're looking for an experienced Principal Engineer to help shape the technical direction. This is an opportunity to work with technologies including Snowflake, Apache Airflow and Kafka, taking responsibility for the underlying architecture, infrastructure and engineering standards that enable these platforms to operate reliably at scale. Unlike a traditional Data Engineering position, the focus isn't on building data pipelines or analytics solutions. It's about understanding the infrastructure behind the technology, how different systems integrate, and how to design, deploy and improve platforms within a complex enterprise environment. What You'll Be Doing - Driving technical architecture and engineering decisions across enterprise data platforms. - Working with technologies including Snowflake, Kafka and Airflow, focusing on platform configuration, integration and operational reliability. - Defining and improving engineering standards, design principles and deployment approaches. - Working across cloud infrastructure, networking, automation and supporting platform services. - Assessing existing environments and identifying opportunities to improve scalability, resilience and performance. - Collaborating with architects, engineers and stakeholders across multiple teams to deliver practical technical solutions. - Providing technical leadership and helping shape longer-term platform strategy. What We're Looking For - A strong background in Platform Engineering, Infrastructure Engineering or Cloud Architecture, with experience working at senior, lead, staff or principal level. - Experience designing, deploying or managing complex technology platforms, ideally involving Snowflake, Kafka, Airflow or similar technologies. - Solid knowledge of cloud infrastructure, networking fundamentals, automation and platform configuration. - An understanding of how enterprise platforms connect with wider infrastructure, security and operational environments. - Experience establishing technical standards and improving engineering practices. - The ability to navigate complex organisations, work across different teams and influence technical decisions. - A pragmatic approach to engineering, comfortable improving established environments as well as introducing new capabilities. Experience within financial services or other large, regulated environments would be beneficial. Why Consider This Opportunity? - Influence the technical direction of a major enterprise data platform transformation. - Work with modern technologies including Snowflake, Kafka and Airflow. - Take on complex architectural and infrastructure challenges at scale. - Have genuine input into engineering standards, platform design and technical decisions. - Join an international technology environment with significant investment and long-term development opportunities. Interested in learning more? If you're an experienced Platform Engineer, Infrastructure Architect or Principal Engineer who enjoys solving complex technical challenges, Apply directly or message me for more information.