Data Platform Engineer (Databricks)
Summary
A contractor builds reusable Databricks-based platform capabilities and data products so quantitative researchers can discover, access, and productionize data. Day-to-day work spans Databricks, Python/SQL pipelines, Terraform IaC, Airflow orchestration, Unity Catalog governance, and AI-agent-driven development.
Project description
We are seeking a seasoned professional whose role sits at the intersection of platform engineering, data engineering, and data product development. You will build reusable platform capabilities and data products that let quantitative researchers discover, access, and consume data across a complex, disparate landscape, and then accelerate the good prototypes to production. This is a contractor position.
Responsibilities
- Design, build, and enhance platform capabilities within Databricks and related technologies.
- Build reusable data products and self-service capabilities.
- Design and maintain data pipelines and integration frameworks.
- Improve data quality, reliability, lineage, and monitoring.
- Accelerate research-to-production delivery: prototype solutions alongside researchers; establish patterns that make productionization easier and faster; reduce friction between research and engineering workflows.
SKILLS
Must have
- 8+ years of platform and data solutions experience o Hands-on Databricks experience (workspace, notebooks, jobs) and building platform capabilities o Python o SQL o Modern CI/CD, IaC (Terraform strongly preferred) o Data Governance and observability (Unity Catalog, lineage, monitoring) o Orchestration (Airflow) o AI fluency: use of AI agents (Claude Code preferred) as a primary tool to design, build, test, and support solutions
Nice to have
• Financial domain experience, especially quant research • API development • PowerBI