Lead Data Engineer
Summary
Lead Data Engineer who owns the data infrastructure for Exolyt's TikTok analytics platform: designing high-throughput ETL/ELT pipelines, databases, and storage systems that process billions of social media data points, in close collaboration with the CTO. Emphasis on self-hosted, open-source data tooling; hybrid role based in Helsinki.
As Lead Data Engineer at Exolyt, you will own the design, development, and operation of the data infrastructure that powers our social media analytics platform. You will architect and maintain high-throughput data pipelines that process billions of data points, build and optimize the databases and storage systems that make our analytics possible, and ensure the reliability and scalability of our entire data layer.
This is a foundational role. You will be responsible for shaping how data flows through Exolyt - from ingestion and transformation to storage and delivery. You will work closely with the CTO and product team to translate business needs into robust, production-grade data systems that can handle the scale and velocity of social media data.
Key responsibilities:
- Design and build scalable ETL/ELT pipelines for high-volume data ingestion and transformation
- Architect and maintain database systems optimized for both analytical and operational workloads
- Ensure data quality, consistency, and reliability across the entire data lifecycle
- Monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize data infrastructure performance
- Define data modeling strategies and establish engineering best practices
- Collaborate with product and analytics teams to deliver data that drives decisions
Your profile
What we are looking for:
- Proven track record of building and operating data-intensive infrastructure at scale - you have worked with systems that process large volumes of data in near real-time
- Deep experience designing ETL/ELT pipelines, data warehouses, and data lakes
- Strong expertise in database design, optimization, and administration across both relational and non-relational systems
- Solid understanding of distributed systems, data modeling, and data architecture patterns
- Expertise working with self-hosted infrastructure and open-source data tools, or strong motivation to operate outside of managed cloud environments.
- A pragmatic engineering mindset - you build for reliability, maintainability, and scale, not complexity for its own sake
- 5+ years of hands‑on data engineering experience, with demonstrated ownership of critical infrastructure
Nice to have:
- Experience working in a startup or scale‑up environment where you built systems from the ground up
- Familiarity with social media data, web scraping, or API-driven data collection at scale
- Background in analytics engineering or working closely with data science teams
Why us?
Exolyt is the leading TikTok analytics platform, trusted by brands, agencies, and researchers worldwide. We process massive amounts of social media data daily, turning it into actionable insights for our customers.
- Work on genuinely challenging data problems at a scale few companies offer
- Join a small, senior team where your work has direct and visible impact
- Hybrid work model — Helsinki office with flexibility to work remotely
- Competitive compensation and the opportunity to shape a core part of the product
- A company culture that values ownership, autonomy, and getting things done