Principal Software Engineer, Cloudera

• Experience: 10+ years of software engineering experience with a focus on building distributed systems and data platforms
• Core Tech Mastery: Deep, hands-on expertise with big data ecosystems (HDFS, Hive, YARN) and modern compute engines (Spark, Flink, Kafka)
• Distributed Systems Depth: A deep understanding of technical architecture, including concurrency, multithreading, and distributed consistency challenges
• Language Proficiency: Expert-level fluency in Java is a minimum requirement. Proficiency in Python, Scala and Rust is a plus
• Strategic Design Leadership: Proven ability to author complex design documents and act as the primary lead in design discussions. You have a track record of designing solutions from the ground up that solve unusually complex problems where standard documentation does not exist
• Cloud-Native Fluency: Familiarity with Kubernetes and Cloud-Native orchestration
• A "Learning Mindset": The ability to learn new technologies on the fly in a continuous learning environment

Desirable

• The Leading Emergent Engineering Taskforce (LEET) is a new, agile operational unit designed to execute on Cloudera’s most critical strategic initiatives
• Operating as an "empowered pod," we bridge the gap between abstract requirements and real-world execution, tackling both complex customer integrations and high-impact internal engineering projects
• We move with the velocity of a startup while leveraging the massive scale of the Cloudera Data Platform
• As a Staff Software Engineer, you will serve as the Technical Anchor for the taskforce, partnering directly with a hands-on Manager
• While the Manager sets the strategic direction, you will own the resolution of critical issues and broad design matters
• You will tackle unusually complex projects and evaluate intangible factors to define the architectural design of the distributed systems we build
• You are the primary guardian of technical excellence for the pod, ensuring our strategic prototypes are scalable, resilient, and aligned with Cloudera’s global standards
• Lead Architectural Design: Independently drive the technical design of massive-scale distributed systems using Java, Spark, Kafka, Iceberg, and more. You will act as a primary lead in design to determine the best technical approach to solve high-friction problems
• Bridge the Gap: Engage with internal and external stakeholders to diagnose the root cause of friction. You will translate ambiguous business requirements into concrete engineering tasks and architectural blueprints for the team
• Drive Technical Excellence: Mentor the team’s Senior and Full-Stack engineers. You are their technical authority—conducting code reviews, enforcing DevSecOps practices, and ensuring that our solutions are "production-ready."
• Solve the "Unusually Complex": Tackle the most difficult technical challenges where standard documentation fails, applying advanced principles to debug complex interactions between Hadoop components and modern Cloud-Native architectures
• Influence the Product Roadmap: Synthesise technical insights gained from our strategic initiatives and feed them back to Cloudera’s core Global Engineering teams to influence the future architecture of the CDP platform