Staff Data Engineer

About NerdWallet

At NerdWallet, our mission is to bring clarity to all of life’s financial decisions. We foster an inclusive, flexible, and candid culture where employees are empowered to grow, take smart risks, and be their authentic selves. Whether remote or in-office, we prioritize your well-being, development, and ability to make a significant impact.

The Role: Staff Data Engineer

Data engineers are crucial for generating insights that drive smarter decisions. As a Staff Data Engineer, you will be instrumental in designing and scaling reliable data pipelines and models that power analytics, experimentation, and strategic decision-making across NerdWallet. This role involves tackling complex, cross-functional data challenges, partnering closely with stakeholders across product, engineering, and business teams. You will combine strong technical expertise with clear communication and thoughtful collaboration to ensure our data systems are robust and aligned with NerdWallet’s strategic goals.

Operating within an embedded data model, you will work directly within a product vertical, shaping data that influences business decisions, product innovation, and user experiences. This offers a unique opportunity to see your work directly impact real-world outcomes and accelerate NerdWallet’s mission.

You will design, develop, and maintain data systems and pipelines in a fast-paced, evolving environment, thriving in ambiguity by managing multiple projects and adapting to shifting priorities. Your role will elevate team impact through technical depth, mentorship, and fostering a culture of innovation, reliability, and continuous improvement. This position is part of Core Engineering and reports to a Senior Manager of Data Engineering, joining a team dedicated to clean, scalable data for consumer financial empowerment.

Key Impact Areas

• Lead the design, development, and maintenance of business-critical data assets, ensuring accuracy, reliability, and alignment with evolving business priorities.
• Drive technical innovation and process excellence by evaluating emerging technologies and implementing scalable, efficient solutions to improve data pipeline performance and reliability.
• Tackle complex technical challenges, balancing scalability, security, and performance, while clearly articulating architectural decisions and aligning outcomes across teams.
• Ensure data pipeline reliability and observability, proactively identifying and resolving issues, investigating anomalies, and enhancing monitoring to safeguard data integrity.
• Build trust and alignment across cross-functional teams through transparent communication, collaborative problem-solving, and a deep understanding of partner needs.
• Bring clarity and direction to ambiguous situations, taking ownership of initiatives spanning multiple domains or teams, and providing technical leadership for successful delivery.
• Prioritize work strategically, balancing business impact, risk, and execution to drive measurable outcomes that support organizational goals.
• Act as a trusted technical advisor and thought leader, shaping the team’s long-term architecture and influencing best practices.
• Foster a culture of technical excellence and continuous learning, mentoring engineers and championing modern data engineering practices, including AI and automation-enabled solutions.

Required Experience

• 7+ years of relevant professional experience in data engineering.
• 5+ years of experience with AWS, Snowflake, DBT, Airflow.
• Advanced level of proficiency in Python and SQL.
• Working knowledge of relational databases and query performance tuning (SQL).
• Working knowledge of streaming technologies such as Storm, Kafka, Kinesis, and Flume.
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent professional experience).
• Advanced level of proficiency applying principles of logical thinking to define problems, collect data, establish facts, and draw valid conclusions.
• Experience designing, building, and operating robust data systems with reliable monitoring and logging practices.
• Strong communication skills, both written and verbal, with the ability to articulate information to team members of all levels and various amounts of applicable knowledge throughout the organization.

Location & Benefits

This role is remote and based in the U.S. NerdWallet offers comprehensive benefits and perks to support the physical, financial, and emotional well-being of employees and their families. Benefits include industry-leading health plans, flexible vacation, new parent leave, mental health support, paid sabbatical after 5 years, FSA/HSA with company contributions, monthly wellness/cell phone/wifi stipends (for remote Nerds), and work-from-home equipment/co-working subsidies. Fun initiatives like ERGs, hackathons, and company events are also available. Future planning includes 401K with 4% company match, access to new financial products, and unlimited access to a Certified Financial Planner.

Key skills/competency

• Data Engineering
• Data Pipelines
• AWS
• Snowflake
• DBT
• Airflow
• Python
• SQL
• Streaming Technologies
• Data Architecture