P-932

At Databricks, we are passionate about enabling data teams to solve the world’s toughest problems — from making the next mode of transportation a reality to accelerating the development of medical breakthroughs. We do this by building and running the world’s best data and AI infrastructure platform so our customers can use deep data insights to improve their business.

Apache Spark™ is a multi-language engine for data engineering, data science, and machine learning that lies at the core of our initiatives. We’re seeking a dedicated Engineering Team Lead to drive Spark Platform development, encompassing both open-source and Databricks-specific components. The Spark Platform team develops and maintains the Spark APIs layer of the Data intelligence Platform, ensuring best-in-class performance, usability, and robust data security for our customers. Your primary mission will be to solidify the position of Apache Spark™ as the go-to data processing framework and facilitate seamless integration and comprehensive optimization across the Data Intelligence platform, ensuring a streamlined, efficient, and secure user experience.

The key responsibilities include:

• Lead a high-performing engineering team in the development of the Spark platform, reinforcing the Apache Spark™ position as the world’s leading open-source unified engine for large-scale data analytics
• Lead and participate in technical, product, and design discussions focused on database systems and Apache Spark™
• Define, shape, and drive the future of both Apache Spark™ and the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform
• Oversee the recruitment of top-tier talent to build a cohesive and dynamic engineering team
• Foster leadership within the team through coaching, mentorship, and providing growth opportunities
• Implement strategic processes to efficiently realize the product vision, strategy, and roadmap
• Collaborate with internal and external stakeholders to ensure alignment with organizational goals
• Evolve the organizational structure to support long-term initiatives and build strong teams with effective communication

By taking on this pivotal role, you will play an instrumental part in driving the success of the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform.

The impact you will have:

• Lead product development for the open source Apache Spark project and the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform
• Make a company-wide impact by developing and maintaining the Spark APIs layer of the Lakehouse, ensuring best-in-class performance, usability, and robust data security for our customers
• Solidify Apache Spark’s position as the world’s most widely-used open-source unified engine for large-scale data analytics 
• Define, shape, and drive the future of both Spark and the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform.
• Grow a world-class team of software engineers working on Databricks Runtime Engine and Apache Spark; increase headcount by 5+ engineers in the next 18 months, with continued growth beyond that according to product objectives; hire top-notch staff+ level talent and engineer managers
• Ensure consistent delivery against milestones and strong alignment with the field working "two-in-a-box" with product leadership
• Evolve organizational structure to align with long-term initiatives, build strong "5 ingredient" teams with good comms architecture
• Manage technical debt, including long-term technical architecture decisions and balance product roadmap

What we look for:

• 5+ years experience working in a related system, including ecosystem, Apache Spark and database internal, database systems, data processing or related domains. 
• A passion for database systems, distributed systems, API design, or performance optimization
• Can ensure the team builds high-quality and reliable infrastructure services. Experience being responsible for testing, quality, and SLAs of a product; previous experience building and leading teams in a complex technical domain, such as on distributed data systems or database internals
• Ability to attract, hire, and coach engineers who meet the Databricks hiring standards. Can uplevel existing teams via hiring top-notch senior talent, growing leaders, and helping struggling members. Can gain trust of the team and guide their careers; experience managing distributed teams preferred
• Comfort working cross-functionality with product management and directly with customers; ability to deeply understand product and customer personas