Staff Data Engineer

Your impact on our mission

We are looking for a Staff Data Engineer (SDE) to join our Data Engineering team! In this role, you will design, build, and optimize scalable data systems that empower decision-making and innovation at Zocdoc. You’ll collaborate with cross-functional teams to manage data pipelines, strengthen governance, and improve the tools and processes that help data producers and consumers work together effectively. This role leads our specialized Data Infrastructure group, which is responsible for building, maintaining, and optimizing the platforms that power data workflows across the company. You’ll focus on the underlying infrastructure that supports analytics, experimentation, and machine learning—ensuring it runs efficiently, securely, and cost-effectively to improve the healthcare experience for patients and providers.

You’ll enjoy this role if you are…

• Passionate about the inner workings of data platforms and infrastructure
• Excited to tackle both technical and strategic challenges to build reliable, scalable systems
• Motivated to create high-leverage tools that power analytics and data science
• Energized by the opportunity to build tools and processes that directly improve patient and provider experiences through better data
• Autonomous, proactive, and eager to solve complex problems with practical, scalable solutions

Your day to day is…

• Designing and maintaining scalable data pipelines for ingestion, transformation, and delivery across multiple data sources
• Collaborating with Analytics Engineers and Product teams to curate datasets and establish data contracts that improve transparency and reliability
• Developing and managing modern data architectures, such as lakehouses and medallion layers, using tools like Databricks, Delta Lake, or Iceberg
• Optimizing Snowflake usage and performance, ensuring data quality and cost efficiency
• Supporting and scaling orchestration platforms (like Dagster), metadata systems (like Unity Catalog or Collibra), and monitoring tools (like Datadog)
• Collaborating with data engineering, analytics engineering, and security teams to deliver stable and efficient infrastructure for diverse workflows
• Building tools, alerting systems, and documentation that ensure reliable operation and developer self-service across our data stack

You’ll be successful in this role if you have…     

• 5+ years of experience in data engineering or platform/infrastructure roles, with a focus on scaling tools and systems
• Expertise in Python or Scala, and strong proficiency in SQL for data modeling and optimization
• Deep experience with data warehouse technologies like Snowflake, including clustering, performance tuning, query profiling, and access management
• Experience with data lake and lakehouse architectures such as Databricks, Delta Lake, Iceberg, or Apache Hudi, and query engines like Athena or Presto
• Proven ability to design and implement scalable ETL pipelines using technologies like dbt for transformation and Databricks for large-scale processing
• Familiarity with managing infrastructure-as-code, job orchestration (Dagster, Airflow), and CI/CD workflows
• A proactive mindset and strong problem-solving skills, especially when troubleshooting complex infrastructure issues
• Excellent collaboration and communication skills to support cross-functional teams and data consumers

Bonus if you have…

• Experience implementing row-level security and data masking for PHI/PII use cases
• Exposure to governance tools (e.g., Collibra, Amplitude, Looker admin, Unity Catalog)
• Familiarity with AWS services, especially for storage and compute cost optimization

Benefits:

• Flexible, hybrid work environment at our convenient Soho location
• Unlimited Vacation
• 100% paid employee health benefit options (including medical, dental, and vision)
• Commuter Benefits
• 401(k) with employer funded match
• Corporate wellness programs with Headspace and Peloton
• Sabbatical leave (for employees with 5+ years of service)
• Competitive paid parental leave and fertility/family planning reimbursement
• Cell phone reimbursement
• Catered lunch everyday along with beverages and snacks
• Employee Resource Groups and ZocClubs to promote shared community and belonging
• Great Place to Work Certified