Staff Software Engineer, Data Platform

Staff Software Engineer, Data Platform

About Ladder

We saw a problem within the life insurance industry: getting covered took too long, involved too much paperwork, and required too many in-person meetings with sales agents. Having lost his father at a young age, our CEO, Jamie, was determined to make it easier for people to get the coverage they needed to provide for their families. So, we got to work. We developed a method of real-time underwriting leveraging AI and, in doing so, reduced the months-long process of applying for life insurance to minutes. Our digital experience is quick (instant decisions!), loved by users (check out our Trustpilot or Google reviews) and prolific ($74 billion+ in coverage provided).

About the role  

We are looking for a powerhouse Staff Software Engineer with battle-tested experience building ETL pipelines at massive scale. You will take ownership of our toughest backend and data plumbing challenges, bridging our transactional systems (Datomic) with our analytical and streaming infrastructure (BigQuery, Kafka, Flink, DBT) to architect resilient, elegant, and high-volume data pipelines. If you dream in immutable data structures and love using functional programming to untangle architectural knots, we need you. 

The ideal candidate brings demonstrated experience in software engineering, leadership maturity and a deep understanding of  engineering infrastructure.  This is a remote role based in one of the 22 States Ladder is currently hiring in - AZ, CA, CO, CT, FL, GA, KS, MA, MD, MN, NC, NH, NJ, NV, NY, OH, OR, PA, TX, VA, WA, WI.  Please note, Ladder is not currently sponsoring or transferring OPT or H1-B visa's.

How You'll Make a Difference

As a senior technical leader on the team, you won't just be writing code, you'll be shaping our entire data strategy. You will:

• Architect and Build: Design, deploy, and scale robust data pipelines that reliably move and transform data between Datomic, Kafka, and BigQuery.
• Tame the Chaos: Build elegant, fault-tolerant ETL systems leveraging frameworks like DBT to ingest, sanitize, and normalize messy, unstructured data from dozens of third-party APIs and legacy vendors.
• Master the Stream: Evolve our event-driven architecture, optimizing streaming performance (Kafka/BEAM) to support real-time machine learning models
• Drive Technical Excellence: Act as a force multiplier for the engineering team. You'll set standards for backend architecture in Clojure, mentor peers, and make high-stakes technical decisions that scale with our rapid growth.
• Bridge the Gap: Partner closely with Data Science, Product and Business Development teams to ensure our data infrastructure proactively serves the evolving needs of the business.

Who You Are

• A seasoned technical leader: You bring 8+ years of rigorous software or data engineering experience to the table, backed by a strong academic foundation (BS or MS in Computer Science or a related field). You have a proven track record operating at a Staff or Principal level, where you don't just write code - you define technical strategy and mentor teams.
• A Clojure authority: You have deep, production-grade experience natively architecting complex backend systems in Clojure and the JVM. Functional programming and immutable data structures aren't just concepts to you; they are your preferred tools for building highly reliable software.
• A medallion architect: You have 4+ battle-tested years designing high-volume ETL/ELT pipelines at massive scale. You are an expert at structuring data lakes through Raw/Bronze, Cleansed/Silver, and Curated/Gold layers, and you rely on advanced dbt modeling to ensure pristine data quality.
• A modern data stack master: You have extensive, hands-on experience operating cloud data warehouses (specifically BigQuery), streaming infrastructure (Kafka), and processing frameworks (Apache Beam, Flink, or Spark). Wrangling messy, unstructured third-party API data into clean, ready-to-query models is second nature to you.
• An autonomous systems thinker: You thrive in ambiguity and deeply understand the harsh realities of distributed systems. You don't just patch bugs; you design elegant, event-driven architectures that prevent entire classes of problems from happening in the first place.

Technologies We Use

• Backend: Clojure, JVM
• Data: Datomic, BigQuery, BEAM, Sigma, SQL
• Infrastructure: Kafka, Docker, Kubernetes, Packer, Terraform, GCP, GraphQL
• Frontend: Typescript, JavaScript, React

What we Offer 

Whether you work in our beautiful office in Palo Alto or remotely, Ladder is highly collaborative and fun. To support you in your role, we offer fantastic perks and benefits that reflect our mission of care and support, including:

• Excellent medical, dental, and vision coverage | We offer competitive healthcare,dental and vision plans for you and your family.
• Flexible paid time off | Take the time that you need to rest and recharge, including our week-long winter holiday closure. 
• Stock options | We offer competitive stock option packages to participate in the success of building Ladder
• A rewarding 401k match program | We'll match up to 4% of your contributions as you save for your retirement goals.
• Ladder Fit Program | Your health matters. That’s why Ladder provides a monthly reimbursement for wellness-related expenses.
• Commuter benefits | When you work from the office, you will receive pre-tax 
• benefits for your commute and free parking.
• A stocked, beautiful new office | Located in downtown Palo Alto, our office was specifically designed to accommodate all working styles. We've invested in technology to support our hybrid team, plus we provide office snacks and daily catered lunches so that team members can work well and have fun together.
• Paid parental leave | We think it's crucial that new parents have time to adjust to their new lives without worrying about work, so we provide all parents inclusive of birthing, adoption, or fostering ten weeks of paid baby bonding.
• Work-from-home flexibility and support | We recognize that everyone's homelife is different and support remote and hybrid work. Upon joining, we provide a one-time remote office stipend for all team members and then a monthly stipend to cover WFH costs such as the internet.
• Fun company-wide events | Whether we work locally or remotely, we genuinely enjoy spending time together. That’s why we plan fun virtual and in-person events to let loose and laugh.

The base pay range targeted for this position is $160,000 - $230,000. This role is eligible for equity and benefits as shared above. Base pay is determined by market location and may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience.

Ladder is building a diverse team of talented and enthusiastic people. We are an equal opportunity workplace. At Ladder, differences are celebrated and supported to benefit our people, product, and community. Let us know why you're interested in this position and what unique contributions you can make to the Ladder team. We look forward to hearing from you.

Research shows that candidates from underrepresented backgrounds often don't apply for roles if they don't meet all the criteria – unlike majority candidates meeting significantly fewer requirements. We strongly encourage you to apply if you’re interested: we'd love to know how you can elevate our team with your unique experience!

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