Senior Data Engineer

Job Description

Company: SpotHero
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Workplace Type: Hybrid
Employment Type: Permanent
Pay / Compensation: $136,000 – $153,000

About the Role

At SpotHero, we work as a team to empower people to get everywhere, easier! We’re rapidly growing with the mission of bringing the parking industry into the future through technology. Drivers across the nation use the SpotHero mobile app and website to reserve convenient, affordable parking in advance, on-the-go or through their connected cars, and parking companies rely on us to help them reach new customers while optimizing their business. We connect the dots with cutting-edge technology, delivering value to both sides of this exciting, evolving marketplace.

SpotHero is seeking a Senior Data Engineer to join the Data Engineering squad. This squad interacts with data consumers such as Data Science, Marketing, Engineering, and Business Analysts to provide data platform solutions that meet their day-to-day needs and long term vision.

As a Senior Data Engineer, you’ll focus heavily on backend application development with a focus on building reusable infrastructure services for our stakeholders to enable them to model, store, access, process, and analyze SpotHero’s data. You’ll also design, instantiate, observe and maintain infrastructure services, both AWS-managed and open source solutions. As a Senior Data Engineer, you’ll influence the technology choices and patterns established for data-heavy workloads at SpotHero.

Technology We Use

• Monolith Database & Cache: Postgres and Redis for caching.
• Data Warehouse & Data Lake: Redshift as data warehouse; S3 as data lake queried using Trino.
• ETL & Data Processing: Apache Airflow, Python, dbt, and Apache Spark.
• Streaming Data: Vendor-managed Apache Kafka, Kafka Connect, Kafka Streams, and Spark Streaming.
• Machine Learning: Python using the PyData ecosystem.
• Business Intelligence & Analytics: Looker for internal-facing reports, and Amazon QuickSight for external-facing data visualizations.

What You’ll Do / Key Responsibilities

• Work with our Analytics, Data Science, Marketing and other squads to understand their data storage and processing needs.
• Be a hands-on contributor to the design and implementation of our data platform solutions from the infrastructure layer up to the API.
• Build robust pipelines that make sure data is where it needs to be, when it needs to be there in a manner that scales.
• Build frameworks and tools to help others design and build their own data pipelines in a self-service manner.
• Performance testing and engineering to ensure that our systems always scale to meet our needs.
• Be a key member of the team focused on hands-on contribution to the implementation and operation of our data platform.

Requirements & Qualifications

• Ability to design and implement high-quality software in Python.
• Experience using SQL to read and manage data.
• Experience with Airflow, Luigi, Prefect, or other ETL scheduling tools.
• Experience provisioning and managing infrastructure with infrastructure-as-code tools (Terraform used internally; experience with CloudFormation, Pulumi, or SaltStack is acceptable).
• Hands-on experience using multiple data platforms and tools (e.g., Airflow, Hive, Kafka, Postgres, Redshift, S3, Spark, Trino, Airbyte), and experience deploying, monitoring, and maintaining at least one of them.
• Experience designing and implementing software (pipelines, services, and client libraries) run in Docker containers, automatically tested on a continuous integration (CI) system, and versioned in git.
• Experience writing shell scripts, Makefiles, or other configuration to glue together software components.
• Ability to deploy containerized software in Kubernetes, or sufficient experience in similar technologies like Apache Mesos or Amazon ECS.
• Demonstrated experience designing and supporting technology intended to be used by other stakeholders.
• Strong ability to communicate on both business and technology subjects.

Preferred / Bonus Qualifications (if applicable)

• Message driven or streaming architectures, such as those with Kafka, Spark, Flink.
• Postgres, MySQL, or other RDBMS experience.
• Redshift, Presto, or other MPP database experience.
• Experience with at least one JVM language (Kotlin used internally; Java or Scala experience works).
• Experience with cloud data pipeline services like dbt Cloud, Airbyte, or Hightouch.
• Experience using the latest AI tooling (Claude, Codex, etc.).

Benefits & Perks

• Base Salary & Bonus: $136,000 – $153,000 base salary (depending on skillset and experience) plus a discretionary bonus and leading total rewards package.
• Healthcare Coverage: Generous portion of Medical Premiums covered, and 50% of Dental and Vision Premiums covered.
• Life & Disability Insurance: Company-sponsored Life Insurance, STD, and AD&D coverage.
• Retirement Plan: 401(k) with match and immediate vesting.
• Time Off: Flexible PTO policy, comprehensive leave policies, and outstanding work/life balance.
• Food & Commute Stipends: UberEats weekly lunch stipend for in-office days and an annual parking stipend.
• Learning & Development: Udemy License, Personal Learning Budget, Discovery Days for Product and Engineering, Gearing up for Aspiring Leaders, and Mentorship Program.
• Culture & Community: Employee Resource Groups, allyship learning resources, collaborative work environment, and comprehensive wellness program supporting physical and mental wellbeing.
• Workplace Accolades: Recognized as CityLights award winner by 1871, 2026 Best Places To Work by BuiltIn, Most Loved Workplace Certified by the Best Practice Institute, and recipient of multiple Comparably awards (Best Company Culture, Best Company for Women, and Best Company for Diversity).

At SpotHero, we Respect Fellow Drivers by providing an inclusive interview experience for everyone, including people with disabilities. We are happy to provide reasonable accommodations to candidates in need of individualized support during the hiring process. Please let our team know of your need when you apply or as you begin interviewing with our team.

SpotHero is an equal opportunity employer. We know that a diverse workforce is the strongest workforce, and are committed to building and supporting an inclusive environment for all. Additionally, because we want to Remember to Signal, if you choose to provide us personal information in connection with a job application, please review our Applicant Privacy Notice which provides details about what information we collect and process about you in order to consider your candidacy.

PLEASE NOTE: This position is ineligible for visa sponsorship. To be considered for this role, you must be legally authorized to work in the US and not require sponsorship for employment now or in the future.