5+ years in Data Engineering, Software Engineering, or Distributed Systems roles. Proven experience building and operating data-intensive and streaming systems. Hands-on experience with Apache Kafka, Flink, Spark Streaming, Databricks & GCP. Strong understanding of event-driven architectures, CDC, and real-time data modeling. Proficiency in Python or PySpark, and solid command of SQL. Experience with cloud-native data services (GCP, Azure, or AWS) and workflow orchestration (Airflow/Composer). Strong understanding of data modeling and storage formats (Delta, Parquet, Avro). Experience with CI/CD for data pipelines, testing frameworks, and infrastructure automation (Terraform).