7+ years experience in data engineering or related backend development Expert-level skills in Python and SQL Deep, hands-on experience with Google Cloud Platform (GCP) data stack (BigQuery, Dataflow, Cloud Composer) Proven experience with modern data stack technologies Comfortable using AI-assisted development tools Hands-on experience with containerization (Docker) Solid understanding of CI/CD pipelines for data workflows Strong understanding of cloud security best practices Proven ability to analyze and optimize for cost Track record of building, testing, and deploying scalable, secure data pipelines Demonstrated success integrating complex, disparate business systems Excellent communication skills Strong sense of accountability Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC), especially Terraform, is a major plus Experience with Datadog or other modern observability stacks is a plus Experience building data pipelines that feed ML models is a plus