Principal Data Engineer

Arbiter is the AI-powered care orchestration system that unites healthcare. Today, healthcare runs on $100B+ in fragmented point solutions that can't see the full picture. We replace them with a single intelligent system that sits on top of EMRs and existing workflows, unifies clinical, policy, and financial data, then automates the actions that close care gaps - starting with site-of-care optimization.

Backed by one of the largest seed rounds in health tech history and operators who bring the expertise and distribution to scale nationally, we're building the connected infrastructure healthcare should have had all along.

Our Engineering Culture & Values

We are a high-performing group of engineers dedicated to delivering innovative, high-quality solutions to our clients and business partners. We believe in:

• Engineering Excellence: Taking immense pride in our technical craft and the products we build, treating both with utmost respect and care.

• Impact-Driven Development: Firmly committed to engineering high-quality, fault-tolerant, and highly scalable systems that evolve seamlessly with business needs, minimizing disruption.

• Collaboration Over Ego: Valuing exceptional work and groundbreaking ideas above all else. We seek talented individuals who are accustomed to working in a fast-paced environment and are driven to ship often to achieve significant impact.

• Continuous Growth: Fostering an environment of continuous learning, mentorship, and professional development, where you can deepen your expertise and grow your career.

Responsibilities

As a Principal Data Engineer, you will provide technical and team leadership while playing a pivotal role in building our data ecosystem:

• Lead Architect & Hands-On Developer: Lead the design and build key components of our robust, scalable, and high-performance data processing systems (batch and real-time streaming) that power critical business functions, AI agents, and advanced analytics.

• Team Leadership & Oversight: Oversee the planning, execution, and delivery of the data engineering roadmap. Guide and unblock team members, manage project timelines, and ensure the team's output meets high standards for reliability, efficiency, and maintainability.

• Mentorship & Technical Standards: Actively mentor and develop data engineers on your team, fostering their professional growth through technical guidance, constructive code reviews, and knowledge sharing. Set and enforce best practices for coding, testing, and system design.

• Data Modeling & Governance: Drive the design of our data models for optimal storage, retrieval, and analytical performance, ensuring alignment with product, business, and regulatory requirements.

• Platform & Tooling: Champion and contribute to the development of core data platform tooling, frameworks, and standards that enhance developer productivity and data quality across the organization, supporting our AI agents and auditable systems.

• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner closely with product managers, software engineers, and other non-technical stakeholders to understand data needs, deliver impactful solutions, and provide expert data insights that drive the intelligent operating system.

• Team Building: Partner with engineering leadership to hire, interview, and onboard new team members, helping to build a world-class data engineering organization.

Minimum Qualifications

• 8+ years of deep, hands-on experience in Data Engineering, Data Infrastructure, or building Data Engineering Tools and Frameworks.

• Proven experience in a technical leadership or lead engineer role, with demonstrated ability to mentor other engineers, lead code reviews, and guide team projects.

• Exceptional expertise in data structures, algorithms, and distributed systems.

• Mastery in Python for large-scale data processing; experience with other languages like Java or Scala is a plus.

• Extensive experience designing, building, and optimizing complex, fault-tolerant data pipelines (both batch and real-time streaming).

• Profound understanding and hands-on experience with cloud-native data platforms, especially Google Cloud Platform (GCP) services like BigQuery, Dataflow, Composer, Dataproc.

• Demonstrated experience with modern data orchestration (e.g., Airflow), data transformation (dbt), and data warehousing concepts.

• Experience with project management and breaking down large, ambiguous problems into clear, executable work for a team.

• Intimate knowledge of and ability to implement unit, integration, and functional testing strategies.

• Friendly communication skills and ability to work well in a diverse, cross-functional setting.

• Demonstrated experience leading a software product or component vision and delivery plan.

Preferred Qualifications

• Demonstrated experience developing and deploying machine learning algorithms in a production environment, particularly within the healthcare or life sciences domain, with a focus on AI agent development.

• Experience with advanced data extraction and correlation techniques, especially from unstructured medical data sources (e.g., PDF charts, clinical notes) for automated insights.

• Proficiency with data analysis and visualization tools such as Looker, Tableau, or similar BI platforms, for creating comprehensive command centers.

• Familiarity with data governance, data security, and compliance frameworks (e.g., HIPAA, GDPR) in a highly regulated industry.

This role can be remote or onsite, based in our New York City or Boca Raton offices, in a fast-paced, collaborative environment where great ideas move quickly from whiteboard to production.

Job Benefits

We offer a comprehensive and competitive benefits package designed to support your well-being and professional growth:

• Highly Competitive Salary & Equity Package: Designed to rival top FAANG compensation, including meaningful equity.

• Generous Paid Time Off (PTO): To ensure a healthy work-life balance.

• Comprehensive Health, Vision, and Dental Insurance: Robust coverage for you and your family.

• Life and Disability Insurance: Providing financial security.

• Simple IRA Matching: To support your long-term financial goals.

• Professional Development Budget: Support for conferences, courses, and certifications to fuel your continuous learning.

• Wellness Programs: Initiatives to support your physical and mental health.

Pay Transparency

The annual base salary range for this position is $180,000-$240,000. Actual compensation offered to the successful candidate may vary from the posted hiring range based on work experience, skill level, and other factors.