Senior Staff Data Platform & AI Engineer
Workiva is seeking a Senior Staff Data Platform and AI Engineer to set the technical direction for our enterprise data platform. You will own the architecture, reliability, security, and cost efficiency of Snowflake account infrastructure while enabling domain teams to build and operate dbt Mesh projects safely at scale.
As a senior technical advisor, you will turn ambiguous, cross-organizational needs into clear standards and architectural decisions. You will partner with Data Engineering, Analytics, AI/ML, Security, GRC, and business teams to shape the platform roadmap and establish governed foundations for AI applications.
What You’ll Do
- Define the multi-year data platform architecture and roadmap, including technology evaluations and buy/build/adopt recommendations for executive leadership
- Set Snowflake standards for warehouses, account configuration, environments, RBAC, replication, performance, and cost management
- Design dbt Mesh boundaries and shared guardrails that allow domain teams to develop and operate data products independently
- Establish integration standards for Airflow, Fivetran, Atlan, data sharing, and other platform tools
- Design governed data-access patterns for AI and agentic workflows, including context retrieval, MCP-based access, and analytical agent evaluation
- Partner with Security and GRC on FedRAMP boundaries, least-privilege access, masking, and reviews of new data integrations
- Improve platform efficiency through warehouse tuning, resource monitors, query tags, and cost attribution
- Guide cross-team architectural decisions, mentor senior engineers, and communicate platform strategy to VP and executive stakeholders
What You’ll Need
Minimum Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Math, Statistics, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience
- 10+ years of data or platform engineering experience, including 5+ years owning Snowflake account or platform operations at enterprise scale
Preferred Qualifications
- Deep experience with Snowflake administration, RBAC, SQL tuning, resource monitors, query tags, and cost optimization
- Experience making architectural tradeoffs across security, reliability, performance, cost, and domain autonomy
- Track record of setting technical direction and influencing multiple teams without direct authority
- Experience with dbt Core or Cloud, dbt Mesh, or multi-project data architectures
- Familiarity with data governance, cataloging, lineage, Atlan, and compliance controls such as FedRAMP or SOX
- Experience with AWS data services, Python automation, and orchestration or ingestion tools such as Airflow and Fivetran
- Experience designing governed data access for AI applications, MCP servers, semantic layers, or analytical agent evaluation
- Experience supporting BI, reverse-ETL, and operational data consumers in a SaaS environment
- SnowPro certification and experience mentoring Staff-level engineers
- Strong communication skills, including presenting technical strategy and tradeoffs to executive audiences
Working Conditions & Travel Requirement
- Less than 10% travel
- Reliable internet access for any period of time working remotely and not in a Workiva office
How You’ll Be Rewarded
✅ Salary range in the US: $174,000.00 - $280,000.00✅ A discretionary bonus typically paid annually
✅ Restricted Stock Units granted at time of hire
✅ 401(k) match and comprehensive employee benefits package
The salary range represents the low and high end of the salary range for this job in the US. Minimums and maximums may vary based on location. The actual salary offer will carefully consider a wide range of factors, including your skills, qualifications, experience and other relevant factors.
Why Join Workiva
Workiva is the platform designed to bring confidence, control, and a competitive edge to the world’s most complex organizations. Our AI-powered platform unifies finance, risk, and sustainability on a single, secure foundation—ensuring data is trusted, traceable, and ready to act on. With an unbroken path from source to output, leaders gain confidence in their numbers, visibility into current and emerging risks, and the ability to move with speed and precision in a constantly changing world.
At Workiva, you’ll bring technology to market that executives, boards, and regulators depend on. The work you do here helps organizations navigate uncertainty, maintain trust, and make decisions that stand up to scrutiny. If you’re energized by meaningful challenges, inspired by collaborative teams, and motivated to help organizations turn uncertainty into advantage, we’d love to meet you.
Employment decisions are made without regard to age, race, creed, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, disability status, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, citizenship status or any other protected characteristic.
Workiva is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities. To request assistance with the application process, please email talentacquisition@workiva.com.
Workiva employees are required to undergo comprehensive security and privacy training tailored to their roles, ensuring adherence to company policies and regulatory standards.
Workiva supports employees in working where they work best - either from an office or remotely from any location within their country of employment.
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